The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.
Vague and insignificant forms of speech, and abuse of language have so long passed for mysteries of science; and hard and misapplied words, with little or no meaning, have, by prescription, such a right to be mistaken for deep learning and height of speculation, that it will not be easy to persuade either those who speak or those who hear them, that they are but the covers of ignorance, and hindrance of true knowledge.
The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.
I attribute the little I know to my not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to my rule of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that form their own peculiar professions and pursuits.
Curiosity in children, is but an appetite for knowledge. ne great reason why children abandon themselves wholly to silly pursuits and trifle away their time insipidly is, because they find their curiosity balked, and their inquiries neglected.
It is vain to find fault with those arts of deceiving, wherein men find pleasure to be deceived.
Knowledge being to be had only of visible and certain truth, error is not a fault of our knowledge, but a mistake of our judgment, giving assent to that which is not true.
All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.
A man may live long, and die at last in ignorance of many truths, which his mind was capable of knowing, and that with certainty.
Th' an'am an Dhia, but there it is-- The dawn on the hills of Ireland. God's angels lifting the night's black veil From the fair sweet face of my sireland! O Ireland, isn't it grand, you look Like a bride in her rich adornin', And with all the pent up love of my heart I bid you the top of the morning.
O, love is the soul of a true Irishman; He loves all that's lovely, loves all that he can, With his sprig of shillelagh and shamrock so green.
He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss.
. . . not by way of the forced and worn formula of Romaticism, but throught the closeness of an imagination that has never broken kinship with nature. Art must accept such gifts, and revaluate the giver.
Logic is the anatomy of thought.
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials for knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.
If punishment makes not the will supple it hardens the offender.
To be rational is so glorious a thing, that two-legged creatures generally content themselves with the title.
Reverie is when ideas float in our mind without reflection or regard of the understanding.
The picture of a shadow is a positive thing.
To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.
The thoughts that come often unsought, and, as it were, drop into the mind, are commonly the most valuable of any we have.
The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.