George Berkeley > Quotes

“Few men think; yet all have opinions. ”
― George Berkeley

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
― George Berkeley

“...we ought to think with the learned, and speak with the vulgar.”
― George Berkeley

“Philosophy being nothing else but the study of wisdom and truth, it may with reason be expected that those who have spent most time and pains in it should enjoy a greater calm and serenity of mind, a greater clearness and evidence of knowledge, and be less disturbed with doubts and difficulties than other men. Yet so it is, we see the illiterate bulk of mankind that walk the high-road of plain common sense, and are governed by the dictates of nature, for the most part easy and undisturbed. To them nothing that is familiar appears unaccountable or difficult to comprehend. They complain not of any want of evidence in their senses, and are out of all danger of becoming Sceptics. But no sooner do we depart from sense and instinct to follow the light of a superior principle, to reason, meditate, and reflect on the nature of things, but a thousand scruples spring up in our minds concerning those things which before we seemed fully to comprehend. Prejudices and errors of sense do from all parts discover themselves to our view; and, endeavouring to correct these by reason, we are insensibly drawn into uncouth paradoxes, difficulties, and inconsistencies, which multiply and grow upon us as we advance in speculation, till at length, having wandered through many intricate mazes, we find ourselves just where we were, or, which is worse, sit down in a forlorn Scepticism.”
― George Berkeley

“Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few.”
― George Bishop Berkeley

“It is indeed an opinion strangely prevailing amongst men, that houses, mountains, rivers, and in a word all sensible objects have an existence natural or real, distinct from their being perceived by the understanding. But with how great an assurance and acquiescence soever this principle may be entertained in the world; yet whoever shall find in his heart to call it in question, may, if I mistake not, perceive it to involve a manifest contradiction. For what are the forementioned objects but the things we perceive by sense, and what do we perceive besides our own ideas or sensations; and is it not plainly repugnant that any one of these or any combination of them should exist unperceived?' (Berkeley, 1710: 25)”
― George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

“The only things we perceive are our perceptions.”
― George Berkeley

“I know what I mean by the term I and myself; and I know this immediately, or intuitively, though I do not perceive it as I perceive a triangle, a colour, or a sound.”
― George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous

“To be is to be perceived.”
― George Berkeley

“HE who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave.”
― George Bishop Berkeley

“If we admit a thing so extraordinary as the creation of this world, it should seem that we admit something strange, and odd, and new to human apprehension, beyond any other miracle whatsoever.”
― George Berkeley

“truly my opinion is, that all our opinions are alike vain and uncertain. what we approve today, we condemn tomorrow. we keep a stir about knowledge, and spend our lives in the pursuit of it, when, alas! we know nothing all the while: nor do i think it possible for us to ever know anything in this life. our faculties are too narrow and too few. nature certainly never intended us for speculation.”
― George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous

“The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism , pursued to a certain point , bring men back to common sense”
― George Berkeley

“From my own being, and from the dependency I find in myself and my ideas, I do, by an act of reason, necessarily infer the existence of a God, and of all created things in the mind of God.”
― George Berkeley

“What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind.”
― George Berkeley

“Upon the whole, I am inclined to think that the far greater part, if not all, of those difficulties which have hitherto amused philosophers, and blocked up the way to knowledge, are entirely owing to ourselves--that we have first raised a dust and then complain we cannot see.”
― George Berkeley

“In vain do we extend our view into the heavens, and pry into the entrails of the earth, in vain do we consult the writings of learned men, and trace the dark footsteps of antiquity; we need only draw the curtain of words, to behold the fairest tree of knowledge, whose fruit is excellent, and within the reach of our hand.”
― George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, and Other Selected Writings

“I had rather be an oyster than a man,
the most stupid and senseless of animals.”
― George Berkeley

“I am old and do not suffer fools gently and if you expect me to review your work, it better meet my stringent standards for logic and science.”
― George Berkeley

“My inference will be that you mean nothing at all. That you employ words to no manner or purpose without any design or signification whatsoever. And I leave it to you to consider how mere jargon should be treated.”
― George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous

“Suppose now one of your hands hot, and the other cold, and that they are both at once put into the same vessel of water, in an intermediate state, will not the water seem cold to one hand, and warm to the other?”
― George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous

“[T]he communicating of ideas marked by words is not the chief and only end of language, as is commonly supposed.”
― George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

“If the fact that brutes abstract not be made the distinguishing property of that sort of animal, I fear a great many of those that pass for men must be reckoned into their number.”
― Bishop Berkeley

“The phenomena of nature, which strike on the senses and are understood by the mind, form not only a magnificent spectacle, but also a most coherent, entertaining, and instructive Discourse; and to effect this, they are conducted, adjusted, and ranged by the greatest wisdom. This Language or Discourse is studied with different attention, and interpreted with different degrees of skill. But so far as men have studied and remarked its rules, and can interpret right, so far they may be said to be knowing in nature. A beast is like a man who hears a strange tongue but understands nothing.”
― George Berkeley, Siris, a chain of philosophical reflexions and inquiries concerning the virtues of tar water: and divers other subjects connected together and arising one from another

“I give up the point for the present, reserving still a right to detract my opinion in case I shall hereafter discover any false step in my progress to it.”
― George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous

“A ray of imagination or of wisdom may enlighten the universe, and glow into remotest centuries.”
― George Berkeley

“Uma ideia particular, quando considerada em si mesma, se toma geral quando representa todas as ideias particulares da mesma espécie. Suponhamos, para exemplificar, um geômetra que ensina a dividir uma linha em duas partes iguais. Traça, por exemplo, uma linha preta de uma polegada de comprimento; é uma linha particular; no entanto, pelo significado geral, representa todas as linhas possíveis; de modo que o demonstrado quanto a ela fica demonstrado para todas as linhas ou, por outras palavras, para a linha em geral. E assim como a linha particular fica geral por ser um símbolo, o nome "linha", que em absoluto é particular, como símbolo fica sendo geral. E, como para o caso anterior a generalidade não provém de ser sinal de uma linha geral abstrata, mas de todas as linhas particulares possíveis, também no segundo deve pensar-se que a generalidade provém da mesma causa, isto é, das várias linhas particulares indiferentemente denotadas.”
― George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge & Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous

“[THESE two tracts formed Berkeley’s first published matter. They appeared anonymously in 1707, written in Latin. They cannot be said to have any value other than the author’s name gives them. The translation used here is that of the Rev. G. N. Wright (“Works of Berkeley”, 1843).]”
― George Berkeley, Complete Works of George Berkeley

“We have first raised a dust, and then complain we cannot see.”
― George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

“Few men think; yet all have opinions”
― George Berkeley