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Alexander Bryan Johnson Quotes

1786–1867 England

Alexander Bryan Johnson (May 29, 1786 – September 9, 1867) was an American philosopher, author and banker. He was also admitted to the bar, but never practiced.

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Random Alexander Bryan Johnson quote

17 quotes

Man exists in a world of his own creation.

A Treatise on Language: Or, The Relation which Words Bear to Things, in Four Parts (1836)

Success but sharpens his avidity, and facility but augments his impatience.

A Treatise on Language: Or, The Relation which Words Bear to Things, in Four Parts (1836)

My readers understand now something of the nature of a false position.

The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position (1841)

All that the book contains is the elucidation of but one precept: namely, to interpret language by nature. We [generally and incorrectly] reverse the rule and interpret nature by language.

A Treatise on Language: Or, The Relation which Words Bear to Things, in Four Parts (1836)

Many branches of knowledge exist in our world that are unknown to theory and untaught in schools.

The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position (1841)

To remain permanently either on the pinnacle or in the abyss is deemed a species of the same disorder, though not so common.

The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position (1841)

In every particular in which a picture constitutes a sight that is not identical with the sight represented, the picture will fail to communicate the represented object.

The Physiology of the Senses: Or, How and what We See, Hear, Taste, Feel and Smell (1856)

He will diverge from the authorized track... From habit, the people will move a little in his erratic course.

The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position (1841)

His majesty could not see why the principle was not applicable to politics. He resolved to try it.

The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position (1841)

To fix the fluctuating mass of theories, no man has suggested any other expedient than the construction of some new theory, to whose authority... all persons shall submit. The remedy is constantly augmenting the disease.

A Treatise on Language: Or, The Relation which Words Bear to Things, in Four Parts (1836)

We need not wade into the current of Niagara Falls unless we please; but, after we have waded in we must thereafter be governed by the course and force of the stream.

The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position (1841)

War and fights, like courtship and kisses, are seldom interesting except to the actors and their connexions; hence I will not burden my readers with the military operations of these remote regions.

The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position (1841)

He soon becomes monomaniac, and is abandoned except by a few stragglers as crazy as himself; while he interprets the abandonment into ingratitude or heterodoxy, and grows scurrilous, turbulent, and impotent.

The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position (1841)

The emperor relied on his popularity, the obedient habits of his subjects, and chiefly on the prejudices of the people against anything that could be subjected, right or wrong, to the charge of unconstitutionality.

The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position (1841)

The confectionary was useful enough to make its destruction eminently foolish; and fools were numerous enough to make its destruction eminently popular. Thus reasoned the emperor.

The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position (1841)

Theorem I. Any sight of which seeing has not informed me of, is unknown to me. Comments. 1. Sensible knowledge discriminated from intellectual knowledge. 2. The intellectual injury from the privation of any sense.

The Physiology of the Senses: Or, How and what We See, Hear, Taste, Feel and Smell (1856)

Whoever estimates the sensible sameness by the verbal identity of their common name will commit the error of mistaking for physical what is only intellectual. ...the sensible signification of language is strictly limited by the sensible knowledge of the hearer.

The Physiology of the Senses: Or, How and what We See, Hear, Taste, Feel and Smell (1856)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Alexander Bryan Johnson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.