10 quotes
Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping.
Guesses at Truth (1827)
The craving for sympathy is the common boundary-line between joy and sorrow.
Guesses at Truth (1827)
The only way of setting the Will free is to deliver it from wilfulness.
Guesses at Truth (1827)
A weak mind sinks under prosperity, as well as under adversity.
Guesses at Truth (1827)
A lawyer's brief will be brief, before a freethinker thinks freely.
Guesses at Truth (1827)
Be what you are. This is the first step towards becoming better than you are.
Guesses at Truth (1827)
Nothing is further from Earth than Heaven: nothing is nearer than Heaven to Earth.
Guesses at Truth (1827)
A Faith that sets bounds to itself, that will believe so much and no more, that will trust thus far and no further, is none. It is only Doubt taking a nap in an elbow chair. The husband, whose scepticism is prurient enough to contemplate the possibility of his wife's proving false, richly deserves that she should do so.
Guesses at Truth (1827)
In science its main worth is temporary, as a stepping-stone to something beyond. Even the Principia, as Newton, with characteristic modesty entitled his great work, is truly but the beginning of a natural philosophy, and no more an ultimate work than Watt's steam-engine, or Arkwright's spinning-machine.
If then I am addressing one of that numerous class, who read to be told what to think, let me advise you to meddle with the book no further. You wish to buy a house ready furnished: do not come to look for it in a stonequarry. But if you are building up your opinions for yourself, and only want to be provided with materials, you may meet with many things in these pages to suit you.
Guesses at Truth (1827)