16 quotes
Truth like a torch, the more 'tis shook, it shines.
The primary principle of education is the determination of the pupil to self-activity — the doing nothing for him which he is able to do for himself.
Be sober, and to doubt prepense,
These are the sinews of good sense.
Strictly speaking, every one must educate himself.
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860)
The past does not interest, the present does not satisfy, the future alone is the object which engages us.
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860)
"In life," as the great Pascal observes, "we always believe that we are seeking repose, while, in reality, all that we ever seek is agitation."
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860)
Plato defines man "the hunter of truth," "for science is a chase, and in a chase the pursuit is always of greater value than the game."
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860)
"Sordet cognita veritas" is a shrewd aphorism of Seneca. A truth, once known, falls into comparative insignificance.
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860)
The one condition under which all powers, and consequently the intellectual faculties, are developed, is exercise.
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860)
"The intellect," says Aquinas, "commences in operation, and in operation it ends..."
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860)
Scotus... declares that a man’s knowledge is measured by the amount of his mental activity...
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860)
The instructor... does not profess to teach philosophy, but to philosophise.
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860)
The question—Is Truth, or is the Mental Exercise in the pursuit of truth, the superior end?—this is perhaps the most curious theoretical, and certainly the most important practical, problem in the whole compass of philosophy.
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860)
The discovery of the art of Printing unbarred afresh the gates of Heaven, and let in that flood of light, of knowledge, and of wisdom, which enabled men to emancipate themselves again from the slavery of superstition—to take their proper place in the ranks of created beings—and in ennobling themselves, in gradually exalting their understandings and amending their hearts, to pay at length the worthiest homage to the goodness of their common Parent, and prove themselves to be—as the Almighty himself originally formed them—inferior only to the Angels.
"The intellect," says Aristotle... "is perfected, not by knowledge but by activity..." and... "The arts and sciences are powers, but every power exists only for the sake of action; the end of philosophy... is not knowledge, but the energy conversant about knowledge."
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860)
[I]nstruction is only instruction as it enables us to teach ourselves.
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic (1860)