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Quotes from Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

d. 1856 Scotland

← All quotes by Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

12 quotes

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 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)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.