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The fool who does not know his own folly may be doing nothing, and the philosopher who is trying to darken knowledge may be doing worse than nothing; but every sincere attempt to grapple with real difficulties made by a man not utterly incompetent has its value.

— Leslie Stephen The Science of Ethics (1882)

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More quotes by Leslie Stephen

The division between faith and reason is a half-measure, till it is frankly admitted that faith has to do with fiction, and reason with fact.

Poe is a kind of Hawthorne and delirium tremens.

He who sees only what is before his eyes sees the worst part of every view.

If you wish at once to do nothing and to be respectable now-a-days, the best pretext is to be at work on some profound study.

Sketches from Cambridge (1865)

Is there not a teaching of nature very apt to suggest horror and despair rather than a complacent brooding over soothing thoughts?

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Leslie Stephen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.