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The spontaneous tendency to invoke a Final Cause in explanation of every difficulty is characteristic of metaphysical philosophy. It arises from a general tendency towards the impersonation of abstractions which is visible throughout History.

— George Henry Lewes Aristotle: a Chapter from the History of Science (1864)

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Philosophy

More quotes by George Henry Lewes

Many a genius has been slow of growth. Oaks that flourish for a thousand years do not spring up into beauty like a reed.

The Spanish Drama (1846)

The history of the race is but that of the individual "writ large".

The Foundations of a Creed (1874)

Among the many strange servilities mistaken for pieties, one of the least lovely is that which hopes to flatter God by despising the world, and vilifying human nature.

The Foundations of a Creed (1874)

We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.

The moral nature of man is more sacred in my eyes than his intellectual nature.

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

Every morning
I shall concern myself anew about the boundary
Between the love-deed-Yes and the power-deed-No
And pressing forward honor reality.

Martin Buber Power and Love (1926)

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended.

John C. Lilly The Human Biocomputer (1974)

Attribution

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