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Maintain a constant watch at all times against a dogmatical spirit: fix not your assent to any proposition in a firm and unalterable manner, till you have some firm and unalterable ground for it, and till you have arrived at some clear and sure evidence.

— Isaac Watts The Improvement of the Mind (1727)

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More quotes by Isaac Watts

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

Divine Songs Attempted in the Easy Language of Children (1715)

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

Our God, our help in ages past (1719)

Were I so tall to reach the pole,
Or grasp the ocean with my span,
I must be measured by my soul;
The mind's the standard of the man.

Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.

Psalm 98 "Joy to the World! (1719)

And he that does one fault at first
And lies to hide it, makes it two.

Divine Songs Attempted in the Easy Language of Children (1715)

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Attribution

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