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Reason [no more can] ever influence the Will, and operate as a motive,… than the eyes, which show a man his road, can enable him to move from place to place; or than a ship provided with a compass, can sail without a wind.

— Richard Whately

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Mind

More quotes by Richard Whately

It is a folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do.

He that is not aware of his ignorance, will be only misled by his knowledge.

Thoughts and Apophthegms from the Writings of Archbishop Whately (1856)

"Honesty is the best policy;" but he who acts on that principle is not an honest man.

Correct use is not founded on Grammar, but Grammar on correct use.

Elements of Rhetoric (1828)

A benevolent disposition is, no doubt, a great help towards a course of uniform practical benevolence; but let no one trust to it, when there are other strong propensities, and no firm good principle.

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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)

Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.

Kenneth Boulding to Kenneth Boulding in: United States. Congress. House (1973)

The greater part of humanity is too much harassed and fatigued by the struggle with want, to rally itself for a new and sterner struggle with error.

Friedrich Schiller On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw Maxims for Revolutionists (1903)

Attribution

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