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The shortest and surest way of arriving at real knowledge is to unlearn the lessons we have been taught, to mount the first principles, and take nobody's word about them.

— Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

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More quotes by Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense.

Reflections upon Exile (1716)

Our world seems to be, in many respects, the bedlam of every other system of intelligent creatures.

The landed men are the true owners of our political vessel, the moneyed men are no more than passengers in it.

Some Reflections on the Present State of the Nation (1753)

I have read somewhere or other, — in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, I think, — that history is philosophy teaching by examples.

They (Thucydides and Xenophon) maintained the dignity of history.

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