Quotes by Thomas Reid - Page 1

I wanted to be a part of the downtown renaissance.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Downtown
Renaissance
Wanted
Copy Quote
There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Knowledge
Brainy
Advancement
Ambiguity
Greater
Speech Impediment
Words
Impediment
Than
Copy Quote
The rules of navigation never navigated a ship. The rules of architecture never built a house.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Architecture
Built
House
Navigation
Ships
Rules
Ship
Copy Quote
must acknowledge, that to act properly is much more valuable than to think justly or reason acutely.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Ethics
Psychology
Thinking
Copy Quote
Every indication of wisdom, taken from the effect, is equally an indication of power to execute what wisdom planned.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Wisdom
Effects
Indication
Taken
Effect
Equally
Execute
Planned
Copy Quote
The finest productions of human art are immensely short of the meanest work of Nature. The nicest artist cannot make a feather or the leaf of a tree.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Art
Finest
Tree
Copy Quote
Every conjecture we can form with regard to the works of God has as little probability as the conjectures of a child with regard to the works of an adult.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
God
Adults
Children
Littles
Copy Quote
I sit in my loft with the haves and look out at the have-nots - the bottom of the bottom - and I have to rationalize it, ... Am I pushing out the homeless?
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Homeless
Looks
Pushing
Copy Quote
It is a question of fact, whether the influence of motives be fixed by laws of nature, so that they shall always have the same effect in the same circumstances.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Circumstances
Facts
Fixed
Influence
Law
Effect
Motives
Shall
Copy Quote
And, if we have any evidence that the wisdom which formed the plan is in the man, we have the very same evidence, that the power which executed it is in him also.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Wisdom
Men
Evidence
Executed
Formed
Plan
Copy Quote
In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than that of the weakest link of the chain, whatever may be the strength of the rest.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Lasts
Links
May
Copy Quote
For the perception of the beautiful we have the term "taste"--a metaphor taken from that which is passive in the body and transferred to that which is active in the mind.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Beautiful
Perception
Taken
Copy Quote
For, until the wisdom of men bear some proportion to the wisdom of God, their attempts to find out the structure of his works, by the force of their wit and genius, will be vain.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Men
Bears
Genius
Copy Quote
It appears evident, therefore, that those actions only can truly be called virtuous, and deserving of moral approbation, which the agent believed to be right, and to which he was influenced, more or less, by that belief.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Agents
Ethics
Psychology
Copy Quote
The want of faith, as well as faith itself, is best shewn by works. If a sceptic avoid the fire as much as those who believe it dangerous to go into it, we can hardly avoid thinking his scepticism to be feigned, and not real.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Believe
Real
Thinking
Copy Quote
The laws of nature are the rules according to which the effects are produced; but there must be a cause which operates according to these rules. The laws of navigation never navigated a ship. The rules of architecture never built a house.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Science
House
Law
Copy Quote
A philosopher is, no doubt, entitled to examine even those distinctions that are to be found in the structure of all languages... in that case, such a distinction may be imputed to a vulgar error, which ought to be corrected in philosophy.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Distinction
Doubt
Entitled
Errors
No Doubt
Ought
Philosopher
Philosophy
Structure
Vulgar
Languages
Corrected
Error
Examine
Imputed
Copy Quote
Every theory in philosophy, which is built on pure conjecture, is an elephant; and every theory that is supported partly by fact, and partly by conjecture, is like Nebuchadnezzar's image, whose feet were partly of iron, and partly of clay.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Elephants
Iron
Philosophy
Copy Quote
But when, in the first setting out, he takes it for granted without proof, that distinctions found in the structure of all languages, have no foundation in nature; this surely is too fastidious a way of treating the common sense of mankind.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Common
Common Sense
Fastidious
Granted
Mankind
Proof
Setting
Structure
Languages
Distinctions
Surely
Treating
Copy Quote
There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words. To this chiefly it is owing that we find sects and parties in most branches of science [and politics]; and disputes that are carried on from age to age, without being brought to issue.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Age
Issues
Party
Copy Quote
It is the invaluable merit of the great Basle mathematician Leonard Euler, to have freed the analytical calculus from all geometric bounds, and thus to have established analysis as an independent science, which from his time on has maintained an unchallenged leadership in the field of mathematics.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Leadership
Independent
Math
Copy Quote
In every case, we ought to act that part towards another, which we would judge to be right in him to act toward us, if we were in his circumstances and he in ours; or more generally - What we approve in others, that we ought to practise in like circumstances, what we condemn in others we ought not to do.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Ethics
Judging
Psychology
Copy Quote
A definition is nothing else but an explication of the meaning of a word, by words whose meaning is already known. Hence it is evident that every word cannot be defined; for the definition must consist of words; and there could be no definition, if there were not words previously understood without definition.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Defined
Definitions
Understood
Copy Quote
The wisdom of God exceeds that of the wisest man, more than his wisdom exceeds that of a child. If a child were to conjecture how an army is to be formed in the day of battle--how a city is to be fortified, or a state governed--what chance has he to guess right? As little chance has the wisest man when he pretends to conjecture how the planets move in their courses, how the sea ebbs and flows, and how our minds act upon our bodies.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Army
Children
Moving
Copy Quote
It is natural to men to judge of things less known, by some similitude they observe, or think they observe, between them and things more familiar or better known. In many cases, we have no better way of judging. And, where the things compared have really a great similitude in their nature, when there is reason to think that they are subject to the same laws, there may be a considerable degree of probability in conclusions drawn from analogy.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Men
Law
Thinking
Copy Quote
When we contemplate the world of Epicurus, and conceive the universe to be a fortuitous jumble of atoms, there is nothing grand in this idea. The clashing of atoms by blind chance has nothing in it fit to raise our conceptions, or to elevate the mind. But the regular structure of a vast system of beings, produced by creating power, and governed by the best laws which perfect wisdom and goodness could contrive, is a spectacle which elevates the understanding, and fills the soul with devout admiration.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Creating
Ideas
Law
Copy Quote
We find sects and parties in most branches of science; and disputes which are carried on from age to age, without being brought to an issue. Sophistry has been more effectually excluded from mathematics and natural philosophy than from other sciences. In mathematics it had no place from the beginning; mathematicians having had the wisdom to define accurately the terms they use, and to lay down, as axioms, the first principles on which their reasoning is grounded. Accordingly, we find no parties among mathematicians, and hardly any disputes.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Issues
Party
Philosophy
Copy Quote
[I]f a man bred to the seafaring life, and accustomed to think and talk only of matters relating to navigation, enters into discourse upon any other subject; it is well known, that the language and the notions proper to his own profession are infused into every subject, and all things are measured by the rules of navigation: and if he should take it into his head to philosophize concerning the faculties of the mind, it cannot be doubted, but he would draw his notions from the fabric of the ship, and would find in the mind, sails, masts, rudder, and compass.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Men
Mind
Thinking
Copy Quote
Every man feels that perception gives him an invincible belief of the existence of that which he perceives; and that this belief is not the effect of reasoning, but the immediate consequence of perception. When philosophers have wearied themselves and their readers with their speculations upon this subject, they can neither strengthen this belief, nor weaken it; nor can they shew how it is produced. It puts the philosopher and the peasant upon a level; and neither of them can give any other reason for believing his senses, than that he finds it impossible for him to do otherwise.
Thomas Reid / Philosopher
Men
Believe
Giving
Copy Quote

Related Philosopher Authors

Zicheng Hong
Philosopher
Zhuangzi
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Zhang Zai
Philosopher
Zeno Of Elea
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Zengzi
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Zechariah Chafee
Philosopher
Monday, Dec 07, 1885
Friday, Feb 08, 1957
Yasuhiko Kimura
Philosopher
Yamaga Soko
Philosopher
Wednesday, Sep 21, 1622
Tuesday, Oct 23, 1685
Yajnavalkya
Philosopher
Xunzi
Philosopher
Xenophanes
Philosopher

Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Xenocrates
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
William Torrey Harris
Philosopher
Thursday, Sep 10, 1835
Friday, Nov 05, 1909
William Thompson
Philosopher
Friday, Jun 30, 1775
Thursday, Mar 28, 1833
William Pepperell Montague
Philosopher
Tuesday, Nov 11, 1873
Saturday, Aug 01, 1953

View All Philosopher Quotes

Top Authors

Michael Jordan
Basketball Player
Sunday, Feb 17, 1963
George Orwell
Novelist
Thursday, Jun 25, 1903
Saturday, Jan 21, 1950
John Keats
Poet
Saturday, Oct 31, 1795
Friday, Feb 23, 1821
Will Rogers
Actor
Tuesday, Nov 04, 1879
Thursday, Aug 15, 1935
Lucy Larcom
Poet
Friday, Mar 05, 1824
Monday, Apr 17, 1893
Stephen Covey
Author
Monday, Oct 24, 1932
Monday, Jul 16, 2012
George Carlin
Comedian
Wednesday, May 12, 1937
Sunday, Jun 22, 2008
Charles Spurgeon
Preacher
Thursday, Jun 19, 1834
Sunday, Jan 31, 1892
Zig Ziglar
Author
Saturday, Nov 06, 1926
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012
Kanye West
Songwriter
Wednesday, Jun 08, 1977
Thursday, Jun 04, 2015
Elon Musk
Investor
Monday, Jun 28, 1971
Robert Frost
Poet
Thursday, Mar 26, 1874
Tuesday, Jan 29, 1963
Joe Biden
Vice President Of The United States
Friday, Nov 20, 1942
William Blake
Poet
Monday, Nov 28, 1757
Sunday, Aug 12, 1827
Marcus Aurelius
Roman Emperor
Saturday, Apr 26, 0121
Friday, Mar 17, 0180

View All Authors

Thomas Reid Quotes - Page 1

App & Tools

Related Philosopher Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page

Stay Connected

App & Tools

Related Philosopher Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page