There may be no good reasons for very many opinions that are held with passion.
There was a law in Connecticut – I believe it is still formally unrepealed – making it illegal for a man to kiss his wife on Sunday.
Thomas Aquinas states parenthetically, as something entirely obvious, that men are more rational than women. For my part, I see no evidence of this.
Those who advocate common usage in philosophy sometimes speak in a manner that suggests the mystique of the ‘common man.’
Vanity is a motive of immense potency.
We have almost reached the point where praise of rationality is held to mark a man as an old fogey regrettably surviving from a bygone age.
We must be sceptical even of our scepticism.
We ought to look the world frankly in the face.
What was exciting in the Victorian Age, would leave a man of franker epoch quite unmoved. The more prudes restrict the permissible degree of sexual appeal, the less is required to make such an appeal effective.
When Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning-rod, the clergy, both in England and America, with enthusiastic support of George III, condemned it as an impious attempt to defeat the will of God.
The axiomatic method has many advantages over honest work.
The human race may well become extinct before the end of the century.
In spreading his ideas, Plato was willing to employ emotional appeals, state propaganda, and the use of force.
Aristotle’s metaphysics, roughly speaking, may be described as Plato diluted by common sense. He is difficult because Plato and common sense do not mix easily.
Is the set of all sets which are not members of themselves a member of itself?
Patriotism which has the quality of intoxication is a danger not only to its native land but to the world, and “My country never wrong” is an even more dangerous maxim than “My country, right or wrong.”
To be out of harmony with one’s surroundings is of course a misfortune, but it is not always a misfortune to be avoided at all costs. Where the environment is stupid or prejudiced or cruel, it is a sign of merit to be out of harmony with it.
Who ever heard a theologian preface his creed, or a politician conclude his speech with an estimate of the probable error of his opinion?
All knowledge, we feel, must be built up upon our instinctive beliefs; and if these are rejected, nothing is left.
Be isolated, be ignored, be attacked, be in doubt, be frightened, but do not be silenced.