Irish philosopher (1685-1753)
That thing of hell and eternal punishment is the most absurd, as well as the most disagreeable thought that ever entered into the head of mortal man.
GEORGE BERKELEY
The Works of George Berkeley
Can the mind of a philosopher rise to a more just and magnificent, and at the same time a more amiable idea of the Deity than is here set forth in the strongest images and most emphatical language? And yet this is the language of shepherds and fishermen.
GEORGE BERKELEY
The Works of George Berkeley
Every individuality is at bottom only a special error.
GEORGE BERKELEY
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
I have always observed, that a rake who is a minute philosopher, when grown old, becomes a sharper in business.
GEORGE BERKELEY
Alciphron; or, The Minute Philosopher in Seven Dialogues
A mind at liberty to reflect on its own observations, if it produce nothing useful to the world, seldom fails of entertainment to itself.
GEORGE BERKELEY
The Works of George Berkeley
Whence came this surprising change, that regions formerly inhabited by ignorant and savage people should now outshine ancient Greece, and the other eastern countries, so renowned of old, in the most elevated notions of theology and morality? Is it the effect of their own parts and industry? Have our common mechanics more refined understandings than the ancient philosophers? It is owing to the God of Truth, who came down from heaven, and condescended to be himself our teacher. It is as we are Christians that we profess more excellent and divine truths than the rest of mankind.
GEORGE BERKELEY
The Works of George Berkeley
Every man, by consulting his own heart, may easily know whether he is or is not a patriot. But it is not so easy for the by-standers.
GEORGE BERKELEY
"Maxims Concerning Patriotism", Works
Doth the reality of sensible things consist in being perceived? or, is it something distinct from their being perceived, and that bears no relation to the mind?
GEORGE BERKELEY
Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous
To one who regards things with a philosophical eye, and hath a soul capable of being delighted with the sense that truth and knowledge prevail among men, it must be a grateful reflection to think that the sublimest truths, which among the heathens only here and there one of brighter parts and more leisure than ordinary could attain to, are now grown familiar to the meanest inhabitants of these nations.
GEORGE BERKELEY
The Works of George Berkeley
No theory of the soul, as we know the soul in philosophy, is entitled to respect, which ignores or diminishes the reality of the personal union into which it has taken the body with itself, a union the most consummate and absolute of which we know, or of which we can conceive, infinitely transcending the completeness of the most perfect mechanical and chemical unions--a union so complete that, though two distinct substances are involved in it, it makes them, through a wide range of observations, as completely one to us as if they were one substance; so that we can say the human body does nothing proper to it without the soul, the human soul does nothing proper to it without the body.
GEORGE BERKELEY
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
It is impossible to understand the weakness of a system without understanding its strength.
GEORGE BERKELEY
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
It is impossible a man who is false to his friends and neighbours should be true to the public.
GEORGE BERKELEY
"Maxims Concerning Patriotism", Works
What the bad man most fears is certain to come to him--that is death. It is just as certain to the good man, but to him it is welcome.
GEORGE BERKELEY
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
I might as well doubt of my own being, as of the being of those things I actually see and feel.
GEORGE BERKELEY
Works
Many things, for aught I know, may exist, whereof neither I nor any other man hath or can have any idea or notion whatsoever.
GEORGE BERKELEY
Philosophical Works
Religion is the centre which unites, and the cement which connects the several parts of members of the political body.
GEORGE BERKELEY
A Discourse Addressed to Magistrates and Men in Authority
Truth is the cry of all, but the game of the few.
GEORGE BERKELEY
Siris
God is a being of transcendent and unlimited perfections: his nature therefore is incomprehensible to finite spirits.
GEORGE BERKELEY
A New Theory of Vision and Other Select Philosophical Writings
Disputes are not to be decided by the weight of authority, but by the force of reason.
GEORGE BERKELEY
The Works of George Berkeley
If we admit a thing so extraordinary as the creation of this world, it should seem that we admit something strange, and odd, and new to human apprehension, beyond any other miracle whatsoever.
GEORGE BERKELEY
The Works of George Berkeley