Quotessence
Home / Authors / Joseph Priestley Books
Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley Books

Philosopher

Related Quotes

“Lying is a crime the least liable to variation in its definitions. A child will upon the slightest temptation tell an untruth as readily as the truth. That is, as soon as he can suspect that it will be to his advantage; and the dread that he afterward has of telling a lie is acquired principally by his being threatened, punished, and terrified by those who detect him in it, till at length, a number of painful impressions are annexed to the telling of an untruth, and he comes even to shudder at the thought of it.”

ChildrenLyingNumbersCrimeAdvantageDefinitionsPainfulImpressionTemptationLengthSuspectsDreadTerrifiedThreatenedVariationLiableUntruth
Book:The Theological and Miscellaneous Works. Ed. with Notes by John Towill Rutt
Create image

“[The doctrine of air] I was led into in consequence of inhabiting a house adjoining to a public brewery, where I at first amused myself with making experiments on the fixed air [carbon dioxide] which I found ready made in the process of fermentation . When I removed from that house I was under the necessity of making the fixed air for myself; and one experiment leading to another, as I have distinctly and faithfully noted in my various publications on the subject, I by degrees contrived a convenient apparatus for the purpose, but of the cheapest kind.”

FirstsKindMadePurposeFoundHouseProcessAirSubjectsReadyDegreesConsequenceVariousExperimentsDoctrineFixedCarbonConvenientPublicationAmusedCarbon DioxideFermentationBreweries
Author:Joseph Priestley
Create image

“It is known to all persons who are conversant in experimental philosophy, that there are many little attentions and precautions necessary to be observed in the conducting of experiments, which cannot well be described in words, but which it is needless to describe, since practice will necessarily suggest them; though, like all other arts in which the hands and fingers are made use of, it is only much practice that can enable a person to go through complex experiments, of this or any kind, with ease and readiness.”

WellsKindLittlesPersonsArtMadePhilosophyUseHandsAttentionKnownPracticeFingersComplexesExperimentsEaseReadinessConductingPrecaution
Book:Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air
Create image

“The mind of man can never be wholly barren. Through our whole lives we are subject to successive impressions; for, either new ideas are continually flowing in, or traces of the old ones are marked deeper. If, therefore, you be not acquiring good principles be assured that you are acquiring bad ones; if you be not forming virtuous habits you are, how insensibly soever to yourselves, forming vicious ones.”

IfsMenMindIdeasWholePrinciplesSubjectsHabitDeeperWhole LifeImpressionVirtuousNew IdeasViciousAssuredBarren
Book:Views of Christian truth, piety, and morality: selected from the writings of Dr. Priestley : with a memoir of his life
Create image

“When we say there is a GOD, we mean that there is an intelligent designing cause of what we see in the world around us, and a being who was himself uncaused.”

WorldMeanCausesDesignIntelligentIntelligent Design
Book:Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion: To which is Prefixed, an Essay on the Best Method of Communicating Religious Knowledge to the Members of Christian Societies
Create image

“We find upon all occasions, the early Christian writers speak of the Father as superior to the Son, and in general they give him the title of God , as distinguished from the Son; and sometimes they expressly call him, exclusively of the Son, the only true God ; a phraseology which does not at all accord with the idea of the perfect equality of all the persons in the Trinity. But it might well be expected, that the advances to the present doctrine of the Trinity should be gradual and slow. It was, indeed, some centuries before it was completely formed.”

GivingShouldWellsPersonsDoeIdeasSometimesMightChristianFatherSpeakPerfectCenturySonExpectedDoctrineSuperiorsOccasionsTitlesDistinguishedAccordTrinityTrue GodAll Occasions
Book:A History of the Corruptions of Christianity
Create image

“Most of the early Christian writers thought the text "I and my Father are one," was to be understood of an unity or harmony of disposition only. Thus Tertullian observes, that the expression is unum , one thing, not one person; and he explains it to mean unity, likeness, conjunction, and of the love that the Father bore to the Son. Origen says, "let him consider that text, 'all that believed were of one heart and of one soul,' and then he will understand this, 'I and my Father are one".”

HeartMeanPersonsSoulChristianFatherOne ThingSonExpressionUnderstoodHarmonyUnityBoresDispositionConjunctions
Author:Joseph Priestley
Create image

“It is sufficiently evident from many circumstances, that the doctrine of the divinity of Christ did not establish itself without much opposition, especially from the unlearned among the Christians, who thought that it savoured of Polytheism , that it was introduced by those who had had a philosophical education, and was by degrees adopted by others, on account of its covering the great offence of the cross , by exalting the personal dignity of our Saviour.”

ChristianChristCircumstancesDegreesDignityCrossesAccountsPhilosophicalDoctrineDivinityOppositionEvidentAdoptedCoveringSaviourOffencePersonal DignityPolytheism
Book:A History of the Corruptions of Christianity
Create image

“Had Mr. Gibbon lived in France, Spain, or Italy, he might with the fame reason have ranked the doctrine of transubstantiation, and the worship of saints and angels among the essentials of Christianity, as the doctrines of the trinity and of the atonement.”

ReasonMightChristianityFameEssentialsWorshipAngelSaintDoctrineFranceSpainAtonementTrinityTransubstantiation
Book:An History of the Corruptions of Christianity
Create image

“Let us not... contend about merit , but let us all be intent on forwarding the common enterprize , and equally enjoy any progress we may make towards succeeding in it; and above all, let us acknowledge the guidance of that Great Being, who has put a spirit in man, and whose inspiration giveth him understanding .”

MenMayInspirationSpiritEnjoyUnderstandingCommonProgressSucceedAcknowledgeGuidanceMerit
Book:Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air and Other Branches of Natural Philosophy, Connected with the Subject ...: Being the Former Six Volumes Abridged and Methodized, with Many Additions
Create image

“As I conceive this doctrine to be a gross misrepresentation of the character and moral government of God, and to affect many other articles in the scheme of Christianity, greatly disfiguring and depraving it; I shall show, ... that it has no countenance whatever in reason, or the Scriptures; and, therefore, that the whole doctrine of atonement, with every modification of it, has been a departure from the primitive and genuine doctrine of Christianity.”

Has BeensReasonWholeCharacterShowsGovernmentMoralChristianityAtheismPositive AtheismScriptureGenuineDoctrineArticlesPrimitiveSchemesGrossAtonementDepartureCountenanceModificationMisrepresentation
Author:Joseph Priestley
Create image

“The greater is the circle of light, the greater is the boundary of the darkness by which it is confined. But, notwithstanding this, the more light get, the more thankful we ought to be, for by this means we have the greater range for satisfactory contemplation. time the bounds of light will be still farther extended; and from the infinity of the divine nature, and the divine works, we may promise ourselves an endless progress in our investigation them: a prospect truly sublime and glorious.”

MayMeanStillsLightScienceNatureDarknessGreaterProgressDivineOughtPromiseBoundsCirclesBoundariesEndlessRangeContemplationGloriousInfinityInvestigationSublimeThankfulnessConfinedDivine Nature
Book:The theological and miscellaneous works of Joseph Priestley
Create image

“It pleased God to make one nation the medium of all His communications with mankind: This the nation of the Jews has done to a considerable degree in all ages As civilization extended, they by one means or another became most wonderfully dispersed through all countries; and at this day they are almost literally everywhere, the most conspicuous, and in the eye of reason and religion, the most respectable nation on the face of the earth.”

MeanCountryReasonDoneEyeAgeEarthFacesNationsMankindCommunicationCivilizationDegreesJewMediumsThis DayRespectable
Author:Joseph Priestley
Create image

“But it is not given to every electrician to die in so glorious a manner as the justly envied Richmann.”

ScienceDiesGivenEnvyGloriousLightningEnviedElectrician
Book:The History and Present State of Electricity: With Original Experiments. Reprinted from the 3d Ed., London, 1755, with an Appendix Containing Two Additional Papers of Original Experiments by the Author, and a New Introd. by Robert E. Shofield
Create image

“The feeling of it to my lungs was not sensibly different from that of common air; but I fancied that my breast felt peculiarly light and easy for some time afterwards. Who can tell but that, in time, this pure air may become a fashionable article in luxury. Hitherto only two mice and myself have had the privilege of breathing it.”

MayTwoDifferentFeelingsLightScienceFeltEasyCommonAirPurePrivilegeLuxuryBreathingBreastsArticlesMiceLungsFashionable
Book:Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air: Vol. II. By Joseph Priestley, ...
Create image

“Will is nothing more than a particular case of the general doctrine of association of ideas, and therefore a perfectly mechanical thing.”

IdeasCasesParticularDoctrineAssociation
Book:The Doctrine of Philofophical Neceffity Illustrated: Being an Appendix to the Difquifitions Relating to Matter and Spirit. To which is Added an Anfwer to the Letters on Materialism, and on Hartley's Theory of the Mind [by Joseph Perington].
Create image

“How glorious, then, is the prospect, the reverse of all the past, which is now opening upon us, and upon the world. Government, we may now expect to see, not only in theory and in books but in actual practice, calculated for the general good, and taking no more upon it than the general good requires, leaving all men the enjoyment of as many of their natural rights as possible, and no more interfering with matters of religion, with men's notions concerning God, and a future state, than with philosophy, or medicine.”

MenWorldMayBookMatterStatesPhilosophyGovernmentPastNaturalPracticeRightsTheoryMedicineNotionLeavingOpeningEnjoymentGloriousReverseInterfereWorld GovernmentNatural Rights
Book:Letters to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke: Occasioned by His Reflections on the Revolution in France, &c
Create image