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Quote by George Berkeley

Work

A Miscellany, Containing Several Tracts on Various Subjects

This book is a compilation of several tracts covering a wide range of subjects. more

Author

George Berkeley
George Berkeley

George Berkeley, born on March 12, 1685, and died on January 12, 1753, was a renowned philosopher of the 18th century. He is best known for his idealist philosophy, advocating the view that existence is dependent on perception. His major works include 'Principles of Human Knowledge' and 'A New Theory of Vision'. more

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“Casting an eye on the education of children, from whence I can make a judgment of my own, I observe they are instructed in religious matters before they can reason about them, and consequently that all such instruction is nothing else but filling the tender mind of a child with prejudices.”

MindChildrenI CanMatterReasonEyeReligionReligiousMy OwnEducationJudgmentPrejudiceInstructionCastingFilling
Book:Works: Account of His Life and Letters
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“There being in the make of an English mind a certain gloom and eagerness, which carries to the sad extreme; religion to fanaticism; free-thinking to atheism; liberty to rebellion.”

ThinkingMindCertainReligionLibertyAtheismSadEnglandExtremesCarrieRebellionFanaticismGloomEagernessFree Thinking
Book:The Works of George Berkeley, D.D., Formerly Bishop of Cloyne: Philosophical works, 1732-33: Alciphron. The theory of vision
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“A man needs no arguments to make him discern and approve what is beautiful: it strikes at first sight, and attracts without a reason. And as this beauty is found in the shape and form of corporeal things, so also is there analogous to it a beauty of another kind, an order, a symmetry, and comeliness in the moral world. And as the eye perceiveth the one, so the mind doth by a certain interior sense perceive the other, which sense, talent, or faculty, is ever quickest and purest in the noblest minds.”

MenWorldNeedsMindFirstsKindReasonEyeBeautifulFormCertainOrderFoundBeautyMoralTalentMoralityShapesPerceptionArgumentSightStrikesPerceiveFacultyInteriorsSymmetry
Book:Alciphron: Or, The Minute Philosopher. In Seven Dialogues Containing an Apology for the Christian Religion Against Those who are Called Free-thinkers
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“That the discovery of this great truth, which lies so near and obvious to the mind, should be attained to by the reason of so veryfew, is a sad instance of the stupidity and inattention of men, who, though they are surrounded with such clear manifestations of the Deity, are yet so little affected by them, that they seem as it were blinded with excess of light.”

MenShouldMindLittlesReasonGodLightSeemsTruthLyingClearDiscoveryObviousStupidityInstanceManifestationAffectedExcessIdealismDeitiesBlindedInattention
Book:A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
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“This perceiving, active being is what I call mind, spirit, soul, or myself. By which words I do not denote any one of my ideas, but a thing entirely distinct from them, wherein they exist, or, which is the same thing, whereby they are perceived; for the existence of an idea consists in being perceived.”

MindIdeasSoulSpiritExistencePerceptionActive
Book:Principles of Human Knowledge: Human Understanding
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“That food nourishes, sleep refreshes, and fire warms us; that to sow in the seed-time is the way to reap in the harvest, and, in general, that to obtain such or such ends, such or such means are conducive, all this we know, not by discovering any necessary connexion between our ideas, but only by the observation of the settled laws of nature, without which we should be all in uncertainty and confusion, and a grown man no more know how to manage himself in the affairs of life than an infant just born.”

KnowsMenWayShouldMeanIdeasEndsLawBornSleepKnow HowFireExperienceAffairSeedsConfusionManageObservationUncertaintyDiscoveringHarvestInfantLaws Of NatureReapGrown ManCausationConnexion
Book:Principles of Human Knowledge
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“The real essence, the internal qualities, and constitution of even the meanest object, is hid from our view; something there is inevery drop of water, every grain of sand, which it is beyond the power of human understanding to fathom or comprehend. But it is evidentthat we are influenced by false principles to that degree as to mistrust our senses, and think we know nothing of those things which we perfectly comprehend.”

ThinkingKnowsHumansRealUnderstandingWaterViewsQualityPrinciplesObjectsDegreesEssenceConstitutionSensesSandInternalsGrainSkepticismMistrustFathomDrop Of WaterGrains Of Sand
Author:George Berkeley
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“Nothing can be plainer, than that the motions, changes, decays, and dissolutions, which we hourly see befall natural bodies (and which is what we mean by the course of nature), cannot possibly affect an active, simple, uncompounded substance: such a being therefore is indissoluble by the force of nature, that is to say, the soul of man is naturally immortal.”

MenMeanSoulBodyCoursesForceNatureNaturalSimpleActiveSubstanceImmortalityImmortalDecayBeing ThereDissolutionForces Of Nature
Book:A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
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