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Supposition Quotes

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Supposition Quotes

“I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better , if less "showily." Let him come and go freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself... Teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experiences.”

IfsThinkingMindKindChildrenIdeasRealSeemsLeftTeachingSpecialTaughtBuiltIndependentImpressionIdiotSuspectsAssociationArtificialComes And GoesReal ThingsEducation SystemSchooledEpistemologyHomeschoolingUnschoolingPedagogySupposition
Author:Anne Sullivan Macy
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“There is no cruelty so inexorable and unrelenting as that which proceeds from a bigoted and presumptuous supposition of doing service to God. The victim of the fanatical persecutor will find that the stronger the motives he can urge for mercy are, the weaker will be his chance for obtaining it, for the merit of his destruction will be supposed to rise in value in proportion as it is effected at the expense of every feeling both of justice and of humanity.”

FeelingsValuesHumanityJusticeChanceDestructionMercyStrongerVictimCrueltyMeritMotiveProportionUrgesExpensesFanaticismObtainingInexorablePresumptuousSuppositionUnrelentingService To God
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“What I affirm is the intuition that where God's presence is no longer a tenable supposition and where His absence is no longer a felt, indeed overwhelming weight, certain dimensions of thought and creativity are no longer attainable. And I would vary Yeats's axiom so as to say: no man can read fully, can answer answeringly to the aesthetic, whose "nerve and blood" are at peace in sceptical rationality, are now at home in immanence and verification. We must read as if.”

IfsMenHomeCertainFeltAnswersCreativityBloodWeightIntuitionAbsenceDimensionsNervesOverwhelmingAestheticRationalityVaryAxiomsGod's PresenceSuppositionVerificationYeats
Book:Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say?
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“Thus, if there exists a law which sanctions slavery or monopoly, oppression or robbery, in any form whatever, it must not even be mentioned. For how can it be mentioned without damaging the respect which it inspires? Still further, morality and political economy must be taught from the point of view of this law; from the supposition that it must be a just law merely because it is a law. Another effect of this tragic perversion of the law is that it gives an exaggerated importance to political passions and conflicts, and to politics in general.”

IfsGivingStillsFormLawPoliticalPassionPoliticsViewsEconomyEffectsInspireTaughtMoralityConflictImportanceSlaveryPoint Of ViewOppressionTragicMonopolySanctionsExaggeratedPerversionRobberyPolitical EconomySupposition
Author:Frederic Bastiat
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“I start from the supposition that the world is topsyturvy, that things are all wrong, that the wrong people are in jail and the wrong people are out of jail, that the wrong people are in power and the wrong people are out of power, that the wealth is distributed in this country and the world in such a way as not simply to require small reform but to require a drastic reallocation of wealth. I start from the supposition that we don't have to say too much about this because all we have to do is think about the state of the world today and realize that things are all upside down.”

PeopleThinkingWorldWayCountryStatesTodayRealizingWealthToo MuchReformJailWorld TodayUpside DownDrasticSupposition
Book:The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy
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“Zen, like life, defies exact definition, but its essence is the experience, moment by moment, of our own existence -- a natural, spontaneous encounter, unclouded by the suppositions and expectations that come between us and reality. It is, if you like, a paring down of life until we see it as it really is, free from our illusions; it is merely a divestment of ourselves until we recognize our own true nature.”

IfsMomentsRealityNaturalExistenceIllusionExpectationsEssenceDefinitionsEncountersSpontaneousTrue NatureSuppositionZen Like
Author:David Fontana
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“Your pretended fear lest error should step in, is like the man that would keep all the wine out of the country lest men should be drunk. It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy, to deny a man the liberty he hath by nature upon a supposition that he may abuse it.”

MenShouldMayCountryFoundLibertyStepsHe ManAbuseWineErrorsDenyDrunkUnjustUnwiseSupposition
Book:Memoirs of the Protector, Oliver Cromwell: And of His Sons, Richard and Henry
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“Most People are wretched more by the Fears of what may come, than what they endure at present. ... a manifest Contradiction to good Sense; for who, with the right use of that, wou'd lose the Enjoyment of a present Comfort, to lament a Misfortune only in Supposition; which ten to one never comes to pass.”

PeopleMayMomentsUseFearLosesComfortTenEndureEnjoymentContradictionMisfortunesManifestLive In The MomentWretchedGood SenseLamentSupposition
Author:Eliza Haywood
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“I couldn't possibly tell you. But I would say be very careful with your suppositions. People are so quick to jump. That's what I love about playing the character. People are so quick to draw conclusions about who he is. The whole thing about Loki is that he's dancing on this liminal line between redemption and destruction. Just be very careful about drawing conclusions based on what you see.”

PeopleWholeCharacterLinesDrawsDestructionDancingCarefulDrawingConclusionRedemptionSuppositionDrawing Conclusions
Author:Tom Hiddleston
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“A prevalent fallacy is the assumption that a proof of an afterlife would also be a proof of the existence of a deity. This is far from being the case. If, as I hold, there is no good reason to believe that a god either created or presides over this world, there is equally no good reason to believe that a god created or presides over the next world, on the unlikely supposition that such a thing exists.”

IfsWorldBelieveReasonNextExistenceCasesThis WorldProofAssumptionAfterlifeUnlikelyDeitiesFallacySupposition
Author:A.J. Ayer
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“Science sometimes improves hypotheses and sometimes disproves them. But proof would be another matter and perhaps never occurs except in the realms of totally abstract tautology. We can sometimes say that if such and such abstract suppositions or postulates are given, then such and such abstract suppositions or postulates are given, then such and such must follow absolutely. But the truth about what can be perceived or arrived at by induction from perception is something else again.”

IfsSometimesMatterWould BeGivenPerceptionProofRealmsAbstractHypothesisSuppositionTautology
Author:Gregory Bateson
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“More philosophically-minded critics regarded Einstein's argument for relativity as little more than a logical bait-and-switch ploy: "[T]he supposition of most expounders of the Special Theory, that Einstein has proved the relativity of simultaneity in general - or that his 'simultaneity' is something more than a logical artefact - must manifestly be given up.”

LittlesGivenSpecialTheoryArgumentCriticsLogicalGiven UpRelativityBaitSuppositionPloyArtefacts
Author:Arthur Oncken Lovejoy
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“I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think.”

ThinkingKindChildrenSeemsEducationLearningSpecialTaughtBuiltEducationalIdiotSuspectsSchoolingEducation SystemSelf EducationSchooledEducational SystemHomeschoolingGreat EducationSchool SystemUnschoolingSchools And EducationSchool EducationGreat EducationalChildren LearningChildren EducationSuppositionChildren And EducationTrue EducationEducation For AllEducation And FreedomProblems In School
Author:Anne Sullivan Macy
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“Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

ReasonWisdomReligionReligiousEducationMoralPrinciplesRightsMoralityHeritageFoundingCautionIndulgeChurch And StateSeparation Of Church And StateOur Founding FathersExclusionIndulge InFounding Fathers ChristianUs Founding FathersFounding Fathers ReligionFounding Fathers ReligiousFounding Fathers Anti ReligionFounding Fathers Of AmericaFounding AmericaAmerican Founding FathersReligion And PoliticsChristian HeritageSuppositionMorality And ReligionFarewell AddressMoral VirtuesRevolution Founding FathersChristian MoralityReligion PoliticsReligious HistoryValues And Morals
Book:Elements of useful knowledge: containing a historical and geographical account of the United States
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“Poor fellow! I think he is in love with you.' I am not aware of it. And to me it is one of the most odious things in a girl's life, that there must always be some supposition of falling in love coming between her and any man who is kind to her... I have no ground for the nonsensical vanity of fancying everybody who comes near me is in love with me.”

ThinkingMenKindFallGirlPoorLove YouFellowsFalling In LoveVanityNonsensicalSupposition
Book:Middlemarch
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“In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.”

IfsWayShouldYearsMayChildrenLongStillsLostGivenParentCommonBoysTakenFourExampleSonRegretFineDiedForgivingSakeChosenOperationsMy SonFour YearsNever ForgiveSuppositionLost OnesPox
Book:The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
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“Let us with Caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.”

ReligionReligiousMoralMoralityHeritageFoundersFoundingGodlyCautionIndulgeChurch And StateSeparation Of Church And StateOur Founding FathersExclusionIndulge InFounding Fathers ChristianUs Founding FathersFounding Fathers ReligionFounding Fathers ReligiousMoral PrinciplesFounding Fathers Anti ReligionFounding Fathers Of AmericaFounding AmericaAmerican Founding FathersFounding Fathers AtheistReligion And PoliticsChristian FatherChristian HeritageSuppositionMorality And ReligionFarewell AddressMoral VirtuesRevolution Founding FathersOne Nation Under GodChristian MoralityReligion PoliticsReligious HistoryValues And Morals
Book:Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America: Published in September, 1796
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“The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad. I speak now, of course, in the supposition that the gentle reader has not been abroad, and therefore is not already a consummate ass. If the case be otherwise, I beg his pardon and extend to him the cordial hand of fellowship and call him brother.”

IfsKnowsHandsCoursesSpeakCasesBrotherReaderTravelAssGentleFellowshipPardonGreat TravelSuppositionTravel AbroadTravel ExperienceSpeak Now
Book:The Innocents Abroad
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“The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous falacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty...”

MenGovernmentReligionSufferingReligiousLibertyOpinionPrinciplesDangerousFieldsObjectsMoralityIllProfessionTendenciesHatsReligious LibertyMagistratesJurisdictionSuppositionReligion And GovernmentPropagation
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“The process of tracing regularity in any complicated, and at first sight confused, set of appearances, is necessarily tentative; we begin by making any supposition, even a false one, to see what consequences will follow from it ; and by observing how these differ from the real phenomena, we learn what corrections to make in our assumption.”

FirstsRealScienceProcessConsequenceSightAppearanceComplicatedObservationConfusedAssumptionObservingCorrectionsRegularitySuppositionTracing
Book:A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, Being a Connected View of the Principles, and the Methods of Scientific Investigation
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“Considered as a mere question of physics, (and keeping all moral considerations entirely out of sight,) the appearance of man is a geological phenomenon of vast importance, indirectly modifying the whole surface of the earth, breaking in upon any supposition of zoological continuity, and utterly unaccounted for by what we have any right to call the laws of nature.”

MenWholeEarthLawScienceMoralSightImportanceMereAppearanceSurfacePhysicsConsiderationPhenomenonLaws Of NatureContinuityGeologySuppositionModifying
Book:A Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge
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“But it is just this characteristic of simplicity in the laws of nature hitherto discovered which it would be fallacious to generalize, for it is obvious that simplicity has been a part cause of their discovery, and can, therefore, give no ground for the supposition that other undiscovered laws are equally simple.”

GivingHas BeensWould BeLawScienceCausesSimpleDiscoverySimplicityObviousCharacteristicsLaws Of NatureSupposition
Book:Mysticism and Logic, and Other Essays
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“There is nothing more necessary than truth, and in comparison with it everything else has only secondary value. This absolute will to truth: what is it? Is it the will to not allow ourselves to be deceived? Is it the will not to deceive? One does not want to be deceived, under the supposition that it is injurious, dangerous, or fatal to be deceived.”

WantDoeTruthValuesAtheismDangerousAbsolutesEducationalComparisonDeceivingDeceivedAgnosticismAbsolute TruthSupposition
Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“There are several kinds of truths, and it is customary to place in the first order mathematical truths, which are, however, only truths of definition. These definitions rest upon simple, but abstract, suppositions, and all truths in this category are only constructed, but abstract, consequences of these definitions ... Physical truths, to the contrary, are in no way arbitrary, and do not depend on us.”

WayFirstsKindTruthOrderSimpleDependsConsequenceMathematicsDefinitionsContraryMathematicalAbstractCategoriesArbitrarySupposition
Author:Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
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