Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man Quotes

“The chain is only as strong as its weakest link, for if that fails the chain fails and the object that it has been holding up falls to the ground.”
― Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

“In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than that of the weakest link of the chain, whatever may be the strength of the rest.”
― Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

“Nature hath given us us a particular emotion, to wit, that of ridicule, which seems intended for this very purpose of putting out of countenance what is absurd, either in opinion or practice. This weapon, when properly applied, cuts with as keen an edge as argument. Nature has furnished us with the first to expose absurdity; as with the last to refute error.”
― Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

“The chain is only as strong as its weakest
link, for if that fails the chain fails and the object that it has been holding up falls to the ground.”
― Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

“These shadows or images, which we immediately perceive, were by the ancients called species, forms, phantasms. Since the time of Descartes, they have commonly been called ideas, and by Mr. Hume impressions. But all philosophers, from Plato to Mr. Hume, agree in this, That we do not perceive external objects immediately, and that the immediate object of perception must be some image present in the mind. So far there appears an unanimity rarely to be found among Philosophers on such abstruse points.”
― Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

“All the arguments urged by Berkeley and Hume against the existence of a material world, are grounded on this principle, That we do not perceive external objects themselves, but certain images or ideas in our own minds”
― Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

“Every man feels that he must believe what he distinctly remembers, though he can give no other reason of his belief, but that he remembers the thing distinctly.”
― Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

“If any man...should demand a proof that he is the same person to-day as he was yesterday, or a year ago, I know no proof can be given him: He must be left to himself, either as a man that is a lunatic, or as one who denies first principles, and is not to be reasoned with. Every man of sound mind, finds himself under the necessity of believing his own identity, and continued existence. The conviction of this is immediate and irresistible, and if he should lose this conviction, it would be a certain proof of insanity, which is not to be remedied by reasoning.”
― Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

“When discord arises occasionally in conversation, but soon terminates in perfect amity, we receive more pleasure than from perfect unanimity. In like manner, in the harmony of music, discordant sounds are occasionally introduced, but it is always in order to give a relish to the most perfect concord that follows.”
― Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man

“We cannot give a reason why we believe even our sensations to be real and not fallacious; why we believe what we are conscious of; why we trust any of our natural faculties. We say, it must be so, it cannot be otherwise. This expresses only a strong belief, which is indeed the voice of nature, and which therefore in vain we attempt to resist. But if, in spite of nature, we resolve to go deeper, and not to trust our faculties, without a reason to shew that they cannot be fallacious, I am afraid that, seeking to become wise, and to be as gods, we shall become foolish....”
― Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man