GEORGE BERKELEY QUOTES IV

Irish philosopher (1685-1753)

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


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


There is a restless endeavour in the mind of man after Happiness. This appetite is wrought into the original frame of our nature, and exerts itself in all parts of the creation that are endued with any degree of thought or sense. But, as the human mind is dignified by a more comprehensive faculty than can be found in the inferior animals, it is natural for men not only to have an eye each to his own happiness, but also to endeavour to promote that of others.

GEORGE BERKELEY

The Works of George Berkeley

Tags: happiness


To suppose sense in the world would be gross and unwarranted. But locomotive faculties are evident in all its parts.

GEORGE BERKELEY

Alciphron; or, The Minute Philosopher in Seven Dialogues


I am not for imposing any sense on your words: you are at liberty to explain them as you please. Only, I beseech you, make me understand something by them.

GEORGE BERKELEY

Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous

Tags: words


So long as I confine my thoughts to my own ideas divested of words, I do not see how I can be easily mistaken.

GEORGE BERKELEY

The Principles of Human Knowledge