If we admit a thing so extraordinary as the creation of this world, it should seem that we admit something strange, and odd, and new to human apprehension, beyond any other miracle whatsoever. George Berkeley More Quotes by George Berkeley More Quotes From George Berkeley To be is to be perceived (Esse est percipi)." Or, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? George Berkeley philosophicaltreefall All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth - in a word, all those bodies which compose the frame of the world - have not any subsistence without a mind. George Berkeley bodymindheaven Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few. George Berkeley truthgamesscience It is impossible that a man who is false to his friends and neighbours should be true to the public. George Berkeley shouldimpossiblemen Few men think, yet all will have opinions. George Berkeley opinionmenthinking What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind. George Berkeley philosophicalspiritualscience The world is like a board with holes in it, and the square men have got into the round holes, and the round into the square. George Berkeley boardssquaresmen That thing of hell and eternal punishment is the most absurd, as well as the most disagreeable thought that ever entered into the head of mortal man. George Berkeley helldemisemen The most ingenious men are now agreed, that [universities] are only nurseries of prejudice, corruption, barbarism, and pedantry. George Berkeley prejudicecorruptionmen A ray of imagination or of wisdom may enlighten the universe, and glow into remotest centuries. George Berkeley raysimaginationmay In short, if there were external bodies, it is impossible we should ever come to know it; and if there were not, we might have the very same reasons to think there were that we have now. George Berkeley bodymightthinking How often must I repeat, that I know or am conscious of my own being; and that I myself am not my ideas, but somewhat else, a thinking, active principle that perceives, knows, wills, and operates about ideas? George Berkeley perceptionideasthinking Every knave is a thorough knave, and a thorough knave is a knave throughout. George Berkeley knavesthoroughknavery 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. George Berkeley truthgodlying I had rather be an oyster than a man, the most stupid and senseless of animals. George Berkeley stupidsillyanimal God is a being of transcendent and unlimited perfections: his nature therefore is incomprehensible to finite spirits. George Berkeley spiritperfectiongod 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 philosophicallongideas I do not deny the existence of material substance merely because I have no notion of it, but because the notion of it is inconsistent, or in other words, because it is repugnant that there should be a notion of it. George Berkeley denysubstanceshould Where the people are well educated, the art of piloting a state is best learned from the writings of Plato. George Berkeley platowritingart 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. George Berkeley perceptionsoulideas
