We have first raised a dust and then complain we cannot see. George Berkeley More Quotes by George Berkeley More Quotes From George Berkeley The question between the materialists and me is not, whether things have a real existence out of the mind of this or that person, but whether they have an absolute existence, distinct from being perceived by God, and exterior to all minds. George Berkeley existence real mind Religion is the centre which unites, and the cement which connects the several parts of members of the political body. George Berkeley political body religion 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. George Berkeley sleep men mean I imagine that thinking is the great desideratum of the present age; and the cause of whatever is done amiss may justly be reckoned the general neglect of education in those who need it most, the people of fashion. What can be expected where those who have the most influence have the least sense, and those who are sure to be followed set the worst examples? George Berkeley fashion people thinking [Christianity] neither enjoins the nastiness of the Cynic, nor the insensibility of the Stoic. George Berkeley nastiness cynicism christianity Upon the whole, I am inclined to think that the far greater part, if not all, of those difficulties which have hitherto amused philosophers, and blocked up the way to knowledge, are entirely owing to our selves. That we have first raised a dust, and then complain, we cannot see. George Berkeley math philosophy thinking All men have opinions, but few think. George Berkeley opinion men thinking A mind at liberty to reflect on its own observations, if it produce nothing useful to the world, seldom fails of entertainment to itself. George Berkeley liberty mind world Man is an Animal, formidable both from his Passions and his Reason; his Passions often urging him to great Evils, and his Reason furnishing Means to achieve them. To train this Animal, and make him amenable to Order; to inure him to a Sense of Justice and Virtue, to withhold him from ill Courses by Fear, and encourage him in his Duty by Hopes; in short, to fashion and model him for Society, hath been the Aim of civil and religious Institutions; and, in all Times, the Endeavour of good and wise Men. The aptest Method for attaining this End, hath been always judged a proper Education. George Berkeley fashion wise education He who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave. George Berkeley truth men lying 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. George Berkeley eye beautiful beauty To be is to be perceived George Berkeley philosophical inspirational philosophy Our youth we can have but to-day, We may always find time to grow old. George Berkeley youth may inspirational Did men but consider that the sun, moon, and stars, and every other object of the senses, are only so many sensations in their minds, which have no other existence but barely being perceived, doubtless they would never fall down and worship their own ideas; but rather address their homage to that eternal invisible Mind which produces and sustains all things. George Berkeley stars god fall That neither our thoughts, nor passions, nor ideas formed by the imagination, exist without the mind, is what every body will allow. George Berkeley passion imagination ideas Many things, for aught I know, may exist, whereof neither I nor any other man hath or can have any idea or notion whatsoever. George Berkeley may men ideas The eye by long use comes to see even in the darkest cavern: and there is no subject so obscure but we may discern some glimpse of truth by long poring on it. George Berkeley glimpse eye long Whenever I attempt to frame a simple idea of time, abstracted from the succession of ideas in my mind, which flows uniformly, and is participated by all beings, I am lost and embrangled in inextricable difficulties. George Berkeley simple mind ideas To be a good patriot, a man must consider his countrymen as God's creatures, and himself as accountable for his acting towards them. George Berkeley patriotism acting men But, say you, surely there is nothing easier than for me to imagine trees, for instance, in a park [. . .] and nobody by to perceive them. [...] The objects of sense exist only when they are perceived; the trees therefore are in the garden [. . .] no longer than while there is somebody by to perceive them. George Berkeley parks garden tree