Charles Sanders Peirce Quotes

Quotes about:

• We do not really think, we are barely conscious, until something goes wrong.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Thinking, Conscious

  62 Copy quote

• Every man is fully satisfied that there is such a thing as truth, or he would not ask any question.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Men, Satisfied, Asks

  Charles Sanders Peirce, Nathan Houser (1998). “The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings”, p.240, Indiana University Press

  8 Copy quote

• The entire universe is perfused with signs, if it is not composed exclusively of signs.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Ifs, Universe

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1974). “Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce”, p.302, Harvard University Press

  48 Copy quote

• It is not knowing, but the love of learning, that characterizes the scientific man.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Knowledge, Science, Men

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1974). “Collected Papers”, p.20, Harvard University Press

  32 Copy quote

• Every new concept first comes to the mind in a judgment.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Mind, Firsts, Judgment

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1974). “Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce”, p.385, Harvard University Press

  69 Copy quote

• The essence of belief is the establishment of a habit.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Essence, Belief, Habit

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1991). “Peirce on Signs: Writings on Semiotic”, p.166, UNC Press Books

  6 Copy quote

• It is... easy to be certain. One has only to be sufficiently vague.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Easy, Uncertain, Certain

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1931). “Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce”

  31 Copy quote

• The pragmatist knows that doubt is an art which hs to be acquired with difficulty.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Art, Math, Doubt

  39 Copy quote

• All the greatest achievements of mind have been beyond the power of unaided individuals.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Achievement, Mind, Individual

  Charles Sanders Peirce (2009). “The Logic of Interdisciplinarity: The Monist-series”

  8 Copy quote

• Three elements go to make up an idea. The first is its intrinsic quality as a feeling. The second is the energy with which it affects other ideas, an energy which is infinite in the here-and-nowness of immediate sensation, finite and relative in the recency of the past. The third element is the tendency of an idea to bring along other ideas with it.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Past, Ideas, Feelings

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1974). “Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce”, Harvard University Press

  5 Copy quote

• The idea does not belong to the soul; it is the soul that belongs to the idea.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Ideas, Soul, Doe

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1974). “Collected Papers”, p.94, Harvard University Press

  10 Copy quote

• My language is the sum total of myself.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Language

  Charles Sanders Peirce, Nathan Houser, Christian J.W. J. W. Kloesel (1992). “The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)”, p.54, Indiana University Press

  32 Copy quote

• We cannot begin with complete doubt.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Doubt

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1991). “Peirce on Signs: Writings on Semiotic”, p.55, UNC Press Books

  21 Copy quote

• There is a kink in my damned brain that prevents me from thinking as other people think.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Thinking, People, Brain

  26 Copy quote

• In all the works on pedagogy that ever I read — and they have been many, big, and heavy — I don't remember that any one has advocated a system of teaching by practical jokes, mostly cruel. That, however, describes the method of our great teacher, Experience.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Teacher, Teaching, Remember

  Charles Sanders Peirce, Patricia Ann Turrisi (1997). “Pragmatism as a Principle and Method of Right Thinking: The 1903 Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism”, p.160, SUNY Press

  33 Copy quote

• Effort supposes resistance.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Effort, Resistance

  Charles Sanders Peirce, Nathan Houser (1998). “The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings”, p.369, Indiana University Press

  9 Copy quote

• It is a common observation that those who dwell continually upon their expectations are apt to become oblivious to the requirements of their actual situation.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Acceptance, Expectations, Requirements

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1958). “Selected Writings (Values in a Universe of Chance)”, p.19, Courier Corporation

  9 Copy quote

• All the progress we have made in philosophy ... is the result of that methodical skepticism which is the element of human freedom.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Philosophy, Progress, Atheism

  10 Copy quote

• The essence of belief is the establishment of a habit; and different beliefs are distinguished by the different modes of action to which they give rise.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Essence, Giving, Different

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1974). “Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce”, p.255, Harvard University Press

  30 Copy quote

• The opinion which is fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate, is what we mean by the truth, and the object represented in this opinion is the real. That is the way I would explain reality.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Real, Mean, Fate

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1991). “Peirce on Signs: Writings on Semiotic”, p.177, UNC Press Books

  33 Copy quote

• The universe ought to be presumed too vast to have any character.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Character, Ought, Universe

  Charles Sanders Peirce, Nathan Houser, Christian J.W. J. W. Kloesel (1992). “The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)”, p.183, Indiana University Press

  9 Copy quote

• Mathematics is distinguished from all other sciences except only ethics, in standing in no need of ethics.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Math, Needs, Ethics

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1933). “Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce: Exact logic (Published papers).. The Simplest mathematics”, Harvard University Press

  9 Copy quote

• There never was a sounder logical maxim of scientific procedure than Ockham's razor: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. That is to say; before you try a complicated hypothesis, you should make quite sure that no simplification of it will explain the facts equally well.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Simplicity, Trying, Razors

  Charles Sanders Peirce, Patricia Ann Turrisi (1997). “Pragmatism as a Principle and Method of Right Thinking: The 1903 Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism”, p.162, SUNY Press

  11 Copy quote

• True science is distinctively the study of useless things. For the useful things will get studied without the aid of scientific men. To employ these rare minds on such work is like running a steam engine by burning diamonds.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Running, Science, Men

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1974). “Collected Papers”, p.32, Harvard University Press

  8 Copy quote

• Mathematics is purely hypothetical: it produces nothing but conditional propositions.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Ontology, Logic, Mathematics

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1931). “Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce”

  10 Copy quote

Page 1 of 5

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin