George Berkeley Quotes - Page 2

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Every knave is a thorough knave, and a thorough knave is a knave throughout.

George Berkeley

Knavery, Knaves, Thorough

George Berkeley (1837). “Works: Account of His Life and Letters”, p.362

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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

Philosophical, Ideas, Long

George Berkeley (1843). “The Works of George Berkeley: Including His Letters to Thomas Prior, Dean Gervais, Mr. Pope, Etc. : to which is Prefixed an Account of His Life”, p.85

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Whatever is immediately perceived is an idea: and can any idea exist out of the mind?

George Berkeley

Ideas, Mind

1713 Three Dialogues between Hylas And Philonous, first dialogue.

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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

Mean, Sleep, Men

George Berkeley (2013). “Principles of Human Knowledge”, p.27, Simon and Schuster

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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

Education, Wise, Fashion

"A Discourse Addressed to Magistrates and Men in Authority: Occasioned by the Enormous License, and Irreligion of the Times". Book by George Berkeley, 1738.

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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

Real, Mind, Existence

George Berkeley (2008). “Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous: Easyread Comfort Edition”, p.129, ReadHowYouWant.com

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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

Beauty, Beautiful, Eye

George Berkeley (1752). “Alciphron: Or, The Minute Philosopher. In Seven Dialogues Containing an Apology for the Christian Religion Against Those who are Called Free-thinkers”, p.112

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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

God, Stars, Fall

George Berkeley (2015). “Principles of Human Knowledge: Human Understanding”, p.134, 谷月社

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The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.

George Berkeley

Men, Views, Common Sense

George Berkeley (1949). “Works”

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[Christianity] neither enjoins the nastiness of the Cynic, nor the insensibility of the Stoic.

George Berkeley

Nastiness, Christianity, Cynicism

George Berkeley (1871). “Alciphron: or, The minute philosopher. 1732. Siris. 1744”, p.178

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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

Philosophy, Math, Thinking

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge introduction, sec. 3 (1710)

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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, Ideas, Imagination

George Berkeley (2015). “Principles of Human Knowledge: Human Understanding”, p.17, 谷月社

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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

Thinking, Ideas, Perception

George Berkeley (1837). “Works: Account of His Life and Letters”, p.69

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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

Substance, Deny, Should

George Berkeley, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (2007). “Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous”, p.95, Lulu.com

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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

Thinking, Body, Might

George Berkeley (2015). “Principles of Human Knowledge: Human Understanding”, p.22, 谷月社

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Religion is the centre which unites, and the cement which connects the several parts of members of the political body.

George Berkeley

Political, Religion, Body

George Berkeley (1752). “A Miscellany, Containing Several Tracts on Various Subjects”, p.67

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What doubts, what hypotheses, what labyrinths of amusement, what fields of disputation, what an ocean of false learning, may be avoided by that single notion of immaterialism!

George Berkeley

Ocean, Doubt, Labyrinth

George Berkeley (1871). “The Works of George Berkeley”, p.356

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For my own private satisfaction, I had rather be master of my own time than wear a diadem.

George Berkeley

Independence, Satisfaction, Masters

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Whose fault is it if poor Ireland still continues poor?

George Berkeley

Faults, Poor, Stills

1737 The Querist, pt.3.

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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, Thinking, People

George Berkeley, Joseph Stock (1843). “The Works of George Berkeley, D.D., Bishop of Cloyne: Including His Letters to Thomas Prior, Esq., Dean Gervais, Mr. Pope, &c., &c. ; to which is Prefixed an Account of His Life”, p.527

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There being in the make of an English mind a certain gloom and eagerness, which carries to the sad extreme; religion to fanaticism; free-thinking to atheism; liberty to rebellion.

George Berkeley

Sad, Thinking, Mind

George Berkeley, Alexander Campbell Fraser (1732). “The Works of George Berkeley, D.D., Formerly Bishop of Cloyne: Philosophical works, 1732-33: Alciphron. The theory of vision”, p.142

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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

Eye, Long, Glimpse

George Berkeley (1871). “Life and letters”, p.297

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I might as well doubt of my own being, as of the being of those things I actually see and feel.

George Berkeley

Doubt, Might, Existence

George Berkeley, Desmond M. Clarke (2008). “Berkeley: Philosophical Writings”, p.211, Cambridge University Press

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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

Men, Ideas, May

George Berkeley, Joseph Stock (1843). “The Works of George Berkeley, D.D., Bishop of Cloyne: Including His Letters to Thomas Prior, Esq., Dean Gervais, Mr. Pope, &c., &c. ; to which is Prefixed an Account of His Life”, p.203

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Atheism ... that bugbear of women and fools ... is the very top and perfection of free-thinking. It is the grand arcanum to which a true genius naturally riseth, by a certain climax or gradation of thought, and without which he can never possess his soul in absolute liberty and repose.

George Berkeley

Thinking, Perfection, Soul

George Berkeley (1901). “The Works of George Berkeley ...: Philosophical works, 1732-33: Alciphron. The theory of vision”

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Born: March 12, 1685
Died: January 12, 1753
Occupation: Philosopher
Cite this Page: Citation

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