F. H. Bradley Quotes

• The one self- knowledge worth having is to know one's own mind.

  F. H. Bradley

  Knowledge, Acceptance, Self

  "Aphorisms". Book by F. H. Bradley, No. 8, 1930.

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• The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness.

  F. H. Bradley

  Happiness, Secret, Admiration

  Aphorisms (1930) no. 33

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• I can myself conceive of nothing else than the experienced.

  F. H. Bradley

  I Can

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• His mind is so open - so open that ideas simply pass through it.

  F. H. Bradley

  Sarcastic, Ideas, Mind

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• The hunter for aphorisms on human nature has to fish in muddy water, and he is even condemned to find much of his own mind.

  F. H. Bradley

  Water, Mind, Hunters

  "Aphorisms". Book by F. H. Bradley, 1930.

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• It is good to know what a man is, and also what the world takes him for. But you do not understand him until you have learnt how he understands himself.

  F. H. Bradley

  Men, World, Knows

  F.H. Bradley, Carol Keene (1999). “F.H. Bradley: Miscellaneous Writings”, Thoemmes

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• The man who has ceased to fear has ceased to care.

  F. H. Bradley

  Fear, Men, Care

  "Aphorisms". Book by F. H. Bradley, No. 63., 1930.

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• The cost of a thing is what I call life which has to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

  F. H. Bradley

  Running, Long, Entrepreneur

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• Religion is rather the attempt to express the complete reality of goodness through every aspect of our being.

  F. H. Bradley

  Reality, Goodness, Aspect

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• Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe on instinct.

  F. H. Bradley

  Believe, Reason, Instinct

  Appearance and Reality (1893) preface

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• The deadliest foe to virtue would be complete self-knowledge.

  F. H. Bradley

  Self, Would Be, Virtue

  F.H. Bradley, Carol Keene (1999). “F.H. Bradley: Miscellaneous Writings”, Thoemmes

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• The world is the best of all possible worlds, and everything in it is a necessary evil.

  F. H. Bradley

  Evil, Optimism, World

  'Appearance and Reality' (1893) preface (on optimism)

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• An aphorism is true where it has fixed the impression of a genuine experience.

  F. H. Bradley

  Aphorism, Genuine, Fixed

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• The man whose nature is such that by one path alone his chief desire will reach consummation will try to find it on that path, whatever it may be, and whatever the world thinks of it; and if he does not, he is contemptible.

  F. H. Bradley

  Men, Thinking, Desire

  "Francis Herbert Bradley". Journal of Philosophy, 1925.

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• Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived. It is a pity that this is still the only knowledge of their wives at which some men seem to arrive.

  F. H. Bradley

  Men, Wife, Pity

  "Aphorisms". Book by F. H. Bradley, no. 94, 1930.

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• There are persons who, when they cease to shock us, cease to interest us.

  F. H. Bradley

  Gossip, Scandal, Shock

  "Aphorisms". Book by F. H. Bradley (Aphorism No. 20), 1930.

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• The propriety of some persons seems to consist in having improper thoughts about their neighbors.

  F. H. Bradley

  Neighbor, Propriety, Persons

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• We say that a girl with her doll anticipates the mother. It is more true, perhaps, that most mothers are still but children with playthings.

  F. H. Bradley

  Inspiring, Mothers Day, Girl

  "Aphorisms". Book by F. H. Bradley, No. 23, 1930.

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• The force of the blow depends on the resistance. It is sometimes better not to struggle against temptation. Either fly or yield at once.

  F. H. Bradley

  Struggle, Blow, Yield

  "Aphorisms". Book by F. H. Bradley, No. 75, 1930.

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• Eclecticism. Every truth is so true that any truth must be false.

  F. H. Bradley

  Fake People, Truth, People

  "Aphorisms". Book by F. H. Bradley (Aphorism No. 6), 1930.

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• True penitence condemns to silence. What a man is ready to recall he would be willing to repeat.

  F. H. Bradley

  Men, Silence, Would Be

  "Aphorisms". Book by F. H. Bradley (Aphorism No. 10), 1930.

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• Up to a certain point every man is what he thinks he is.

  F. H. Bradley

  Crazy, Men, Thinking

  F.H. Bradley, Carol Keene (1999). “F.H. Bradley: Miscellaneous Writings”, Thoemmes

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• My external sensations are no less private to my self than are my thoughts or my feelings. In either case my experience falls within my own circle, a circle closed on the outside... the whole world for each is peculiar and private to that soul.

  F. H. Bradley

  Fall, Self, Circles

  "Only a great writer can share the suffering of Auschwitz" by Andrew Brown, www.theguardian.com. June 9, 2014.

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• Reason teaches us that what is good is good for something, and that what is good for nothing is not good at all.

  F. H. Bradley

  Reason, Goodness, Teach

  F. H. Bradley (2012). “Ethical Studies”, p.53, Cambridge University Press

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• But when one has ceased to have them, too often one cannot.

  F. H. Bradley

  Suicide, Suicidal

  "Aphorisms". Book by F. H. Bradley, No. 48, 1930.

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