Degrees Quotes - Page 32

• . . . the Christian Mind has succumbed to the secular drift with a degree of weakness unmatched in Christian History.

  Harry Blamires

  Christian, Mind, Weakness

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• The learned and the studious of thought have no monopoly of wisdom. Their violence of direction in some degree disqualifies them to think truly.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Thinking, Violence, Monopoly

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.167, Penguin

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• It is the simple truth that man does differ from the brutes in kind and not in degree; and the proof of it is here; that it sounds like a truism to say that the most primitive man drew a picture of a monkey and that it sounds like a joke to say that the most intelligent monkey drew a picture of a man. Something of division and disproportion has appeared; and it is unique. Art is the signature of man.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Art, Intelligent, Unique

  "The Everlasting Man". Book by Gilbert K. Chesterton, Part I: On the Creature Called Man, 1925.

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• The truth is that it is our attitude towards children that is right, and our attitude towards grown-up people that is wrong. Our attitude towards our equals in age consists in a servile solemnity, overlying a considerable degree of indifference or disdain. Our attitude towards children consists in a condescending indulgence, overlying an unfathomable respect.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Children, Attitude, People

  "The Defendant". Book by G. K. Chesterton, 1901.

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• Is it true or false that Belfast is north of London? That the galaxy is the shape of a fried egg? That Beethoven was a drunkard? That Wellington won the battle of Waterloo? There are various degrees and dimensions of success in making statements: the statements fit the facts always more or less loosely, in different ways on different occasions for different intents and purposes.

  J. L. Austin

  Truth, Eggs, Battle

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• The difference of the degrees in which the individuals of a great community enjoy the good things of life has been a theme of declaration and discontent in all ages; and it is doubtless our paramount duty, in every state of society, to alleviate the pressure of the purely evil part of this distribution, as much as possible, and, by all the means we can devise, secure the lower links in the chain of society from dragging in dishonor and wretchedness.

  William Herschel

  Mean, Differences, Evil

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• Let the erring sisters depart in peace; the idea of getting up a civil war to compel the weaker States to remain in the Union appears to us horrible to the last degree.

  Jane Swisshelm

  Sister, War, Ideas

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• The present only is a man's possession; the past is gone out of his hand wholly, irrevocably. He may suffer from it, learn from it,--in degree, perhaps, expiate it; but to brood over it is utter madness.

  Dinah Maria Murlock Craik

  Regret, Past, Men

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• When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty - some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Ignorance, Order, Ignorant

  "The Value of Science". Richard P. Feynman's public address at the National Academy of Sciences, Autumn 1955.

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• A small degree of wit, accompanied by good sense, is less tiresome in the long run than a great amount of wit without it.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Running, Long, Wit

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• When a government is arrived to that degree of corruption as to be incapable of reforming itself, it would not lose much by being new moulded.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Government, Corruption, Incapable

  Charles de Secondat Montesquieu, baron de, Charles de Secondat baron de Montesquieu (2005). “The Spirit of Laws”, p.169, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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• The unconscious is not a demoniacal monster, but a natural entity which, as far as moral sense, aesthetic taste, and intellectual judgment go, is completely neutral.It only becomes dangerous when our conscious attitude to it is hopelessly wrong. To the degree that we repress it, its danger increases.

  Carl Jung

  Attitude, Intellectual, Monsters

  Carl Gustav Jung, Herbert Read, R. F.C. Hull (1954). “The practice of psychotherapy”, Bollingen

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• What finally emerges from the 'clear and present danger' cases is a working principle that the substantive evil must be extremely serious and the degree of imminence extremely high before utterances can be punished...It must be taken as a command of the broadest scope that explicit language, read in the context of a liberty-loving society, will allow.

  Hugo Black

  Taken, Evil, Justice

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• Every wanton and causeless restraint of the will of the subject, whether practiced by a monarch, a nobility, or a popular assembly, is a degree of tyranny.

  William Blackstone

  Assembly, Tyranny, Restraint

  Sir William Blackstone, John Fletcher Hargrave, George Sweet, Sir Richard Couch, William Newland Welsby (1852). “Commentaries on the Laws of England : in Four Books, with an Analysis of the Work”, p.126

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• In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Book, Army, Doctors

  Arthur Conan Doyle (2015). “A Study in Scarlet”, Arthur Conan Doyle

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• No man can possibly improve in any company for which he has not respect enough to be under some degree of restraint.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Men, Enough, Restraint

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.509

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• The most familiar and intimate habitudes, connections, friendships, require a degree of good-breeding both to preserve and cement them.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Friendship, Connections, Intimate

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.174, Oxford University Press

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• I have been too long acquainted with human nature to have great regard for human testimony; and a very great degree of probability, supported by various concurrent circumstances, conspiring in one point, will have much greater weight with me, than human testimony upon oath, or even upon honour; both of which I have frequently seen considerably warped by private views.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Truth, Views, Long

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.319, Oxford Paperbacks

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• Should you be unfortunate enough to have vices, you may, to a certain degree, even dignify them by a strict observance of decorum;at least they will lose something of their natural turpitude.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Vices, May, Enough

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.381, Oxford Paperbacks

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• A certain degree of fear produces the same effects as rashness.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Fear, Produce, Certain

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.629

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• In the mass of mankind, I fear, there is too great a majority of fools and knaves; who, singly from their number, must to a certain degree be respected, though they are by no means respectable.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Respect, Mean, Numbers

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.125, Oxford University Press

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• The greatest dangers have their allurements, if the want of success is likely to be attended with a degree of glory. Middling dangers are horrid, when the loss of reputation is the inevitable consequence of ill success.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Success, Loss, Want

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.628

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• Let this be one invariable rule of your conduct--never to show the least symptom of resentment, which you cannot, to a certain degree, gratify; but always to smile, where you cannot strike.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Smile, Patience, Resentment

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.302, Oxford University Press

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• I could wish there were a treaty made between the French and the English theatres, in which both parties should make considerableconcessions. The English ought to give up their notorious violations of the unities, and all their massacres, racks, dead bodies, and mangled carcasses, which they so frequently exhibit upon their stage. The French should engage to have more action, and less declamation, and not to cram and to crowd things together to almost a degree of impossibility from a too scrupulous adherence to the unities.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Giving Up, Party, Unity

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.248, Oxford Paperbacks

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• A certain degree of ceremony is a necessary outwork of manners, as well as of religion; it keeps the forward and petulant at a proper distance, and is a very small restraint to the sensible and to the well-bred part of the world.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Distance, World, Manners

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