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No two opinions exactly alike
“Never did two men judge alike about the same thing, and it is impossible to find two opinions exactly alike, not only in different men, but in the same man at different times.” III.13 “Of experience” (p. 995)
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No End to Research
“It is only personal weakness that makes us content with what others orourselves have found out in this hunt for knowledge. An abler man will not rest content with it. There is always room for a successor, yes, and for ourselves, and a road in another direction. There is no end to our researches; our…
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School of stupidity
“Isn’t that what we say, that the stupidity and lack of apprehension of the vulgar gives them this endurance of present troubles and this profound nonchalance about sinister accidents to come, that their souls, because they are thick and obtuse, are less penetrable and unstable? For Heaven’s sake, if that is so, let us henceforth…
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Opinions
“There is nothing on which men are commonly more intent than on making a way for their opinions.” Of Cripples. 957
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The goal of our career is death
“The goal of our career is death. It is the necessary object of our aim. If it frightens us, how is it possible to go forward without feverishness? The remedy of the common herd is not to think about it. But from what brutish stupidity can come so gross a blindness!” I.20 “That to philosophize…
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Better pleased with other’s things
“Among human characteristics, this one is rather common: to be better pleased with other people’s things than with our own, and to love movement and change.” III.9 “Of vanity” (p. 878)
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Fear from want of judgment
“Fear sometimes arises from want of judgment as well as from want of courage.” III. 6 “Coaches” (p. 832).
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The empty husks that strike us
“It takes little to divert and distract us, for it takes little to hold us. We scarcely look at things in gross and alone; it is the minute and superficial circumstances and notions that strike us, and the empty husks that peel off from the things…” III.4 “Of diversion” (p. 770)
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Cling to your own judgment
“There is no one but yourself who knows whether you are cowardly and cruel, or loyal and devout. Others do not see you, they guess at you by uncertain conjectures; they see not so much your nature as your art. Therefore do not cling to their judgment; cling to your own.” III.2 “Of repentance” (p.743)
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I portray passing
“I cannot keep my subject still. It goes along befuddled and staggering, with a natural drunkenness. I take it in this condition, just as it is at the moment I give my attention to it. I do not portray being: I portray passing.” III 2. “Of repentance” (p. 740).