The Philosophy of Misery (1846)
Context: Before entering upon the subject-matter of these new memoirs, I must explain an hypothesis which will undoubtedly seem strange, but in the absence of which it is impossible for me to proceed intelligibly: I mean the hypothesis of a God.
To suppose God, it will be said, is to deny him. Why do you not affirm him?
Is it my fault if belief in Divinity has become a suspected opinion; if the bare suspicion of a Supreme Being is already noted as evidence of a weak mind; and if, of all philosophical Utopias, this is the only one which the world no longer tolerates? Is it my fault if hypocrisy and imbecility everywhere hide behind this holy formula?
Source: Father and Child Reunion (2001), p. 93.
Source: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
“And he that does one fault at first
And lies to hide it, makes it two.”
Song 15. Compare: "Dare to be true: nothing can need a lie; A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby", George Herbert, The Church Porch.
1710s, Divine Songs Attempted in the Easy Language of Children (1715)
“Ignorance often hides behind an attitude.”
Original: L’ignoranza spesso si nasconde dietro un atteggiamento.
Source: prevale.net
“A technicality I'm prepared to hide wildly behind.”
Source: Storm Front
“Prejudice is a product of ignorance that hides behind barriers of tradition.”
Source: The Fourth Bear
“Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.”
No. 35, "Light Shining out of Darkness".
Olney Hymns (1779)
“Whenever the truth threatens, he hides behind a thought.”
J. Agee, trans. (1989), p. 22
Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock] (1987)
