Alan Greenspan (1926) 13th Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the United States
Gold and Economic Freedom http://www.constitution.org/mon/greenspan_gold.htm 1966 <br class="br">1950–60s
John Ramsay McCulloch (1848; 156), cited in: Roderick Floud, et al. (2014), The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain, Volume 1. p. 363
Alan Greenspan (1926) 13th Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the United States
Gold and Economic Freedom http://www.constitution.org/mon/greenspan_gold.htm 1966 <br class="br">1950–60s
David Hume book A Treatise of Human Nature
Part 4, Section 7
A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), Book 1: Of the understanding
Context: This deficiency in our ideas is not, indeed, perceived in common life, nor are we sensible, that in the most usual conjunctions of cause and effect we are as ignorant of the ultimate principle, which binds them together, as in the most unusual and extraordinary. But this proceeds merely from an illusion of the imagination; and the question is, how far we ought to yield to these illusions. This question is very difficult, and reduces us to a very dangerous dilemma, whichever way we answer it. For if we assent to every trivial suggestion of the fancy; beside that these suggestions are often contrary to each other; they lead us into such errors, absurdities, and obscurities, that we must at last become asham'd of our credulity. Nothing is more dangerous to reason than the flights of the imagination, and nothing has been the occasion of more mistakes among philosophers. Men of bright fancies may in this respect be compar'd to those angels, whom the scripture represents as covering their eyes with their wings. This has already appear'd in so many instances, that we may spare ourselves the trouble of enlarging upon it any farther.
James Martineau (1805–1900) English religious philosopher
Source: Hours of Thought on Sacred Things (1879), p. 190.
“All these philosophers are no more than surgeons.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist
Elizabeth Hand (1957) American writer
Strange Horizons interview (2004)
Context: Faeries might have been wandering around in Victorian England. I can believe that. But it is a more difficult thing to think that they might be wandering around Camden Town now.
It is more of a jump, but I find that more interesting in many ways. The irruption of the supernatural into our world is a much more enticing notion to explore than the same thing happening in some past time, or in a wholly imaginary world.
Joseph Conrad book Under Western Eyes
Pt. I
Under Western Eyes (1911)
Context: Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality. I have been for many years a teacher of languages. It is an occupation which at length becomes fatal to whatever share of imagination, observation, and insight an ordinary person may be heir to. To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not much more wonderful than a parrot.
“All empire is no more than power in trust.”
John Dryden Absalom and Achitophel
Pt. I line 411.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher
“Choose Your Issues,” The Objectivist Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1962)
John Dalton (1766–1844) English chemist, meteorologist and physicist
Meteorological Observations and Essays: Mit Tabellen, 1834 p. 18
Rab Butler (1902–1982) British politician
About the Industrial Charter (Conservative Political Centre, 1947), p. 6.