“When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon, than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths, or to reject absurdities, and palpable contradictions.”

Good Sense without God, or, Freethoughts Opposed to Supernatural Ideas (London: W. Stewart & Co., ca. 1900) ( Project Gutenberg e-text http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/gsens10.txt), preface
Translator unknown. Original publication in French at Amsterdam, 1772, as Le bon sens ("Common Sense"), and often attributed to John Meslier.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 10, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon, than common sense; or, in other words, they…" by Baron d'Holbach?
Baron d'Holbach photo
Baron d'Holbach 9
French-German author, philosopher, encyclopedist 1723–1789

Related quotes

Frank Lloyd Wright photo

“There is nothing more uncommon than common sense.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

Anonymous saying, dating back at least to its citation in Natural Theology (1836) by Thomas Chalmers, Bk. II, Ch. III : On the Strength of the Evidences for a God in the Phenomena of Visible and External Nature, § 15, where the author states: "It has been said that there is nothing more uncommon than common sense."; it has since become misattributed to particular people, including Frank Lloyd Wright.
Misattributed

Thomas Chalmers photo

“It has been said that there is nothing more uncommon than common sense.”

Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847) Scottish mathematician and a leader of the Free Church of Scotland

Natural Theology (1836), Bk. II, Ch. III : On the Strength of the Evidences for a God in the Phenomena of Visible and External Nature, § 15; though provided without attribution of author, the saying "There is nothing more uncommon than common sense" has since become misattributed to particular people, including Frank Lloyd Wright.

Thomas Paine photo

“I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

1770s, Common Sense (1776)

George Orwell photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Art

“In the first place I have an enormous regard for common sense. Any time we discover some great thing and it contradicts common sense, we better go back to the laboratory and check it.”

Harry Harlow (1905–1981) American psychologist

in interview with Carol Tavris, as cited in Love According To Harry Harlow http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/love-according-to-harry-harlow#.WE2jv33d7cs, t the Association for Psychological Science's Observer, by Deborah Blum, January 2012.

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Michel De Montaigne photo

“In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our word.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Book I, Ch. 9
Attributed

Herbert Hoover photo

“When we are sick, we want an uncommon doctor; when we have a construction job to do, we want an uncommon engineer, and when we are at war, we want an uncommon general. It is only when we get into politics that we are satisfied with the common man.”

Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st President of the United States of America

From an article originally published in the February 6, 1949 issue of "This Week" Magazine, from "Addresses Upon the American Road,Volume: Volume 8: 1955-1960." Developed in speech entitled "Moral and Spiritual Recovery from War" presented October 13, 1945, at 75th Anniversary of Wilson College at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. "The Crusade Years, 1933–1955: Herbert Hoover's Lost Memoir of the New Deal Era and Its Aftermath", edited by George Nash
The Uncommon Man

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

Related topics