
Source: 1800s, Auguries of Innocence (1803), Line 107
Source: 1800s, Auguries of Innocence (1803), Line 87
Source: 1800s, Auguries of Innocence (1803), Line 107
Book I, v, 8
The Advancement of Learning (1605)
Source: The Advancement Of Learning
Context: The two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two ways of action commonly spoken of by the ancients: the one plain and smooth in the beginning, and in the end impassable; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even. So it is in contemplation: If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.
“Wait, thou child of hope, for Time shall teach thee all things.”
Of Good in Things Evil.
Proverbial Philosophy (1838-1849)
The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Weight Of Authority
Context: In regard, then, to the sacred tradition of humanity, we learn that it consists, not in propositions or statements which are to be accepted and believed on the authority of the tradition, but in questions rightly asked, in conceptions which enable us to ask further questions, and in methods of answering questions. The value of all these things depends on their being tested day by day. The very sacredness of the precious deposit imposes upon us the duty and the responsibility of testing it, of purifying and enlarging it to the utmost of our power. He who makes use of its results to stifle his own doubts, or to hamper the inquiry of others, is guilty of a sacrilege which centuries shall never be able to blot out. When the labours and questionings of honest and brave men shall have built up the fabric of known truth to a glory which we in this generation can neither hope for nor imagine, in that pure and holy temple he shall have no part nor lot, but his name and his works shall be cast out into the darkness of oblivion for ever.
"The Orphan's Prayer", line 29; cited from Titus Strong (ed.) The Common Reader (Greenfield, Mass.: Denio & Phelps, 1819) p. 174.
“And better had they ne'er been born,
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.”
Source: The Monastery (1820), Ch. 12.
“I teach you the Overman. Man is something which shall be surpassed.”
Thus Spake Zarathustra.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Maxims
The Training of the Human Plant (1907)