Quotes from book
A History of Freedom of Thought

Name: A History of Freedom of Thought
Author: J. B. Bury

J. B. Bury

It is a common saying that thought is free. A man can never be hindered from thinking whatever he chooses so long as he conceals what he thinks. The working of his mind is limited only by the bounds of his experience and the power of his imagination. In this book J.B. Bury examines the freedom of thought throughout history from ancient times to the beginning of the 20th century. Contents: Reason Free (Greece And Rome) Reason in Prison (The Middle Ages) Prospect of Deliverance (The Renaissance and the Reformation) Religious Toleration The Growth of Rationalism (Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries) The Progress of Rationalism (Nineteenth Century) The Justification of Liberty of Thought

“Most beliefs about nature and man, which were not founded on scientific observation, have served directly or indirectly religious and social interests, and hence they have been protected by force against the criticisms of persons who have the inconvenient habit of using their reason.”

J. B. Bury book A History of Freedom of Thought

p.17 http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t71v5g25n;view=1up;seq=21
A History of Freedom of Thought (1913)

“It has been said that Homer was the Bible of the Greeks. The remark exactly misses the truth. The Greeks fortunately had no Bible, and this fact was both an expression and an important condition of their freedom. Homer's poems were secular, not religious, and it may be noted that they are freer from immorality and savagery than sacred books that one could mention.”

J. B. Bury book A History of Freedom of Thought

p. 24 http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t71v5g25n;view=1up;seq=28
A History of Freedom of Thought (1913)

“Socrates was the greatest of the educationalists”

J. B. Bury book A History of Freedom of Thought

p. 30 http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t71v5g25n;view=1up;seq=34
A History of Freedom of Thought (1913)
Context: Socrates was the greatest of the educationalists, but unlike the others he taught gratuitously, though he was a poor man. His teachings always took the form of discussion; the discussion often ended in no positive result, but had the effect of showing that some received opinion was untenable and the truth is difficult to ascertain.