Henry Thomas Buckle

Sir, the slowness of genius is hard to bear, but the slowness of mediocrity is insufferable.

— Henry Thomas Buckle

The actions of bad men produce only temporary evil, the actions of good men only temporary good ; and eventually the good…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

He who knows most believes the least.

— Henry Thomas Buckle

First doubt, then inquire, then discover. This has been the process with all our great thinkers.

— Henry Thomas Buckle

The clergy, with a few honorable exceptions, have in all modern countries been the avowed enemies of the diffusion of knowledge, the…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

Even in an advanced stage of civilization, there is always a tendency to prefer those parts of literature which favor ancient prejudices,…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

That the system of morals propounded in the New Testament contained no maxim which had not been previously enunciated, and that some…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

“You can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next, by the fact that their habit…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

“Unconscious, perhaps, of the remote tendency of his own labours, he [Joseph Black] undermined that doctrine of material heat, which he seemed…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

When the interval between the intellectual classes and the practical classes is too great, the former will possess no influence, the latter…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

If you can impress any man with an absorbing conviction of the supreme importance of some moral or religious doctrine; if you…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

The duty of a philosopher is clear. He must take every pain to ascertain the truth; and, having arrived at a conclusion,…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

The great enemy of knowledge is not error, but inertness. All that we want is discussion; and then we are sure to…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

The faculty of art is to change events; the faculty of science is to foresee them. The phenomena with which we deal…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

Men are made uneasy; they flinch; they cannot bear the sudden light; a general restlessness supervenes; the face of society is disturbed,…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

In 1776, the Americans laid before Europe that noble Declaration, which ought to be hung up in the nursery of every king,…

— Henry Thomas Buckle

Whenever a man boasts much about [his common sense], you may be pretty sure that he has very little sense, either common…

— Henry Thomas Buckle