Thomas Reid

The want of faith, as well as faith itself, is best shewn by works. If a sceptic avoid the fire as much…

— Thomas Reid

Every man feels that perception gives him an invincible belief of the existence of that which he perceives; and that this belief…

— Thomas Reid

We find sects and parties in most branches of science; and disputes which are carried on from age to age, without being…

— Thomas Reid

Every conjecture we can form with regard to the works of God has as little probability as the conjectures of a child…

— Thomas Reid

When we contemplate the world of Epicurus, and conceive the universe to be a fortuitous jumble of atoms, there is nothing grand…

— Thomas Reid

It is a question of fact, whether the influence of motives be fixed by laws of nature, so that they shall always…

— Thomas Reid

The rules of navigation never navigated a ship. The rules of architecture never built a house.

— Thomas Reid

There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words. To this chiefly it is owing that…

— Thomas Reid

But when, in the first setting out, he takes it for granted without proof, that distinctions found in the structure of all…

— Thomas Reid

For, until the wisdom of men bear some proportion to the wisdom of God, their attempts to find out the structure of…

— Thomas Reid

For the perception of the beautiful we have the term "taste"--a metaphor taken from that which is passive in the body and…

— Thomas Reid

And, if we have any evidence that the wisdom which formed the plan is in the man, we have the very same…

— Thomas Reid

must acknowledge, that to act properly is much more valuable than to think justly or reason acutely.

— Thomas Reid

I sit in my loft with the haves and look out at the have-nots - the bottom of the bottom - and…

— Thomas Reid

[I]f a man bred to the seafaring life, and accustomed to think and talk only of matters relating to navigation, enters into…

— Thomas Reid

It is the invaluable merit of the great Basle mathematician Leonard Euler, to have freed the analytical calculus from all geometric bounds,…

— Thomas Reid

A philosopher is, no doubt, entitled to examine even those distinctions that are to be found in the structure of all languages...…

— Thomas Reid

In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than that of the weakest link of…

— Thomas Reid

The wisdom of God exceeds that of the wisest man, more than his wisdom exceeds that of a child. If a child…

— Thomas Reid

In every case, we ought to act that part towards another, which we would judge to be right in him to act…

— Thomas Reid

A definition is nothing else but an explication of the meaning of a word, by words whose meaning is already known. Hence…

— Thomas Reid

I wanted to be a part of the downtown renaissance.

— Thomas Reid

The laws of nature are the rules according to which the effects are produced; but there must be a cause which operates…

— Thomas Reid

Every theory in philosophy, which is built on pure conjecture, is an elephant; and every theory that is supported partly by fact,…

— Thomas Reid

Every indication of wisdom, taken from the effect, is equally an indication of power to execute what wisdom planned.

— Thomas Reid