--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Every conjecture we can form with regard…" description: "\"Every conjecture we can form with regard to the works of God has as little probability as the conjectures of a child with regard to the works of an adu..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1d9/thomas-reid-22153_adults_every-conjecture-we-can-form-with-regard_431990.jpg" --- # Every conjecture we can form with regard to the works of… ![“Every conjecture we can form with regard to the works of God has as little probability as the conjectures of a child with regard to the works of an adult.” quote by Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1d9/thomas-reid-22153_adults_every-conjecture-we-can-form-with-regard_431990.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1d9/thomas-reid-22153_adults_every-conjecture-we-can-form-with-regard_431990.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1d9/thomas-reid-22153_adults_every-conjecture-we-can-form-with-regard_431990.jpg) > “Every conjecture we can form with regard to the works of God has as little probability as the conjectures of a child with regard to the works of an adult.” [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Human attempts to understand divine actions are as naïve as a child's guesses about adult behavior. **In simple terms:** We can't reliably guess God's ways. Key Takeaway Accept our epistemic limits. Themes humility knowledge theology Mood thoughtful reflective Type philosophical theological When to use this quote - theological debate - personal faith - academic study Key Concepts epistemology divine mystery Questions to Reflect On - How does acknowledging ignorance affect belief? - Can humility improve theological discourse? A Different Perspective Our limited perspective may miss deeper truths. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Adults](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/adults/) [Children](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/children/) [Conjecture](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/conjecture/) [Conjectures](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/conjectures-2021424/) [Conjectures Child](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/conjectures-child-3805979/) [Form](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/form/) [God](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/god/) [Little Probability](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/little-probability-3805980/) [Littles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/littles/) [Probability](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/probability/) [Probability Conjectures](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/probability-conjectures-3805981/) [Regard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/regard/) ## Related quotes > [I desire that your conjectures should not reach beyond your creative will. Could you create a god? Then do not speak to me of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/i-desire-that-your-conjectures-should-not-reach-beyond-your-creative/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [There are always so many conjectures as to the issue of any event that, whatever the outcome, there will always be people to say:…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/there-are-always-so-many-conjectures-as-to-the-issue-of-any-event/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) > [I shall not mingle conjectures with certainties.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isaac-newton/i-shall-not-mingle-conjectures-with-certainties/) [Isaac Newton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isaac-newton/) > [Rumor is a pipe Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/rumor-is-a-pipe-blown-by-surmises-jealousies-conjectures/) [William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/) > [So in this case, Kalamas, don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gautama-buddha/so-in-this-case-kalamas-don-t-go-by-reports-by-legends-by-traditions/) [Gautama Buddha](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gautama-buddha/) > [“What we have, in fact, is not a theory at all but a large collection of approximate calculations, together with a web of conjectures…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lee-smolin/what-we-have-in-fact-is-not-a-theory-at-all-but-a-large-collection-of/) [Lee Smolin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lee-smolin/) > [“Let us not make random conjectures about the greatest matters.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/heraclitus/let-us-not-make-random-conjectures-about-the-greatest-matters/) [Heraclitus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/heraclitus/) > [“But of course these conjectures as to why God does what He does are probably of no more value than my dog's ideas of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/c-s-lewis-2/but-of-course-these-conjectures-as-to-why-god-does-what-he-does-are/) [C.S. Lewis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/c-s-lewis-2/) > [“The Presidency alone unites the conjectures of the public.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-madison/the-presidency-alone-unites-the-conjectures-of-the-public/) [James Madison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-madison/) > [“I don't answer questions about conjectures.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-graves/i-don-t-answer-questions-about-conjectures/) [Robert Graves](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-graves/) > [Every theory in philosophy, which is built on pure conjecture, is an elephant; and every theory that is supported partly by fact, and partly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/every-theory-in-philosophy-which-is-built-on-pure-conjecture-is-an/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [The wisdom of God exceeds that of the wisest man, more than his wisdom exceeds that of a child. If a child were to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/the-wisdom-of-god-exceeds-that-of-the-wisest-man-more-than-his-wisdom/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [From the almost total absence of fossil evidence relative to the origin of the phyla, it follows that any explanation of the mechanism in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-paul-grasse/from-the-almost-total-absence-of-fossil-evidence-relative-to-the/) [Pierre-Paul Grasse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-paul-grasse/) > [ The classes of problems which are respectively known and not known to have good algorithms are of great theoretical interest. \[...\] I conjecture that… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-edmonds/the-classes-of-problems-which-are-respectively-known-and-not-known-to/) [Jack Edmonds](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-edmonds/) > [But there are times when men have serious thoughts, and it is at such times, when they begin to think, that they begin to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-paine/but-there-are-times-when-men-have-serious-thoughts-and-it-is-at-such/) [Thomas Paine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-paine/) ## More by Thomas Reid > [The want of faith, as well as faith itself, is best shewn by works. If a sceptic avoid the fire as much as those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/the-want-of-faith-as-well-as-faith-itself-is-best-shewn-by-works-if-a/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [Every man feels that perception gives him an invincible belief of the existence of that which he perceives; and that this belief is not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/every-man-feels-that-perception-gives-him-an-invincible-belief-of-the/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [We find sects and parties in most branches of science; and disputes which are carried on from age to age, without being brought to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/we-find-sects-and-parties-in-most-branches-of-science-and-disputes/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [When we contemplate the world of Epicurus, and conceive the universe to be a fortuitous jumble of atoms, there is nothing grand in this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/when-we-contemplate-the-world-of-epicurus-and-conceive-the-universe/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [It is a question of fact, whether the influence of motives be fixed by laws of nature, so that they shall always have the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/it-is-a-question-of-fact-whether-the-influence-of-motives-be-fixed-by/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [The rules of navigation never navigated a ship. The rules of architecture never built a house.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/the-rules-of-navigation-never-navigated-a-ship-the-rules-of/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words. To this chiefly it is owing that we find…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/there-is-no-greater-impediment-to-the-advancement-of-knowledge-than/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [But when, in the first setting out, he takes it for granted without proof, that distinctions found in the structure of all languages, have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/but-when-in-the-first-setting-out-he-takes-it-for-granted-without/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [For, until the wisdom of men bear some proportion to the wisdom of God, their attempts to find out the structure of his works,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/for-until-the-wisdom-of-men-bear-some-proportion-to-the-wisdom-of-god/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/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 transferred to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/for-the-perception-of-the-beautiful-we-have-the-term-taste-a-metaphor/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [And, if we have any evidence that the wisdom which formed the plan is in the man, we have the very same evidence, that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/and-if-we-have-any-evidence-that-the-wisdom-which-formed-the-plan-is/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [must acknowledge, that to act properly is much more valuable than to think justly or reason acutely.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/must-acknowledge-that-to-act-properly-is-much-more-valuable-than-to/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [I sit in my loft with the haves and look out at the have-nots - the bottom of the bottom - and I have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/i-sit-in-my-loft-with-the-haves-and-look-out-at-the-have-nots-the/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/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 discourse upon… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/i-f-a-man-bred-to-the-seafaring-life-and-accustomed-to-think-and-talk/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) > [It is the invaluable merit of the great Basle mathematician Leonard Euler, to have freed the analytical calculus from all geometric bounds, and thus…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-reid/it-is-the-invaluable-merit-of-the-great-basle-mathematician-leonard/) [Thomas Reid](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) [Explore all 28 Thomas Reid quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-reid/) ## More Adults quotes > [I am certain that children always know more than they are able to tell, and that makes the big difference between them and adults,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jacques-lusseyran/i-am-certain-that-children-always-know-more-than-they-are-able-to/) [Jacques Lusseyran](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jacques-lusseyran/) > [Behind every successful child is an adult who believed in him.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-warren/behind-every-successful-child-is-an-adult-who-believed-in-him/) [Rick Warren](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rick-warren/) > [Gratitude isn't just a feeling, it's an action. 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Hitting your kid is really the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zach-braff/the-thing-about-hitting-kids-is-think-about-if-you-were-doing-the/) [Zach Braff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/zach-braff/) > [Plainly, the environment must be a living one, directed by a higher intelligence, arranged by an adult who is prepared for his mission.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maria-montessori/plainly-the-environment-must-be-a-living-one-directed-by-a-higher/) [Maria Montessori](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maria-montessori/) > [Almost everywhere we find . . . the use of various coercive measures, to rid ourselves as quickly as possible of the child withinus--i.e.,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alice-miller/almost-everywhere-we-find-the-use-of-various-coercive-measures-to-rid/) [Alice Miller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alice-miller/) > [Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society . . . but for me…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-piaget/education-for-most-people-means-trying-to-lead-the-child-to-resemble/) [Jean Piaget](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-piaget/) > [I do not believe in public shaming. I do believe that young adults go to college to learn things, and that this process will…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gene-weingarten/i-do-not-believe-in-public-shaming-i-do-believe-that-young-adults-go/) [Gene Weingarten](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gene-weingarten/) > [The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance”: “The differences between expert performers and normal adults are not immutable, that is,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/k-anders-ericsson/the-role-of-deliberate-practice-in-the-acquisition-of-expert/) [K. 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