Others indeed may talk, and write, and fight about liberty, and make an outward pretence to it but the free-thinker alone is truly free.
George BerkeleyRead
Few men think, yet all will have opinions.
Interpretation
Most people have opinions without taking the time to think critically.
George Berkeley's quote highlights the tendency of individuals to form opinions without engaging in deep thought or consideration. It suggests that while many may express their beliefs and viewpoints, a limited number truly reflect on the implications and reasoning behind them, pointing to the importance of critical thinking in developing informed opinions.
In practice
This quote can be used to encourage critical thinking in a classroom discussion.
Others indeed may talk, and write, and fight about liberty, and make an outward pretence to it but the free-thinker alone is truly free.
To be is to be perceived (Esse est percipi)." Or, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few.
All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth - in a word, all those bodies which compose the frame of the world - have not any subsistence without a mind.
The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.
Many things, for aught I know, may exist, whereof neither I nor any other man hath or can have any idea or notion whatsoever.
The test of the life of a saint is not success, but faithfulness in human life as it actually is.
Temporary delusions, prejudices, excitements, and objects have irresistible influence in mere questions of policy. And the policy of one age may ill suit the wishes or the policy of another. The constitution is not subject to such fluctuations. It is to have a fixed, uniform, permanent construction. It should be, so far at least as human infirmity will allow, not dependent upon the passions or parties of particular times, but the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
Prayer is an august avowal of ignorance.
There is a tradition of opposition between adherents of induction and of deduction. In my view it would be just as sensible for the two ends of a worm to quarrel.
I am Charles Mingus, half black man, not even white enough to pass for nothing but black. I am Charles Mingus, a famed jazzman, but not famed enough to make a living in this society.
The fundamental issue is the moral issue.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.