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?
George BerkeleyRead
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.
Interpretation
True freedom comes from independent thought rather than mere discussion or action about liberty.
George Berkeley's quote emphasizes that while many people may discuss and advocate for liberty, the essence of true freedom lies in the ability to think freely and independently. It suggests that external actions or discussions about freedom are meaningless if one is not genuinely free in their own thoughts and beliefs.
In practice
In a debate about personal liberties, I quoted Berkeley to highlight the importance of independent thought.
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.
A ray of imagination or of wisdom may enlighten the universe, and glow into remotest centuries.
My faceless neighbor spoke up: βDonβt be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock strikes twelve.β I exploded: βWhat do you care what he said? Would you want us to consider him a prophet? His cold eyes stared at me. At last he said, wearily: βI have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.
This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-Paradise.
It's possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way.
If this glorious birth to death hassle is the only hassle we are ever to have ..if our grand exhilarating fight of life is such a tragically short little scrap anyway,compared to the eons of rounds before and after-then why should one want to relinquish even a few precious seconds of it?
I may not be better than other people, but at least I'm different.
There are certain things that our age needs, and certain things that it should avoid. It needs compassion and a wish that mankind should be happy; it needs the desire for knowledge and the determination to eschew pleasant myths; it needs, above all, courageous hope and the impulse to creativeness.
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