It is not impossible to think that the minds of philosophers sometimes act like those of other mortals, and that, having once been determined by diverse circumstances to adopt certain views, they then look for and naturally find reasons to justify these views.

If a philosophic theory is once ruled out of court, no one can tell when it will appear again.

Wisdom is not to be obtained from textbooks, but must be coined out of human experience in the flame of life.

The business of the philosopher is well done if he succeeds in raising genuine doubt.

Lastly, literature and philosophy both allow past idols to be resurrected with a frequency which would be truly distressing to a sober scientist.

It has generally been assumed that of two opposing systems of philosophy, e.g., realism and idealism, one only can be true and one must be false; and so philosophers have been hopelessly divided on the question, which is the true one.

Inertia is the first law of history, as it is of physics.