Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet Quotes & Sayings

Be sober, and to doubt prepense, These are the sinews of good sense. — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

The pursuit of knowledge is but a course between two ignorances, as human life is itself only a wayfaring from grave to grave. — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

Logic is the science of the laws of thought, as thought,
that is of the necessary conditions to which thought considered in itself is a subject. — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

There is a distinction, but no opposition, between theory and practice. Each to a certain extent supposes the other. Theory is dependent on practice; practice must have preceded theory. — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

In our natural body every part has a necessary sympathy with every other; and all together form, by their harmonious conspiration, a healthy whole. — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

Consummated science is positively humble. — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

An instinct is an agent which performs blindly and ignorantly a work of intelligence and knowledge. — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

Metaphysics, in whatever latitude the term be taken, is a science, or complement of sciences, exclusively occupied with mind. — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

Truth like a torch, the more 'tis shock, it shines. — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

A judgment is the mental act by which one thing is affirmed or denied of another. — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

There are two sorts of ignorance: we philosophize to escape ignorance; we start from the one, we repose in the other; they are the goals from which and to which we tend; and the pursuit of knowledge is but a course between two ignorances, as human life is only a traveling from grave to grave. — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet