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Neither human applause nor human censure is to be taken as the best of truth but either should set us upon testing ourselves.

Richard Whately

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Richard Whately
Age: 76 †
Born: 1787
Born: February 1
Died: 1863
Died: October 8
Economist
Philosopher
Priest
Theologian
London
England
Best
Censure
Human
Applause
Humans
Testing
Neither
Either
Taken
Upon
Truth

More quotes by Richard Whately

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The tendency of party spirit has ever been to disguise and propagate and support error.
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The power of duly appreciating little things belongs to a great mind.
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The more secure we feel against our liability to any error to which, in fact, we are liable, the greater must be our danger of falling into it.
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All gaming, since it implies a desire to profit at the expense of another, involves a breach of the tenth commandment.
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Woman is like the reed which bends to every breeze, but breaks not in the tempest.
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Better too much form than too little.
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It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.
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No one complains of the rules of Grammar as fettering Language because it is understood that correct use is not founded on Grammar, but Grammar on correct use. A just system of Logic or of Rhetoric is analogous, in this respect, to Grammar.
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That is suitable to a man, in point of ornamental expense, not which he can afford to have, but which he can afford to lose.
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All frauds, like the wall daubed with untempered mortar ... always tend to the decay of what they are devised to support.
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The love of admiration leads to fraud, much more than the love of commendation but, on the other hand, the latter is much more likely to spoil our: good actions by the substitution of an inferior motive.
Richard Whately
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The word of knowledge, strictly employed, implies three things: truth, proof, and conviction.
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If all our wishes were gratified, most of our pleasures would be destroyed.
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Some persons follow the dictates of their conscience only in the same sense in which a coachman may be said to follow the horses he is driving.
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To follow imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted traditions, in order to avoid erring in our own judgment, is but to exchange one danger for another.
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Happiness is no laughing matter.
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It is folly to expect men to do all that they may reasonably be expected to do.
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There is no right faith in believing what is true, unless we believe it because it is true.
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The heathen mythology not only was not true, but was not even supported as true it not only deserved no faith, but it demanded none. The very pretension to truth, the very demand of faith, were characteristic distinctions of Christianity.
Richard Whately
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Ethical maxims are bandied about as a sort of current coin of discourse, and, being never melted down for use, those that are of base metal are never detected.
Richard Whately