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Controversy, though always an evil in itself, is sometimes a necessary evil.

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
Evil
Sometimes
Always
Controversy
Necessary
Though

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It is quite possible, and not uncommon, to read most laboriously, even so as to get by heart the words of a book, without really studying it at all,--that is, without employing the thoughts on the subject.
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The word of knowledge, strictly employed, implies three things: truth, proof, and conviction.
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Men are like sheep, of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one.
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Woman is like the reed which bends to every breeze, but breaks not in the tempest.
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Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.
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Of all hostile feelings, envy is perhaps the hardest to be subdued, because hardly any one owns it even to himself, but looks out for one pretext after another to justify his hostility.
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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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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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Of metaphors, those generally conduce most to energy or vivacity of style which illustrate an intellectual by a sensible object.
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Happiness is no laughing matter.
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Unless people can be kept in the dark, it is best for those who love the truth to give them the full light.
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Women never reason, or, if they do, they either draw correct inferences from wrong premises, or wrong inferences from correct premises and they always poke the fire from the top.
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Galileo probably would have escaped persecution if his discoveries could have been disproved.
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He that is not open to conviction is not qualified for discussion.
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To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.
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An instinct is a blind tendency to some mode of action, independent of any consideration, on the part of the agent, of the end to which the action leads.
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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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The tendency of party spirit has ever been to disguise and propagate and support error.
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Proverbs accordingly are somewhat analogous to those medical Formulas which, being in frequent use, are kept ready-made-up in the chemists’ shops, and which often save the framing of a distinct Prescription.
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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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