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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.
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
Agents
Leads
Instinct
Blind
Mode
Independent
Agent
Action
Tendency
Ends
Consideration
Part
Tendencies
More quotes by Richard Whately
Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.
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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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It is a remarkable circumstance in reference to cunning persons that they are often deficient not only in comprehensive, far-sighted wisdom, but even in prudent, cautious circumspection.
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The happiest lot for a man, as far as birth is concerned, is that it should be such as to give him but little occasion to think much about it.
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Woman is like the reed which bends to every breeze, but breaks not in the tempest.
Richard Whately
Some men's reputation seems like seed-wheat, which thrives best when brought from a distance.
Richard Whately
Of metaphors, those generally conduce most to energy or vivacity of style which illustrate an intellectual by a sensible object.
Richard Whately
The first requisite of style, not only in rhetoric, but in all compositions, is perspicuity.
Richard Whately
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.
Richard Whately
When men have become heartily wearied of licentious anarchy, their eagerness has been proportionately great to embrace the opposite extreme of rigorous despotism.
Richard Whately
Nothing but the right can ever be expedient, since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a great good to a less.
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If all our wishes were gratified, most of our pleasures would be destroyed.
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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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The power of duly appreciating little things belongs to a great mind.
Richard Whately
Though not always called upon to condemn ourselves, it is always safe to suspect ourselves.
Richard Whately
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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Controversy, though always an evil in itself, is sometimes a necessary evil.
Richard Whately
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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It is worth noticing that those who assume an imposing demeanor and seek to pass themselves off for something beyond what they are, are not unfrequently as much underrated by some as overrated by others.
Richard Whately
There is no right faith in believing what is true, unless we believe it because it is true.
Richard Whately