Quote

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
Blind
Mode
Independent
Agent
Action
Tendency
Ends
Consideration
Part
Tendencies
Agents
Leads
Instinct

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To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.
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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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Everyone wishes to have truth on his side, but not everyone wishes to be on the side of truth.
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The power of duly appreciating little things belongs to a great mind.
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One way in which fools succeed where wise men fail is that through ignorance of the danger they sometimes go coolly about a hazardous business.
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As hardly anything can accidentally touch the soft clay without stamping its mark on it, so hardly any reading can interest a child, without contributing in some degree, though the book itself be afterwards totally forgotten, to form the character.
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Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.
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He only is exempt from failures who makes no efforts.
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Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as attention is of memory.
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Galileo probably would have escaped persecution if his discoveries could have been disproved.
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The word of knowledge, strictly employed, implies three things: truth, proof, and conviction.
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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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Christianity, contrasted with the Jewish system of emblems, is truth in the sense of reality, as substance is opposed to shadows, and, contrasted with heathen mythology, is truth as opposed to falsehood.
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Geologists complain that when they want specimens of the common rocks of a country, they receive curious spars just so, historians give us the extraordinary events and omit just what we want,--the every-day life of each particular time and country.
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As the flower is before the fruit, so is faith before good works.
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He that is not open to conviction is not qualified for discussion.
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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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A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's.
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Some men's reputation seems like seed-wheat, which thrives best when brought from a distance.
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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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