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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.

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
Fire
Inferences
Wrong
Inference
Women
Poke
Reason
Premises
Always
Correct
Never
Draw
Draws
Either

More quotes by Richard Whately

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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.
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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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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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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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Though not always called upon to condemn ourselves, it is always safe to suspect ourselves.
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To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.
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He that is not open to conviction is not qualified for discussion.
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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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Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as attention is of memory.
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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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Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.
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It is also important to guard against mistaking for good-nature what is properly good-humor,--a cheerful flow of spirits and easy temper not readily annoyed, which is compatible with great selfishness.
Richard Whately
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Superstition is not, as has been defined, an excess of religious feeling, but a misdirection of it, an exhausting of it on vanities of man's devising.
Richard Whately
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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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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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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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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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The tendency of party spirit has ever been to disguise and propagate and support error.
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Men are like sheep, of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one.
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Everyone wishes to have truth on his side, but not everyone wishes to be on the side of truth.
Richard Whately