Inquiry and Essays Quotes

“Let scholastic sophisters entangle themselves in their own cobwebs; I am resolved to take my own existence, and the existence of other things, upon trust; and to believe that snow is cold, and honey sweet, whatever they may say to the contrary. He must either be a fool, or want to make a fool of me, that would reason me out of my reason and senses.”
― Thomas Reid, Thomas Reid's Inquiry and Essays

“If there are certain principles, as I think there are, which the' constitution of our nature leads us to believe, and which we are under a necessity to take for granted in the common concerns of life,' without being able to give a reason for them; these are what we call the principles of common sense; and what is manifestly contrary to them, is what we call absurd.”
― Thomas Reid, Thomas Reid's Inquiry and Essays

“I confess I know not what a sceptic can answer to this, nor by what good argument he can plead even for a hearing; for either his reasoning is sophistry, and so deserves contempt; or there is no truth in the human faculties, and then why should we reason?”
― Thomas Reid, Thomas Reid's Inquiry and Essays

“In this unequal contest betwixt common sense and philosophy, the latter will always come off both with dishonour and loss; nor can she ever thrive till this rivalship is dropped, these encroachments given up, and a cordial friendship restored: for in reality common sense holds nothing of philosophy, nor needs her aid. But, on the other hand, philosophy (if I may be permitted to change the metaphor) has no other root but the principles of common sense; it grows out of them, and draws its nourishment from them: severed from this root, its honours wither, its sap is dried up, it dies and rots.”
― Thomas Reid, Thomas Reid's Inquiry and Essays

“Des Cartes no sooner began to dig in this mine, than scepticism was ready to break in upon him. He did what he could to shut it out. Malebranche and Locke, who dug deeper, found the difficulty of keeping out this enemy still to increase; but they laboured honestly in the design. Then Berkeley, who carried on the work, despairing of securing all, bethought himself of an expedient:—By giving up the material world, which he thought might be spared without loss, and even with advantage, he hoped, by impregnable partition, to secure the world of spirits. But, alas! the “Treatise of Human Nature” wantonly sapped the foundation of this partition, and drowned all in one universal deluge.”
― Thomas Reid, Inquiry and Essays

“Thus we see, that Descartes and Locke take the road that leads to scepticism, without knowing the end of it; but they stop short for want of light to carry them farther. Berkeley, frightened at the appearance of the dreadful abyss, starts aside, and avoids it. But the author of the Treatise of human nature, more daring and intrepid, without turning aside to the right hand or to the left, like Virgil’s Alecto, shoots directly into the gulf.”
― Thomas Reid, Inquiry and Essays

“Thus we see, that Descartes and Locke take the road that leads to scepticism, without
knowing the end of it; but they stop short for want of light to carry them farther. Berkeley, frightened at the appearance of the dreadful abyss, starts aside, and avoids it. But the author of the Treatise of human nature, more daring and intrepid, without turning aside to the right hand or to the left, like Virgil’s Alecto, shoots directly into the gulf.”
― Thomas Reid, Inquiry and Essays

“Common sense and reason have both one author; that almighty Author, in all whose other works we observe a consistency, uniformity, and beauty, which charm and delight the understanding; there must therefore be some order and consistency in the human faculties, as well as in other parts of his workmanship.”
― Thomas Reid, Inquiry and Essays