41 Quotes by William Kingdon Clifford

We feel much happier and more secure when we think we know precisely what to do, no matter what happens, then when we have lost our way and do not know where to turn.

To know all about anything is to know how to deal with it under all circumstances.

We may always depend on it that algebra, which cannot be translated into good English and sound common sense, is bad algebra.

There is no scientific discoverer, no poet, no painter, no musician, who will not tell you that he found ready made his discovery or poem or picture — that it came to him from outside, and that he did not consciously create it from within.

The rule which should guide us in such cases is simple and obvious enough: that the aggregate testimony of our neighbours is subject to the same conditions as the testimony of any one of them.

Our lives our guided by that general conception of the course of things which has been created by society for social purposes.

To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

An atmosphere of beliefs and conceptions has been formed by the labours and struggles of our forefathers, which enables us to breathe amid the various and complex circumstances of our life.

Nor is it that truly a belief at all which has not some influence upon the actions of him who holds it.