Joseph Priestley Quotes

Quotes about:

• The wisdom of one generation will be folly in the next.

  Joseph Priestley

  Wisdom, Generations, Next

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• To me there is in happiness an element of self-forgetfulness. You lose yourself in something outside yourself when you are happy; just as when you are desperately miserable you are intensely conscious of yourself, are a solid little lump of ego weighing a ton.

  Joseph Priestley

  Happiness, Self, Justice

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• It is no use speaking in soft, gentle tones if everyone else is shouting.

  Joseph Priestley

  Communication, Squash, Use

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• I have procured air [oxygen] ... between five and six times as good as the best common air that I have ever met with.

  Joseph Priestley

  Science, Air, Oxygen

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• In completing one discovery we never fail to get an imperfect knowledge of others of which we could have no idea before, so that we cannot solve one doubt without creating several new ones.

  Joseph Priestley

  Knowledge, Discovery, Ideas

  Joseph Priestley (1780). “The theological and miscellaneous works of Joseph Priestley”, p.372

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• The more elaborate our means of our common sense is, the less the common sense it becomes.

  Joseph Priestley

  Mean, Common Sense, Common

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• In completing one discovery we never fail to get an imperfect knowledge of others.

  Joseph Priestley

  Knowledge, Science, Discovery

  Joseph Priestley (1780). “The theological and miscellaneous works of Joseph Priestley”, p.372

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• The feeling of it to my lungs was not sensibly different from that of common air; but I fancied that my breast felt peculiarly light and easy for some time afterwards. Who can tell but that, in time, this pure air may become a fashionable article in luxury. Hitherto only two mice and myself have had the privilege of breathing it.

  Joseph Priestley

  Science, Light, Air

  Joseph Priestley (1775). “Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air: Vol. II. By Joseph Priestley, ...”, p.102

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• The greater part of critics are parasites, who, if nothing had been written, would find nothing to write.

  Joseph Priestley

  Writing, Parasites, Critics

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• Every man, when he comes to be sensible of his natural rights, and to feel his own importance, will consider himself as fully equal to any other person whatever

  Joseph Priestley

  Men, Rights, Natural

  'An Essay on the First Principles of Government' (1768) pt. 1

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• When we say there is a GOD, we mean that there is an intelligent designing cause of what we see in the world around us, and a being who was himself uncaused.

  Joseph Priestley

  Mean, Intelligent, Design

  Joseph Priestley (1782). “Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion: To which is Prefixed, an Essay on the Best Method of Communicating Religious Knowledge to the Members of Christian Societies”, p.5

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• We should like to have some towering geniuses, to reveal us to ourselves in color and fire.

  Joseph Priestley

  Fire, Color, Genius

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• Could we have entered into the mind of Sir Isaac Newton, and have traced all the steps by which he produced his great works, we might see nothing very extraordinary in the process.

  Joseph Priestley

  Mind, Might, Steps

  Joseph Priestley, John Towill Rutt (1831). “The Theological and Miscellaneous Works. Ed. with Notes by John Towill Rutt”, p.346

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• This is unfortunately a world in which things find it difficult, frequently impossible, to live up to their names.

  Joseph Priestley

  Names, World, Impossible

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• Let us not... contend about merit , but let us all be intent on forwarding the common enterprize , and equally enjoy any progress we may make towards succeeding in it; and above all, let us acknowledge the guidance of that Great Being, who has put a spirit in man, and whose inspiration giveth him understanding .

  Joseph Priestley

  Inspiration, Men, Understanding

  Joseph Priestley (1790). “Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air and Other Branches of Natural Philosophy, Connected with the Subject ...: Being the Former Six Volumes Abridged and Methodized, with Many Additions”, p.43

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• How glorious, then, is the prospect, the reverse of all the past, which is now opening upon us, and upon the world. Government, we may now expect to see, not only in theory and in books but in actual practice, calculated for the general good, and taking no more upon it than the general good requires, leaving all men the enjoyment of as many of their natural rights as possible, and no more interfering with matters of religion, with men's notions concerning God, and a future state, than with philosophy, or medicine.

  Joseph Priestley

  Philosophy, Book, Past

  Joseph Priestley (1791). “Letters to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke: Occasioned by His Reflections on the Revolution in France, &c”, p.145, Birmingham

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• From the fame opinion of a soul distinct from the body came the practice of praying, first for the dead, and then to them with a long train of other absurd opinions, and superstitious practices.

  Joseph Priestley

  Practice, Long, Soul

  Joseph Priestley (1782). “An History of the Corruption of Christianity”, p.442

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• The mind of man can never be wholly barren. Through our whole lives we are subject to successive impressions; for, either new ideas are continually flowing in, or traces of the old ones are marked deeper. If, therefore, you be not acquiring good principles be assured that you are acquiring bad ones; if you be not forming virtuous habits you are, how insensibly soever to yourselves, forming vicious ones.

  Joseph Priestley

  Men, Ideas, Mind

  Joseph Priestley, Henry Ware (1834). “Views of Christian truth, piety, and morality: selected from the writings of Dr. Priestley : with a memoir of his life”, p.171

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• The greater is the circle of light, the greater is the boundary of the darkness by which it is confined. But, notwithstanding this, the more light get, the more thankful we ought to be, for by this means we have the greater range for satisfactory contemplation. time the bounds of light will be still farther extended; and from the infinity of the divine nature, and the divine works, we may promise ourselves an endless progress in our investigation them: a prospect truly sublime and glorious.

  Joseph Priestley

  Nature, Mean, Science

  Joseph Priestley (1780). “The theological and miscellaneous works of Joseph Priestley”, p.373

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• It pleased God to make one nation the medium of all His communications with mankind: This the nation of the Jews has done to a considerable degree in all ages As civilization extended, they by one means or another became most wonderfully dispersed through all countries; and at this day they are almost literally everywhere, the most conspicuous, and in the eye of reason and religion, the most respectable nation on the face of the earth.

  Joseph Priestley

  Country, Communication, Mean

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• It is sufficiently evident from many circumstances, that the doctrine of the divinity of Christ did not establish itself without much opposition, especially from the unlearned among the Christians, who thought that it savoured of Polytheism , that it was introduced by those who had had a philosophical education, and was by degrees adopted by others, on account of its covering the great offence of the cross , by exalting the personal dignity of our Saviour.

  Joseph Priestley

  Christian, Philosophical, Divinity

  Joseph Priestley (1871). “A History of the Corruptions of Christianity”, p.19

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• We find upon all occasions, the early Christian writers speak of the Father as superior to the Son, and in general they give him the title of God , as distinguished from the Son; and sometimes they expressly call him, exclusively of the Son, the only true God ; a phraseology which does not at all accord with the idea of the perfect equality of all the persons in the Trinity. But it might well be expected, that the advances to the present doctrine of the Trinity should be gradual and slow. It was, indeed, some centuries before it was completely formed.

  Joseph Priestley

  Christian, Father, Son

  Joseph Priestley (1871). “A History of the Corruptions of Christianity”, p.16

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• But it is not given to every electrician to die in so glorious a manner as the justly envied Richmann.

  Joseph Priestley

  Science, Envy, Lightning

  Joseph Priestley (1966). “The History and Present State of Electricity: With Original Experiments. Reprinted from the 3d Ed., London, 1755, with an Appendix Containing Two Additional Papers of Original Experiments by the Author, and a New Introd. by Robert E. Shofield”

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• Too many christians have been chargeable with... confounding the Logos of Plato with that of John , and making of it a second person in the trinity, than which no two things can be more different.

  Joseph Priestley

  Christian, Plato, Two

  Joseph Priestley (1782). “An History of the Corruption of Christianity”, p.462

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• As I conceive this doctrine to be a gross misrepresentation of the character and moral government of God, and to affect many other articles in the scheme of Christianity, greatly disfiguring and depraving it; I shall show, ... that it has no countenance whatever in reason, or the Scriptures; and, therefore, that the whole doctrine of atonement, with every modification of it, has been a departure from the primitive and genuine doctrine of Christianity.

  Joseph Priestley

  Character, Government, Atheism

  "A History of the Corruptions of Christianity". Book by Joseph Priestley, Part II: Opinions Relating to the Doctrine of Atonement, Introduction, 1782.

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