Henry Thomas Buckle Quotes

• Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Men, Average, Order

  "Haud Immemor: Reminiscences of Legal and Social Life in Edinburgh and London, 1850-1900". Book by Charles Stewart, p. 33, 1901.

  69 Copy quote

• The great enemy of knowledge is not error, but inertness. All that we want is discussion; and then we are sure to do well, no matter what our blunders may be. One error conflicts with another, each destroys its opponent, and truth is evolved.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Errors, Enemy, May

  Henry Thomas Buckle (1861). “History of civilization in England”, p.518

  13 Copy quote

• First doubt, then inquire, then discover. This has been the process with all our great thinkers.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Discovery, Doubt, Firsts

  13 Copy quote

• He who knows most believes the least.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Believe, Belief, Knows

  10 Copy quote

• Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Political, Preparation, Society

  17 Copy quote

• Sir, the slowness of genius is hard to bear, but the slowness of mediocrity is insufferable.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Genius, Mediocrity, Chess

  12 Copy quote

• The faculty of art is to change events; the faculty of science is to foresee them. The phenomena with which we deal are controlled by art; they are predicted by science.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Art, Science, Events

  Henry Thomas Buckle (1872). “The Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle”, p.4

  16 Copy quote

• Whenever a man boasts much about [his common sense], you may be pretty sure that he has very little sense, either common or uncommon.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Men, Common Sense, May

  4 Copy quote

• If you can impress any man with an absorbing conviction of the supreme importance of some moral or religious doctrine; if you can make him believe that those who reject that doctrine are doomed to eternal perdition; if you then give that man power, and by means of his ignorance blind him to the ulterior consequences of his own act,-he will infallibly persecute those who deny his doctrine.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Religious, Believe, Ignorance

  Henry Thomas Buckle (1865). “History of Civilization in England: In Five Volumes”, p.170

  8 Copy quote

• When the interval between the intellectual classes and the practical classes is too great, the former will possess no influence, the latter will reap no benefit.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Class, Intellectual, Benefits

  Henry Thomas Buckle (1862). “History of Civilization in England: From the 2d London Ed., to which is Added an Alphabetical Index”, p.193

  4 Copy quote

• The clergy, with a few honorable exceptions, have in all modern countries been the avowed enemies of the diffusion of knowledge, the danger of which to their own profession they, by a certain instinct, seem always to have perceived.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Country, Enemy, Atheism

  Henry Thomas Buckle (1872). “The Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle”, p.363

  6 Copy quote

• Even in an advanced stage of civilization, there is always a tendency to prefer those parts of literature which favor ancient prejudices, rather than those which oppose them; and in cases where this tendency is very strong, the only effect of great learning will be to supply the materials which may corroborate old errors and confirm old superstitions. In our time such instances are not uncommon; and we frequently meet with men whose erudition ministers to their ignorance, and who, the more they read the less they know.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Strong, Ignorance, Men

  Henry Thomas Buckle (1913). “History of Civilization in England”

  10 Copy quote

• The duty of a philosopher is clear. He must take every pain to ascertain the truth; and, having arrived at a conclusion, he should noise it abroad far and wide, utterly regardless of what opinions he shocks.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Pain, Noise, Opinion

  Henry Thomas Buckle (1861). “History of civilization in England”, p.476

  6 Copy quote

• That the system of morals propounded in the New Testament contained no maxim which had not been previously enunciated, and that some of the most beautiful passages in the apostolic writings are quotations from Pagan authors, is well known to every scholar... To assert that Christianity communicated to man moral truths previously unknown, argues on the part of the asserted either gross ignorance or wilful fraud.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Beautiful, Ignorance, Writing

  Henry Thomas Buckle (1865). “History of Civilization in England: In Five Volumes”, p.166

  4 Copy quote

• Men are made uneasy; they flinch; they cannot bear the sudden light; a general restlessness supervenes; the face of society is disturbed, or perhaps convulsed; old interests and old beliefs have been destroyed before new ones have been created. These symptoms are the precursors of revolution; they have preceded all the great changes through which the world has passed.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Men, Light, World

  Henry Thomas Buckle (1868). “History of Civilization in England”, p.349

  7 Copy quote

• In 1776, the Americans laid before Europe that noble Declaration, which ought to be hung up in the nursery of every king, and blazoned on the porch of every royal palace

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Kings, Europe, Royal Palaces

  Henry Thomas Buckle (1865). “History of civilization in England: In 5 vol”, p.291

  8 Copy quote

• The actions of bad men produce only temporary evil, the actions of good men only temporary good ; and eventually the good and the evil altogether subside, are neutralized by subsequent generations, absorbed by the incessant movements of future ages. But the discoveries of great men never leave us; they are immortal; they contain those eternal truths which survive the shock of empires, outlive the struggles of rival creeds, and witness the decay of successive religions.

  Henry Thomas Buckle

  Struggle, Science, Men

  Henry Thomas Buckle (1865). “History of Civilization in England: In Five Volumes”, p.208

  5 Copy quote

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