Conjecture Quotes - Page 3

• At bottom, textual criticism for virtually all other ancient literature relies on creative conjectures, or imaginative guesses, at reconstructing the wording of the original. Not so with the New Testament.

  Daniel B. Wallace

  Ancient Literature, Creative, Criticism

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• The importance of the romantic element does not rest upon conjecture. Pleasing testimonies abound. Hannah More traced her earliest impressions of virtue to works of fiction; and Adam Clarke gives a list of tales that won his boyish admiration. Books of entertainment led him to believe in a spiritual world; and he felt sure of having been a coward, but for romances. He declared that he had learned more of his duty to God, his neighbor and himself from Robinson Crusoe than from all the books, except the Bible, that were known to his youth.

  Robert Aris Willmott

  Spiritual, Believe, Book

  Robert Aris Willmott (1907). “Pleasures of Literature”

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• The wisdom of God exceeds that of the wisest man, more than his wisdom exceeds that of a child. If a child were to conjecture how an army is to be formed in the day of battle--how a city is to be fortified, or a state governed--what chance has he to guess right? As little chance has the wisest man when he pretends to conjecture how the planets move in their courses, how the sea ebbs and flows, and how our minds act upon our bodies.

  Thomas Reid

  Children, Moving, Army

  Thomas Reid, William Hamilton, Harry M. Bracken, Thomas Reid, Sir William Hamilton (1967). “Philosophical Works”, p.235, Georg Olms Verlag

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• Physiognomy is not a guide that has been given us by which to judge of the character of men: it may only serve us for conjecture.
  [Fr., La physionomie n'est pas une regle qui nous soit donnee pour juger des hommes; elle nous peut servir de conjecture.]

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Character, Men, Judging

  "Les Caractères", XII, as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 97-106,

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• The highest reach of a news-writer is an empty Reasoning on Policy, and vain Conjectures on the public Management.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  News, Management, Journalism

  "The Characters or Manners of the Present Age". Book by Jean de La Bruyère, Chapter I, 1688.

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• It is clear that there is no classification of the Universe that is not arbitrary and full of conjectures. The reason for this is very simple: we do not know what kind of thing the universe is.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Knowledge, Simple, Arbitrary

  "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins" by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Will Fitzgerald, 1952.

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• A satirist, often in danger himself, has the bravery of knowing that to withhold wit's conjecture is to endanger the species.

  Penelope Gilliatt

  Knowing, Bravery, Satire

  Penelope Gilliatt (1990). “To wit: skin and bones of comedy”, Scribner

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• I was so frivolous for so many years. It was so much fun, but you feel guilty about the brain energy you use to think about whether some celebrity was sleeping with another celebrity. The conjecture that goes along with that. You feel like your mind has been shot apart.

  Chelsea Handler

  Fun, Sleep, Thinking

  "Chelsea Handler on Her Super Bowl Ad and Pro-Nudity Campaign". Interview with Emily Zemler, www.esquire.com. February 2, 2015.

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• We must consider how very little history there is--I mean real, authentic history. That certain kings reigned and certain battles were fought, we can depend upon as true; but all the coloring, all the philosophy, of history is conjecture.

  Samuel Johnson

  Kings, Philosophy, Real

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.526

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• Everyone has this conjecture that action films are somewhat less prestigious than dramatic films. Nothing could be further from the truth. I've done them both and this is hard and dangerous.

  Sylvester Stallone

  Done, Action, Film

  "Sylvester Stallone Talks Topping THE AVENGERS, the Cast, Using Actors’ “Baggage” as an Advantage, and More on the Set of THE EXPENDABLES 3". Group Interview, collider.com. April 16, 2014.

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• I'm weary of conjectures, - this must end 'em.
  Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life,
  My bane and antidote, are both before me:
  This in a moment brings me to an end;
  But this informs me I shall never die.
  The soul, secured in her existence, smiles
  At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
  The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
  Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years;
  But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
  Unhurt amidst the war of elements,
  The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.

  Joseph Addison

  Life, Crush, Stars

  "Cato, A Tragedy". Play by Joseph Addison, 1713.

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• For several weeks, I have been the subject of leaked stories, conjecture, and false attacks about a land exchange. None of them bear any resemblance to the truth, including the rumor that I am planning on resigning.

  Rick Renzi

  Land, Rumor, Bears

  "Renzi could resign soon" by Patrick O'Connor, www.politico.com. April 27, 2007.

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• Alas! What is man? Whether he be deprived of that light which is from on high, of whether he discard it, a frail and trembling creature; standing on time, that bleak and narrow isthmus between two eternities, he sees nothing but impenetrable darkness on the one hand, and doubt, distrust, and conjecture, still more perplexing, on the other. Most gladly would he take an observation, as to whence he has come, or whither he is going; alas, he has not the means: his telescope is too dim, his compass too wavering, his plummet too short.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Mean, Men, Light

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.480

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• When we look to presumed sources of origin for competing evolutionary explanations of the giraffe's long neck, we find either nothing at all, or only the shortest of speculative conjectures. Length, of course, need not correspond with importance. Garrulous old Polonius , in a rare moment of clarity, reminded us that "brevity is the soul of wit" (and then immediately vitiated his wise observation with a flood of woolly words about Hamlet 's Madness.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Wise, Long, Soul

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• It is putting a very high price on one's conjectures to have someone roasted alive on their account.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Alive, Accounts, High Prices

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• I have been speculating last night what makes a man a discoverer of undiscovered things. As far as I can conjecture the art consists in habitually searching for the causes and meaning of everything which occurs.

  Charles Darwin

  Art, Night, Men

  Charles Darwin (2003). “On the Origin of Species”, p.494, Broadview Press

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• There are always so many conjectures as to the issue of any event that, whatever the outcome, there will always be people to say: 'I said then that it would be so'

  Leo Tolstoy

  Military, Issues, People

  Leo Tolstoy (2007). “War and Peace”, p.647, Penguin

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• Every theory in philosophy, which is built on pure conjecture, is an elephant; and every theory that is supported partly by fact, and partly by conjecture, is like Nebuchadnezzar's image, whose feet were partly of iron, and partly of clay.

  Thomas Reid

  Philosophy, Elephants, Iron

  Thomas Reid, William Hamilton, Harry M. Bracken, Thomas Reid, Sir William Hamilton (1967). “Philosophical Works”, p.180, Georg Olms Verlag

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• I think it actually makes more sense for a new audience than the old show did because we're focusing on one character at a time. It's all conjecture why somebody didn't watch, but one of the theories was that there was just so much information, even in the trailers and promos, of all these different people.

  Mitchell Hurwitz

  Character, Thinking, People

  Source: collider.com

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• Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. I do not seek or conjecture either of them as if they were veiled obscurities or extravagances beyond the horizon of my vision; I see them before me and connect them immediately with the consciousness of my existence.

  Immanuel Kant

  Law, Two, Heaven

  "Critique of Practical Reason" (1788), translated in "The Cambridge Companion to Kant" by Paul Guyer, (p. 1), January 31, 1992.

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• Their origin is commonly unknown; for the practice often continues when the cause has ceased, and concerning superstitious ceremonies it is in vain to conjecture; for what reason did not dictate, reason cannot explain.

  Samuel Johnson

  Practice, Causes, Reason

  Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.150, Univ of California Press

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• The extraordinary fact is that the first idea I had which motivated me, that worked, is conjecture, a mathematical idea which may or may not be true. And that idea is still unproven. It is the foundation, what started me and what everybody failed to **** prove has so far defeated the greatest efforts by experts to be proven.

  Benoit Mandelbrot

  Ideas, Effort, Foundation

  Source: bigthink.com

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• No state sorrier than that of the man who keeps up a continual round, and pries into "the secrets of the nether world," as saith the poet, and is curious in conjecture of what is in his
  neighbour's heart.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Heart, Men, Secret

  "Meditations". Book by Marcus Aurelius. Book II, 13,

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• You could hear the wind in the leaves, and on that wind traveled the screams of the kids on the playground in the distance, the little kids figuring out how to be alive, how to navigate a world that was not built for them by navigating a playground that was. . . Who am I to say that these things might not be forever? Who is Pete Van Houten to assert as fact the conjecture that our labor is temporary? All I know of heaven and all I know of death is in this park: an elegant universe in ceaseless motion, teeming with ruined ruins and screaming children.

  John Green

  Children, Distance, Kids

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• A mathematician experiments, amasses information, makes a conjecture, finds out that it does not work, gets confused and then tries to recover. A good mathematician eventually does so - and proves a theorem.

  Steven G. Krantz

  Confused, Science, Trying

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