Others indeed may talk, and write, and fight about liberty, and make an outward pretence to it but the free-thinker alone is truly free.
George BerkeleyRead
Few men think, yet all will have opinions.
Interpretation
Most people have opinions without taking the time to think critically.
George Berkeley's quote highlights the tendency of individuals to form opinions without engaging in deep thought or consideration. It suggests that while many may express their beliefs and viewpoints, a limited number truly reflect on the implications and reasoning behind them, pointing to the importance of critical thinking in developing informed opinions.
In practice
This quote can be used to encourage critical thinking in a classroom discussion.
Others indeed may talk, and write, and fight about liberty, and make an outward pretence to it but the free-thinker alone is truly free.
To be is to be perceived (Esse est percipi)." Or, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few.
All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth - in a word, all those bodies which compose the frame of the world - have not any subsistence without a mind.
The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.
Many things, for aught I know, may exist, whereof neither I nor any other man hath or can have any idea or notion whatsoever.
Death walks faster than the wind and never returns what he has taken.
By obliging men to turn their attention to other affairs than their own, it rubs off that private selfishness which is the rust of society.
A man's intentions should be allowed in some respects to plead for his actions.
I haven't any allegiance, any responsibilities, any hatreds, any worries, any prejudices, any passion. I'm neither for nor against. I'm a neutral.
Lawyers spend their professional careers shoveling smoke.
Pacifism, the preaching of peace in the abstract, is one of the means of duping the working class.
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