The hunter for aphorisms on human nature has to fish in muddy water, and he is even condemned to find much of his own mind.
F. H. BradleyRead
Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe on instinct.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that our instinctual beliefs often require justification that may not be valid.
F. H. Bradley's quote highlights the tendency of humans to seek rational explanations for their instincts or beliefs, often leading to the identification of flawed or 'bad' reasons. It implies a critique of how people rationalize their inherent convictions, suggesting that the true understanding may lie beyond mere intellectual justification, tapping instead into deeper metaphysical considerations.
In practice
In a philosophy class while discussing the nature of belief and reason.
The hunter for aphorisms on human nature has to fish in muddy water, and he is even condemned to find much of his own mind.
Where everything is bad it must be good to know the worst.
The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness.
True penitence condemns to silence. What a man is ready to recall he would be willing to repeat.
Our live experiences, fixed in aphorisms, stiffen into cold epigrams. Our heart's blood, as we write it, turns to mere dull ink.
One said of suicide, As long as one has brains one should not blow them out. And another answered, But when one has ceased to have them, too often one cannot.
The Greeks are wrong to recognize coming into being and perishing; for nothing comes into being nor perishes, but is rather compounded or dissolved from things that are. So they would be right to call coming into being composition and perishing dissolution.
I have no illusions concerning the precarious status of my tales and do not expect to become a serious competitor of my favorite weird authors.
Heterosexuality is not normal, it's just common.
...in the decline of life shame and grief are of short duration; whether it be that we bear easily what we have borne long; or that, finding ourselves in age less regarded, we less regard others; or, that we look with slight regard upon afflictions to which we know that the hand of death is about to put an end.
Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination.
It often happens that we blurt out things that may in some kind of way be harmful to us, but we are silent about things that may make us look ridiculous; because in this case effect follows very quickly on cause.
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