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
That neither our thoughts, nor passions, nor ideas formed by the imagination, exist without the mind, is what every body will allow.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that our thoughts and ideas only exist within the mind and are not independent of it.
George Berkeley's quote emphasizes the idea that the existence of our thoughts, emotions, and imaginative concepts is intrinsically tied to our consciousness. According to Berkeley, without the mind to perceive and conceive them, these mental constructs would have no existence, thus highlighting the fundamental role the mind plays in shaping our reality and understanding of the world.
Themes
ThoughtsMindExistencePerceptionPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing the nature of reality.
More from George Berkeley
All quotes βTo 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?
George BerkeleyRead
Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few.
George BerkeleyRead
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.
George BerkeleyRead
The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.
George BerkeleyRead
Many things, for aught I know, may exist, whereof neither I nor any other man hath or can have any idea or notion whatsoever.
George BerkeleyRead
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