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
The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.
Interpretation
Skepticism can ultimately lead to logical reasoning and common understanding.
George Berkeley suggests that while skepticism might initially seem to cause doubt and confusion, if one follows its principles to a certain extent, it can lead them back to a grounded, sensible view of reality. This highlights the importance of questioning and critical thinking as tools that ultimately guide one back to clarity and common sense.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of questioning beliefs and assumptions.
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.
Many things, for aught I know, may exist, whereof neither I nor any other man hath or can have any idea or notion whatsoever.
A ray of imagination or of wisdom may enlighten the universe, and glow into remotest centuries.
The exhilaration was hard to explain. It was a lonely feeling β a somehow melancholy feeling. He was outside; he passed on the wings of the wind, and none of the people beyond the brightly lighted squares of their windows saw him. They were inside, inside where there was light and warmth. They didn't know he had passed them; only he knew. It was a secret thing.
From these prejudices there arises conflict, transient joys and suffering. But we are unconscious of this, unconscious that we are slaves to certain forms of tradition, to social and political environment, to false values.
A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.
There are some people who need to wear a label round their necks to show that they are Christians at all, or else we might mistake them for sinners, their actions are so like those of the ungodly.
A man sometimes devotes his life to a desire which he is not sure will ever be fulfilled. Those who laugh at this folly are, after all, no more than mere spectators of life.
History is neither written nor made without love or hate.
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