There is a distinction, but no opposition, between theory and practice. Each to a certain extent supposes the other. Theory is dependent on practice;…

- Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

An instinct is an agent which performs blindly and ignorantly a work of intelligence and knowledge.

- Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

The pursuit of knowledge is but a course between two ignorances, as human life is itself only a wayfaring from grave to grave.

- Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

There are two sorts of ignorance: we philosophize to escape ignorance; we start from the one, we repose in the other; they are the goals from which a…

- Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

Metaphysics, in whatever latitude the term be taken, is a science, or complement of sciences, exclusively occupied with mind.

- Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

Logic is the science of the laws of thought, as thought,--that is of the necessary conditions to which thought considered in itself is a subject.

- Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

Truth like a torch, the more 'tis shock, it shines.

- Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

Be sober, and to doubt prepense, These are the sinews of good sense.

- Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

Read much, but not many works.

- Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet