Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet Quotes

The intellect," says Aquinas, "commences in operation, and in operation it ends...

The question—Is Truth, or is the Mental Exercise in the pursuit of truth, the superior end?—this is perhaps the most curious theoretical, and certainly the most important practical, problem in the whole compass of philosophy.

The primary principle of education is the determination of the pupil to self-activity — the doing nothing for him which he is able to do for himself.

The instructor... does not profess to teach philosophy, but to philosophise.

[I]nstruction is only instruction as it enables us to teach ourselves.

"Sordet cognita veritas" is a shrewd aphorism of Seneca. A truth, once known, falls into comparative insignificance.

Strictly speaking, every one must educate himself.

Analysis and synthesis, though commonly treated as two different methods, are, if properly understood, only the two necessary parts of the same method. Each is the relative and correlative of the other. Analysis, without a subsequent synthesis, is incomplete; it is a mean cut off from its end. Synthesis, without a previous analysis, is baseless; for synthesis receives from analysis the elements which it recomposes.