Dugald Stewart Quotes

9 Sourced Quotes

Every man has some peculiar train of thought which he falls back upon when he is alone. This, to a great degree, moulds the man.

Dugald Stewart
Nothing, in truth, has such a tendency to weaken not only the powers of invention, but the intellectual powers in general, as a habit of extensive and various reading without reflection.

Dugald Stewart
As all our knowledge of the material world is derived from the information of our senses, natural philosophers have, in modern times, wisely abandoned to metaphysicians, all speculations concerning the nature of that substance of which it is composed; concerning the possibility or impossibility of its being created; concerning the efficient causes of the changes which take place in it; and even concerning the reality of its existence, independent of that of percipient beings: and have confined themselves to the humbler province of observing the phenomena it exhibits, and of ascertaining their general laws.

Dugald Stewart
THE prejudice which is commonly entertained against metaphysical speculations seems to arise chiefly from two causes: First, from an apprehension that the subjects about which they are employed, are placed beyond the reach of the human faculties; and, secondly, from a belief that these subjects have no relation to the business of life.

Dugald Stewart
How small is the number of individuals who are qualified to think justly on metaphysical, moral, or political subjects, in comparison of those, who may be trained by practice to follow the longest processes of mathematical reasoning.

Dugald Stewart
In mathematics, on the other hand, and in natural philosophy since mathematics was applied to it, we see the noblest instances of the force of the human mind, and of the sublime heights to which it may rise by cultivation.

Dugald Stewart
In the course of my own experience, I have never met with a mere mathematician who was not credulous to a fault: credulous not only with respect to human testimony, but credulous also in matters of opinion; and prone, on all subjects which he had not carefully studied, to repose too much faith in illustrious and consecrated names.

Dugald Stewart
I have never met with a mere mathematician who was not credulous to a fault.

Dugald Stewart
It is a certain fact, that, in mathematicians who have confined their studies to mathematics alone, there has often been observed a proneness to that species of religious enthusiasm in which imagination is the predominant element, and which, like a contagion, is propagated in a crowd.

Dugald Stewart