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C00002 00002	"Common sense should not be confused with %2common opinions%1, namely the
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"Common sense should not be confused with %2common opinions%1, namely the
beliefs we can readily formulate when asked: these are often false
overgeneralisations or merely the result of prejudice.  Common sense
is a rich and profound store of information, not about laws, but about
what people are capable of doing, thinking or experiencing.  But common
sense, like our knowledge of the grammar of our native language, is hard
to get at and articulate, which is one reason why so much of philosophy,
psychology and social science is vapid, or simply false". - Aaron
Sloman in the introduction to his book 
"The Computer Revolution in Philosophy".

"But the height of audacity in serving up pure nonsense, in stringing
together senseless and extravagant mazes of words, such as had previously
been known only in madhouses, was finally reached in Hegel, and became the
instrument of the most bare-faced general mystification that has ever
taken place, with a result that will appear fabulous to posterity, and
will remain as a monument to German stupidity".

"Life is not made for happiness but for achievement" Durant - The story of
Philosophy, p. 297, paraphrasing Hegel.

"When we read, another person thinks for us; we merely repeat his mental
process.... So it comes about that if anyone spends his whole day
in reading, ... he gradually loses the capacity for thinking. - Schopenhauer.
II, 254 Essays, Books and Reading; Counsels and Maxims p.21

"As it stands, we have on our hands a generation of students so harried
by today's pop ethics that many of the best consider careers in a
regulatory bureaucracy or a romantic retreat to the design of small
tools as the only remaining respectable form of scientific or technological
endeavor". - Richard L. Meehan in Science 11 May 1979.
 
"So, when on one side you hoist Locke's head, you go over
that way; but now, on the other side, hoist in
Kant's and you come back again; but in very poor
plight.  Thus, some minds for ever keep trimming
boat.  Oh, ye foolish!  throw all these thunderheads
overboard, and then you will float light and right".
Moby Dick, chapter 73, near the end

"The same theory and methods that yielded Freud's most compelling
analytic insights underlie the analyst Abrahamsen's (1977) "discovery"
about Richard Nixon.  The ten year old Nixon apparently was proud
of his ability to mash potatoes so smoothly that there were no lumps.
Potatoes, Abrahamsen solemnly observes, were a substitute for people."
Nisbett and Ross, Human Inference, p.243.

"A major problem with the assumption (even in Freud's hands, but
especially in the hands of many followers) is the uncertainty of
criteria for determining when it is the patient's associative
networks that have been laid bare and when it is the analyst's."
ibid.

"I beeseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you
may be wrong". - Cromwell.

"Toward a better world I contribute my modest smidgin;
I eat the squab, lest it become a pigeon." - Ogden Nash

"I would eat my own father with such a sauce". - Grimod de la Reymiere,
cited in Brillat-Savarin p. xvii.

"Oh! you know, Spencer's idea of a tragedy is a deduction killed
by a fact." - T.H. Huxley, as quoted in Spencer's autobiography

"The great tragedy of Science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis
by an ugly fact". - T.H. Huxley, Collected essays viii. Biogenesis and
Abiogenesis.

There once was a man who said "God
Must think it exceedingly odd
  If he finds that this tree
  Continues to be
When there's no one about in the Quad" - Ronald Knox

Dear Sir, Your astonishment's odd:
I am always about in the Quad.
  And that's why the tree
  Will continue to be
Since observed by
	Yours Faithfully,
		God. - anonymous

Cet animal est tres mechant,
Quand on l'attaque il se defend.

Cruel, but composed and bland,
Dumb, inscrutable and grand,
So Tiberius might have sat,
Had Tiberius been a cat.  Poor Mathias, l.40 - Matthew Arnold

Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. - Proverbs i,17

Neither let her take thee with her eyelids. - Proverbs vi,25

He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it. - Proverbs xi. 14

Where there is no vision, the people perish. - Proverbs xxix. 18

He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. - Ecclesiastes i.18

Wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness. - Ecclesiastes ii.13

Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these?
for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this. - Ecclesiastes vii. 10

There is no discharge in that war. - Ecclesiastes viii. 8

The liberal deviseth liberal things. - Isaiah xxxii.8

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. - Isaiah xxxv.3

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. - Lamentations i.27

Be not curious in unnecessary matters: for more things are shewed unto thee
than men understand. - Ecclesiasticus iii.23

If thou hast heard a word, let it die with thee; and be bold, it will not
burst thee. - Ecclesiasticus xix.10

How can he get wisdom ... whose talk is of bullocks. - Ecclesiasticus xxxviii.25

The whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and
perished in the waters. - Matthew viii.32

Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. - Matthew ix.31

They be blind leaders of the blind.  And if the blind lead the blind, both
shall fall into the ditch. - Matthew xiii.14

Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge. - Luke xi.52

Certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. - The Acts of the Apostles xvii.5

What will this babbler say. - The Acts of the Apostles xvii.18

Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this
incription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.  Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him
I declare unto you. - The Acts of the Apostles xvii.22

Some therefore cried one thing, and some another; for the assembly was
confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.
- Acts of the Apostles xix.32

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. - Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians iv.12


How small of all that human hearts endure
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure. - Samuel Johnson
Still to ourselves in every place consigned,
 we make or find:
With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy. - Lines added to Goldsmith's
'Traveller'

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are
supplied, must admit those of fancy. - Samuel Johnson

Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love,
But - why did you kick me downstairs? - An expostulation - Isaac Bickerstaff

Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry.  Oliver's advice
Valentine Blacker

The corn was springing fresh and green,
And the lark sang loud and high,
And the red was in your lip, Mary,
The love-light in your eye.

They say there's bread and work for all,
And the sun shines always there:
But I'll not forget old Ireland,
Were it fifty times as fair.
- Lament of the Irish Emigrant - Helen Selina Blackwood, Lady Dufferin

Your levellers wish to level ⊗down as far as themselves; but they cannot
bear levelling ⊗up to themselves. - Samuel Johnson in Boswell's life , p. 448