Richard Whately
Richard Whately
Richard Whatelywas an English rhetorician, logician, economist, academic and theologian who also served as a reforming Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin. He was a leading Broad Churchman, a prolific and combative author over a wide range of topics, a flamboyant character, and one of the first reviewers to recognise the talents of Jane Austen...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth1 February 1787
wise ignorance men
One way in which fools succeed where wise men fail is that through ignorance of the danger they sometimes go coolly about a hazardous business.
wish sides sincerely
It is one thing to wish to have truth on our side, and another to wish sincerely to be on the side of truth.
party men causes
Party spirit enlists a man's virtues in the cause of his vices.
discovery persecution could-have-been
Galileo probably would have escaped persecution if his discoveries could have been disproved.
skills two evil
Concerning the utility of Rhetoric, it is to be observed that it divides itself into two; first, whether Oratorical skill be, on the whole, a public benefit, or evil; and secondly, whether any artificial system of Rules is conducive to the attainment of that skill.
complaining use logic
No one complains of the rules of Grammar as fettering Language; because it is understood that correct use is not founded on Grammar, but Grammar on correct use. A just system of Logic or of Rhetoric is analogous, in this respect, to Grammar..
use medical made
Proverbs accordingly are somewhat analogous to those medical Formulas which, being in frequent use, are kept ready-made-up in the chemists’ shops, and which often save the framing of a distinct Prescription.
good-man moral manners
Good manners are a part of good morals.
laughing matter
Happiness is no laughing matter.
order erring imperfect
To follow imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted traditions, in order to avoid erring in our own judgment, is but to exchange one danger for another.
sacrifice being-true expediency
Nothing but the right can ever be expedient, since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a great good to a less.
envy feelings looks
Of all hostile feelings, envy is perhaps the hardest to be subdued, because hardly any one owns it even to himself, but looks out for one pretext after another to justify his hostility.
wall support decay
All frauds, like the wall daubed with untempered mortar ... always tend to the decay of what they are devised to support.
bible sight use
As the telescope is not a substitute for, but an aid to, our sight, so revelation is not designed to supersede the use of reason, but to supply its deficiencies.