George Berkeley quotes

George Berkeley was an Irish philosopher best known for developing the theory of immaterialism, which denies the existence of material substance. His works challenged the foundations of early modern philosophy and influenced later thinkers. He remains a key figure in the history of philosophy and the study of perception. Here are 47 of his quotes:

Truth is the cry of all, but the game of the few. (George Berkeley)
That we have first rais'd a Dust, and then complain, we cannot see. View quote
George Berkeley
Others indeed may talk, and write, and fight about liberty, and make an outward pretence to it; but the free-thinker alone is truly free. View quote
George Berkeley
Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day: Time's noblest offspring is the last. View quote
George Berkeley
Our youth we can have but to-day, We may always find time to grow old. View quote
George Berkeley
That neither our thoughts, nor passions, nor ideas formed by the imagination, exist without the mind, is what every body will allow. View quote
George Berkeley
[Tar water] is of a nature so mild and benign and proportioned to the human constitution, as to warm without heating, to cheer but not inebriate. View quote
George Berkeley
Doth the Reality of sensible things consist in being perceived? or, is it something distinct from their being perceived, and that bears no relation to the mind? View quote
George Berkeley
Few men think; yet all have opinions. View quote
George Berkeley
For no one's authority ought to rank so high as to set a value on his words and terms even though nothing clear and determinate lies behind them. View quote
George Berkeley
All the choir of heaven and furniture of earth - in a word, all those bodies which compose the frame of the world - have not any subsistence without a mind. (George Berkeley)
That thing of hell and eternal punishment is the most absurd, as well as the most disagreeable thought that ever entered into the head of mortal man. View quote
George Berkeley
To be a good patriot, a man must consider his countrymen as God's creatures, and himself as accountable for his acting towards them. View quote
George Berkeley
So long as I confine my thoughts to my own ideas divested of words, I do not see how I can be easily mistaken. View quote
George Berkeley
The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense. View quote
George Berkeley
Whatever is immediately perceived is an idea: and can any idea exist out of the mind? View quote
George Berkeley
Many things, for aught I know, may exist, whereof neither I nor any other man hath or can have any idea or notion whatsoever. View quote
George Berkeley
From my own being, and from the dependency I find in myself and my ideas, I do, by an act of reason, necessarily infer the existence of a God, and of all created things in the mind of God. View quote
George Berkeley
If we admit a thing so extraordinary as the creation of this world, it should seem that we admit something strange, and odd, and new to human apprehension, beyond any other miracle whatsoever. View quote
George Berkeley
Abstract terms (however useful they may be in argument) should be discarded in meditation, and the mind should be fixed on the particular and the concrete, that is, on the things themselves. View quote
George Berkeley
In the pursuit of truth we must beware of being misled by terms which we do not rightly understand. That is the chief point. Almost all philosophers utter the caution; few observe it. (George Berkeley)
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? View quote
George Berkeley
I entirely agree with you, as to the ill tendency of the affected doubts of some philosophers, and fantastical conceit of others. I am even so far gone of late in this way of think, that I have quitted several of the sublime notions I had got in their schools for vulgar opinions. And I give it you on my word, since this revolt from metaphysical notions to the plain dictates of nature and common sense, I find my understanding strangely enlightened, so that I can now easily comprehend a great many thing which before were all mystery and riddle. View quote
George Berkeley
That there is no such thing as what philosophers call material substance, I am seriously persuaded: but if I were made to see any thing absurd or skeptical in this, I should then have the same reason to renounce this, that I imagine I have now to reject the contrary opinion. View quote
George Berkeley
Solicitation and effort or conation belong properly to animate beings alone. When they are attributed to other things, they must be taken in a metaphorical sense; but a philosopher should abstain from metaphor. View quote
George Berkeley