F. H. Bradley quotes

F. H. Bradley was a British philosopher, recognized as one of the leading figures in British Idealism. His work had a profound impact on the development of metaphysics and ethics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is remembered for his influential book "Appearance and Reality" and his critique of empiricism. Here are 22 of his quotes:

We say that a girl with her doll anticipates the mother. It is more true, perhaps, that most mothers are still but children with playthings. (F. H. Bradley)
The world is the best of all possible worlds, and everything in it is a necessary evil. View quote
F. H. Bradley
There are those who so dislike the nude that they find something indecent in the naked truth. View quote
F. H. Bradley
Eclecticism - every truth is so true that any truth must be false. View quote
F. H. Bradley
The one self-knowledge worth having is to know one's own mind. View quote
F. H. Bradley
One said of suicide, As long as one has brains one should not blow them out. And another answered, But when one has ceased to have them, too often one cannot. View quote
F. H. Bradley
The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness. View quote
F. H. Bradley
The man who has ceased to fear has ceased to care. View quote
F. H. Bradley
The deadliest foe to virtue would be complete self-knowledge. View quote
F. H. Bradley
There are persons who, when they cease to shock us, cease to interest us. View quote
F. H. Bradley
The force of the blow depends on the resistance. It is sometimes better not to struggle against temptation. Either fly or yield at once. (F. H. Bradley)
Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived. It is a pity that this is still the only knowledge of their wives at which some men seem to arrive. View quote
F. H. Bradley
It is by a wise economy of nature that those who suffer without change, and whom no one can help, become uninteresting. Yet so it may happen that those who need sympathy the most often attract it the least. View quote
F. H. Bradley
True penitence condemns to silence. What a man is ready to recall he would be willing to repeat. View quote
F. H. Bradley
Our live experiences, fixed in aphorisms, stiffen into cold epigrams. Our heart's blood, as we write it, turns to mere dull ink. View quote
F. H. Bradley
Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct; but to find these reasons is no less an instinct. View quote
F. H. Bradley
It is good to know what a man is, and also what the world takes him for. But you do not understand him until you have learnt how he understands himself. View quote
F. H. Bradley
The man whose nature is such that by one path alone his chief desire will reach consummation will try to find it on that path, whatever it may be, and whatever the world thinks of it; and if he does not, he is contemptible. View quote
F. H. Bradley
I will begin with the self-styled "Christian" party, who profess to base their morality on the New Testament. But whether it is really more Christian to follow or to ignore the teachings of the Gospels I shall not discuss. View quote
F. H. Bradley
Another occupation might have been better. View quote
F. H. Bradley
Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived. (F. H. Bradley)
The mood in which my book was conceived and executed, was in fact to some extent a passing one. View quote
F. H. Bradley

F. H. Bradley

F. H. Bradley - Image
Occupation: British Philosopher
Born: January 30, 1846
Died: September 18, 1924
Quotes count: 22
Wikipedia: F. H. Bradley

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