It is to the press mankind are indebted for having dispelled the clouds which so long encompassed religion, for disclosing her gen...uine lustre, and disseminating her salutary doctrines.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We cannot begin with complete doubt. We must begin with all the prejudices which we actually have when we enter upon the study of ...philosophy. These prejudices are not to be dispelled by a maxim, for they are things which it does not occur to us can be questioned. A person may, it is true, in the course of his studies, find reason to doubt what he began by believing; but in that case he doubts because he has a positive reason for it, and not on account of the Cartesian maxim. Let us not pretend to doubt in philosophy what we do not doubt in our hearts.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The range of comedy is more embracing than the range of tragedy; and if tragedy occurs at some middle point in ethical life where ...failure is weighed against man's nobility of spirit, comedy ventures out into the farther extremes of experience in both directions, toward the bestial or "obscene," and at the other end of the spectrum toward the insane heroics of Nietzsche or the vision of Prospero, who sees sin as the last mistake of all our many mistakes, dispelled before our clearer reason whenever hate seems more absurd than charity.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »