1001Philosophers

Ralph Cudworth Quotes on Knowledge

Ralph Cudworth was an English philosopher, theologian, and the leading figure of the Cambridge Platonist school. This page collects quotes attributed to Ralph Cudworth on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.

Quotes

  • Attributed to Ralph Cudworth:

    “The wise see God in everything; the foolish see nothing of him at all.”

  • “Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 16”

    The best assurance any one can have of his interest in God, is doubtless the conformity of his soul to Him. When our heart is once turned into a conformity with the mind of God. when we feel our will conformed to His will, we shall then presently perceive a spirit of adoption within ourselves, teaching us to say, "Abba, Father.
  • “The true knowledge or science which exists nowhere but in the mind itself, has no other entity at all besides intelligibility; and therefore whatsoever is clearly intelligible, is absolutely true.”

    Ch. 5, sct. 7
  • “Knowledge is not a passion from without the mind, but an active exertion of the inward strength, vigour and power of the mind, displaying itself from within.”

    Ch. 1, sct. 1
  • “If intellection and knowledge were mere passion from without, or the bare reception of extraneous and adventitious forms, then no reason could be given at all why a mirror or looking-glass should not understand; whereas it cannot so much as sensibly perceive those images which it receives and reflects to us.”

    Ch. 1, sct. 3