William Hamilton Quotes
Sir William Hamilton, ninth Baronet of Preston, was a Scottish philosopher and the leading British philosophical figure of the mid nineteenth century. Professor of logic and metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh, he combined the Scottish common sense tradition with elements drawn from German post-Kantian philosophy and produced a celebrated theory of the relativity of human knowledge: that the absolute and the infinite are not, as such, objects of knowledge for finite minds. The quotes below are attributed to William Hamilton, organized by topic.
Browse William Hamilton by topic
William Hamilton on Knowledge
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Attributed to William Hamilton:
“All knowledge is of the relative; the absolute, as such, is unknowable.”
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“The discovery of the art of Printing unbarred afresh the gates of Heaven, and let in that flood of light, of knowledge, and of wisdom, which enabled men to emancipate themselves again from the slavery of superstition—to take their proper place in the ranks of created beings—and in ennobling themselves, in gradually exalting their understandings and amending their hearts, to pay at length the worthiest homage to the goodness of their common Parent, and prove themselves to be—as the Almighty himself originally formed them—inferior only to the Angels.”
The History of Medicine, Surgery, and Anatomy, from the Creation of the World, to the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century (1831), Vol. 1 -
“Analysis and synthesis , though commonly treated as two different methods, are, if properly understood, only the two necessary parts of the same method. Each is the relative and correlative of the other. Analysis, without a subsequent synthesis, is incomplete; it is a mean cut off from its end. Synthesis, without a previous analysis, is baseless; for synthesis receives from analysis the elements which it recomposes.”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic : "6th Lecture on Metaphysics", p. 69, ed. 1871, Boston; partly reported in Austin Allibone ed. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay. (1903), p. 34 -
“Analysis and synthesis , though commonly treated as two different methods, are, if properly understood, only the two necessary parts of the same method. Each is the relative and correlative of the other. Analysis, without a subsequent synthesis, is incomplete; it is a mean cut off from its end. Synthesis, without a previous analysis, is baseless; for synthesis receives from analysis the elements w”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic : "6th Lecture on Metaphysics", p. 69, ed. 1871, Boston; partly reported in Austin Allibone ed. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay. (1903), p. 34 -
“Notes on Reid , from the Fragments of Epicharmus , 255.”
Be sober, and to doubt prepense, These are the sinews of good sense. -
“The primary principle of education is the determination of the pupil to self-activity — the doing nothing for him which he is able to do for himself.”
As quoted by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895). p. 573. -
“"Sordet cognita veritas" is a shrewd aphorism of Seneca . A truth, once known, falls into comparative insignificance.”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic(1860) Vol. 1 -
“"The intellect," says Aristotle ... "is perfected, not by knowledge but by activity..." and... "The arts and sciences are powers, but every power exists only for the sake of action; the end of philosophy... is not knowledge, but the energy conversant about knowledge."”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic(1860) Vol. 1
William Hamilton on Life
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“"In life," as the great Pascal observes, "we always believe that we are seeking repose, while, in reality, all that we ever seek is agitation."”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic(1860) Vol. 1
William Hamilton on Mind
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Attributed to William Hamilton:
“On earth there is nothing great but man; in man there is nothing great but mind.”
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Attributed to William Hamilton:
“To be conscious is to be conscious of something distinguished from self.”
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Attributed to William Hamilton:
“Philosophy is reasoned consciousness.”
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“"The intellect," says Aquinas , "commences in operation, and in operation it ends..."”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic(1860) Vol. 1
William Hamilton on Nature
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“However arid and uninviting the prospect of a History of Medicine may appear at a distance, it will be found gradually to improve, and become full of interest wonder and animation as we proceed. ...The History of Medicine is ...the history of the human species, uncontaminated by those civil discords and fearful atrocities, those crimes and disorders which blot the page of other histories, and stam”
The History of Medicine, Surgery, and Anatomy, from the Creation of the World, to the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century (1831), Vol. 1 -
“The discovery of the art of Printing unbarred afresh the gates of Heaven, and let in that flood of light, of knowledge, and of wisdom, which enabled men to emancipate themselves again from the slavery of superstition—to take their proper place in the ranks of created beings—and in ennobling themselves, in gradually exalting their understandings and amending their hearts, to pay at length the worth”
The History of Medicine, Surgery, and Anatomy, from the Creation of the World, to the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century (1831), Vol. 1
William Hamilton on Time
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“The past does not interest, the present does not satisfy, the future alone is the object which engages us.”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic(1860) Vol. 1
William Hamilton on Truth
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Attributed to William Hamilton:
“Logic is the science of the formal laws of thought.”
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“Truth like a torch, the more 'tis shook, it shines.”
Discussions on Philosophy , Title Page, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 818-22. -
“Plato defines man "the hunter of truth," "for science is a chase, and in a chase the pursuit is always of greater value than the game."”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic(1860) Vol. 1 -
“The question—Is Truth, or is the Mental Exercise in the pursuit of truth, the superior end?—this is perhaps the most curious theoretical, and certainly the most important practical, problem in the whole compass of philosophy.”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic(1860) Vol. 1 -
“[I]n the very term Philosophy ... the man who first declared that he was not a... possessor, but a... seeker of truth, at once enounced the true end of human speculation, and embodied it in a significant name.”
Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic(1860) Vol. 1
William Hamilton on Virtue
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“Be sober, and to doubt prepense, These are the sinews of good sense.”
Notes on Reid , from the Fragments of Epicharmus , 255.