Ralph Cudworth Quotes

It's one thing thinking something and another thing knowing it.

But I know that all the things I do know are very small compared with the things that I don't know.

Intuition does not in itself amount to knowledge, yet cannot be disregarded by philosophers and psychologists.

Intuition and concepts constitute... the elements of all our knowledge, so that neither concepts without an intuition in some way corresponding to them, nor intuition without concepts, can yield knowledge.

Language is the mother of thought, not its handmaiden.

The great mystery of our consciousness is beyond our grasp.

Knowing demands the organ fitted to the object.

All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation.

Science is nothing but perception.

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

There's nothing you can know that isn't known.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.

Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend

The animal is ignorant of the fact that he knows. The man is aware of the fact that he is ignorant.

Since a thing cannot be known directly or totally, one can only attune to it, with greater or lesser degrees of intimacy.

All our knowledge falls with the bounds of experience.

I don't like the word transparency; cold dead glass is transparent. I prefer education or understanding, which are more human.

The things best to know are first principles and causes, but these things are perhaps the most difficult for men to grasp, for they are farthest removed from the senses.

To ask at what time a man has first any ideas is to ask when he begins to perceive; having ideas and perception being the same thing.

Without knowing the Knower, all the knowledge that one gathers cannot be valid.

I am not omniscient, but I know a lot.

All men naturally desire knowledge. An indication of this is our esteem for the senses; for apart from their use we esteem them for their own sake, and most of all the sense of sight. Not only with a view to action, but even when no action is contemplated, we prefer sight, generally speaking, to all the other senses. The reason of this is that of all the senses sight best helps us to know things, and reveals many distinctions.