Charles Sanders Peirce Quotes

Another characteristic of mathematical thought is that it can have no success where it cannot generalize. — Charles Sanders Peirce

We, one and all of us, have an instinct to pray; and this fact constitutes an invitation from God to pray. — Charles Sanders Peirce

This branch of mathematics [Probability] is the only one, I believe, in which good writers frequently get results which are entirely erroneous. — Charles Sanders Peirce

My language is the sum total of myself. — Charles Sanders Peirce

The definition of definition is at bottom just what the maxim of pragmatism expresses. — Charles Sanders Peirce

We cannot begin with complete doubt. — Charles Sanders Peirce

The entire universe is perfused with signs, if it is not composed exclusively of signs. — Charles Sanders Peirce

By an object, I mean anything that we can think, i.e. anything we can talk about. — Charles Sanders Peirce

There is a kink in my damned brain that prevents me from thinking as other people think. — Charles Sanders Peirce

We think only in signs. — Charles Sanders Peirce

There is not a single truth of science upon which we ought to bet more than about a million of millions to one. — Charles Sanders Peirce

All the progress we have made in philosophy ... is the result of that methodical skepticism which is the element of human freedom. — Charles Sanders Peirce

All the evolution we know of proceeds from the vague to the definite. — Charles Sanders Peirce

And what, then, is belief? It is the demi-cadence which closes a musical phrase in the symphony of our intellectual life. — Charles Sanders Peirce

The pragmatist knows that doubt is an art which hs to be acquired with difficulty. — Charles Sanders Peirce

To know what we think, to be masters of our own meaning, will make a solid foundation for great and weighty thought. — Charles Sanders Peirce

Mere imagination would indeed be mere trifling; only no imagination is mere . — Charles Sanders Peirce

The idea does not belong to the soul; it is the soul that belongs to the idea. — Charles Sanders Peirce

We do not really think, we are barely conscious, until something goes wrong. — Charles Sanders Peirce

Bad reasoning as well as good reasoning is possible; and this fact is the foundation of the practical side of logic. — Charles Sanders Peirce

The universe ought to be presumed too vast to have any character. — Charles Sanders Peirce

Mathematics is purely hypothetical: it produces nothing but conditional propositions. — Charles Sanders Peirce

All the greatest achievements of mind have been beyond the power of unaided individuals. — Charles Sanders Peirce

It is not knowing, but the love of learning, that characterizes the scientific man. — Charles Sanders Peirce

Let us not pretend to doubt in philosophy what we do not doubt in our hearts. — Charles Sanders Peirce

It is impossible not to envy the man who can dismiss reason, although we know how it must turn out at last. — Charles Sanders Peirce

It is ... easy to be certain. One has only to be sufficiently vague. — Charles Sanders Peirce

Truly, that reason upon which we plume ourselves, though it may answer for little things, yet for great decisions is hardly surer than a toss up. — Charles Sanders Peirce

Unless man have a natural bent in accordance with nature's, he has no chance of understanding nature at all. — Charles Sanders Peirce

Every man is fully satisfied that there is such a thing as truth, or he would not ask any question. — Charles Sanders Peirce

And it is probably that there is some secret here which remains to be discovered. — Charles Sanders Peirce

Every new concept first comes to the mind in a judgment. — Charles Sanders Peirce