George Berkeley

Philosophy Irish 1685 – 1753 93 quotes

An empiricist who famously argued for subjective idealism, stating 'Esse est percipi' ('To be is to be perceived').

Quotes by George Berkeley

It is indeed an opinion strangely prevailing amongst men, that houses, mountains, rivers, and in a word all sensible objects have an existence natural or real, distinct from their being perceived by the understanding.

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge 1710

The table I see before me is not the same as the table others see.

Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous 1713

You will not say that fire heats, or that the fire with which you warm your hand, is not cold.

Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous 1713

The very existence of ideas constitutes the soul.

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge 1710

We are chained to a body, but the mind is free.

Alciphron 1732

Truth is the cry of all, but the game of a few.

Alciphron 1732

Few men think; yet all will have opinions.

Alciphron 1732

No man ever wished to be inconsistent.

Alciphron 1732

The eye by which I see God is the same eye by which God sees me.

Alciphron 1732

God is the supreme good.

Siris 1744

Tar-water is of a nature so mild and benign and proportioned to the human constitution, as to warm without heating, to cheer but not inebriate.

Siris 1744

The world is not a machine but a divine organism.

Siris 1744

Whatever power I have over you is because you give it to me.

Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous 1713

Sensible objects are those only which are perceived by sense.

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge 1710

The objects of sense are particular and finite.

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge 1710

It is on the bended knees that man is closest to God.

Letter

He who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave.

Alciphron 1732

Men often mistake themselves, seldom others.

Alciphron 1732

The most positive and authentic testimony of the senses is subject to error.

An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision 1709

Distance, I say, is a line, or a length, apprehended by the help of sight.

An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision 1709