Philosophy Concordance - online philosophical quotations

For how do we know that the thoughts which occur in dreaming are false rather than those other which we experience when awake, since the former are often not less vivid and distinct than the latter?

In general the sentences we are tempted to utter occur in practical situations.

But it is not a matter of experience that equal distributions of nuts and raisins must occur when they are swished about.

To say that if equal distribution does not occur there must be a difference in weight of the nuts and raisins, even though these have not been weighed, is to assume some other force to explain the unshuffling.

We tend to say that there must be some explanation if equal distribution does not occur.

By "I can't feel his toothache" is meant that I can't try. It is the character of the logical cannot that one can't try. Of course this doesn't get you far, as you can ask whether you can try to try. In the arguments of idealists and realists somewhere there always occur the words "can", "cannot", "must".

A man, who should find in a desert country the remains of pompous buildings, would conclude that the country had, in ancient times, been cultivated by civilized inhabitants; but did nothing of this nature occur to him, he could never form such an inference.

When a sword is levelled at my breast, does not the idea of wound and pain strike me more strongly, than when a glass of wine is presented to me, even though by accident this idea should occur after the appearance of the latter object?

Not to mention, that, to a young beginner, the general observations and maxims occur not always on the proper occasions, nor can be immediately applied with due calmness and distinction.

But where different effects have been found to follow from causes, which are to appearance exactly similar, all these various effects must occur to the mind in transferring the past to the future, and enter into our consideration, when we determine the probability of the event.