It Appears Evident, Therefore, That Those Actions

I Sit In My Loft With The Haves And Look Out At The Have-nots - The Bottom Of The Bottom - And I Have To Rationalize It, ... Am I Pushing Out The Homeless?

[i]f A Man Bred To The Seafaring Life, And Accustomed To Think And Talk Only Of Matters Relating To Navigation, Enters Into Discourse Upon Any Other Subject; It Is Well Known, That The Language And The Notions Proper To His Own Profession Are Infused Into Every Subject, And All Things Are Measured By The Rules Of Navigation: And If He Should Take It Into His Head To Philosophize Concerning The Faculties Of The Mind, It Cannot Be Doubted, But He Would Draw His Notions From The Fabric Of The Ship, And Would Find In The Mind, Sails, Masts, Rudder, And Compass.

It Appears Evident, Therefore, That Those Actions Only Can Truly Be Called Virtuous, And Deserving Of Moral Approbation, Which The Agent Believed To Be Right, And To Which He Was Influenced, More Or Less, By That Belief.

There Is No Greater Impediment To The Advancement Of Knowledge Than The Ambiguity Of Words. To This Chiefly It Is Owing That We Find Sects And Parties In Most Branches Of Science [and Politics]; And Disputes That Are Carried On From Age To Age, Without Being Brought To Issue.

Every Theory In Philosophy, Which Is Built On Pure Conjecture, Is An Elephant; And Every Theory That Is Supported Partly By Fact, And Partly By Conjecture, Is Like Nebuchadnezzar's Image, Whose Feet Were Partly Of Iron, And Partly Of Clay.