On Beliefs (-1799)

"As being is to become, so is truth to belief" (Plato, "Timaeus", cca. 360 BC)

"Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true." (Demosthenes, "Olynthiac", 349 BC)

"Knowledge, then, is a state of capacity to demonstrate, and has the other limiting characteristics which we specify in the Analytics; for it is when one believes in a certain way and the principles are known to him that he has knowledge, since if they are not better known to him than the conclusion, he will have his knowledge only on the basis of some concomitant." (Aristotle," Nicomachean Ethics", cca. 340 BC)

"That is probable which for the most part usually comes to pass, or which is a part of the ordinary beliefs of mankind, or which contains in itself some resemblance to these qualities, whether such resemblance be true or false." (Marcus Tullius Cicero, "De Inventione", cca 50 BC)

"To believe only in possibilities, is not faith, but mere Philosophy." (Sir Thomas Browne," Religio Medici", 1643)

"Grant a mathematician but one minute principle, he immediately draws a consequence from it, to which you must necessarily assent; and from this consequence another, till he leads you so far (whether you will or no) that you have much ado to believe all he has proved, and what you have already assented to." (Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, "Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds", 1686)

"People believe they see Things, which better Observations will convince them could not possibly be seen: Therefore assert nothing till after repeated Experiments and Examinations in all Lights and in all Positions." (Henry Baker, "The Microscope Made Easy", 1742)

"Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong." (Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on the State of Virginia", 1781)

"Conjectures in philosophy are termed hypotheses or theories; and the investigation of an hypothesis founded on some slight probability, which accounts for many appearances in nature, has too often been considered as the highest attainment of a philosopher. If the hypothesis (sic) hangs well together, is embellished with a lively imagination, and serves to account for common appearances - it is considered by many, as having all the qualities that should recommend it to our belief, and all that ought to be required in a philosophical system." (George Adams, "Lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy" Vol. 1, 1794)