Acting is not being emotional, but being able to express emotion.
—Thomas Reid
Topics: Acting, Actors
The sceptical writers are a set whose business it is to prick holes in the fabric of knowledge wherever it is weak and faulty; and when these places are properly repaired, the whole building becomes more firm and solid than it was before.
—Thomas Reid
Every conjecture we can form with regard to the works of God has as little probability as the conjectures of a child with regard to the works of a man.
—Thomas Reid
Topics: God, Faith
There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words.
—Thomas Reid
Topics: Words
If there is anything that can be called genius, it consists chiefly in the ability to give that attention to a subject which keeps it steadily in the mind, till we have surveyed it accurately on all sides.
—Thomas Reid
Topics: Genius
One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation
—Thomas Reid
Topics: Government
The laws of nature are the rules according to which effects are produced; but there must be a lawgiver — a cause which operates according to these rules. — The laws of navigation never steered a ship, and the law of gravity never moved a planet.
—Thomas Reid
Topics: Nature
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Adam Smith Scottish Philosopher
David Hume Scottish Philosopher, Historian
Hugh Blair Scottish Minister, Scholar
Jean-Jacques Rousseau French Philosopher
George MacDonald Scottish Poet, Novelist
Thomas Carlyle Scottish Historian, Essayist
Immanuel Kant Prussian German Philosopher
Denis Diderot French Philosopher, Writer
Voltaire French Philosopher, Author
John Locke English Philosopher