Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
William of Ockham
8 quotes
“Logic is the most useful tool of all the arts. Without it no science can be fully known. It is not worn out by repeated use, after the manner of material tools, but rather admits of continual growth through the diligent exercise of any other science. For just as a mechanic who lacks a complete knowledge of his tool gains a fuller [knowledge] by using it, so one who is educated in the firm principles of logic, while he painstakingly devotes his labor to the other sciences, acquires at the same time a greater skill at this art.”
William of Ockham (1287–1349) first seen 1323 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Summa Logicae (c. 1323), Prefatory Letter, as translated by Paul Vincent Spade (1995)
“The head of Christians does not, as a rule, have power to punish secular wrongs with a capital penalty and other bodily penalties and it is for thus punishing such wrongs that temporal power and riches are chiefly necessary; such punishment is granted chiefly to the secular power. The pope therefore, can, as a rule, correct wrongdoers only with a spiritual penalty. It is not, therefore, necessary that he should excel in temporal power or abound in temporal riches, but it is enough that Christians should willingly obey him.”
William of Ockham (1287–1349) first seen 1334 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Letter to the Friars Minor" (1334) as translated in A Letter to the Friars Minor and other Writings (1995) edited by A. S. McGrade and John Kilcullen, p. 204.
“Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate”
William of Ockham (1287–1349) said by 1349 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quaestiones et decisiones in quattuor libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi [Questions and the decisions of the Sentences of Peter Lombard] (1495), i, dist. 27, qu. 2, K; also in The Development of Logic (1962), by William…
“Frustra fit per plura, quod potest fieri per pauciora.”
William of Ockham (1287–1349) said by 1349 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Summa Totius Logicae, i. 12, cited in "Ockham's Razor" by Paul Newall at Galilean Library (25 June 2005)
“Intuitive cognition is such that when some things are cognized, of which one inheres in the other, or one is spatially distant from the other, or exists in some relation to the other, immediately in virtue of that non-propositional cognition of those things, it is known if the thing inheres or does not inhere, if it is spatially distant or not, and the same for other true contingent propositions, unless that cognition is flawed or there is some impediment.”
William of Ockham (1287–1349) said by 1349 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Opera Theologica (1986), edited by Gedeon Gal, Vol. I, p. 31.
“It is on account of theology alone that any assertion whatsoever should be called catholic or heretical. For only an assertion which is consonant with theology is truly catholic, and only one which is known to be opposed to theology is known to be heretical. For if some assertion were found to be opposed to decrees of the highest pontiffs, or also of general councils or also to laws of the emperors, nevertheless, if it were not in conflict with theology, even if it could be considered false, erroneous or unjust, it should not be counted as a heresy.”
William of Ockham (1287–1349) said by 1349 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Vol. I, Book 1, Ch. 2, as translated by John Kilcullen and John Scott (2003).
“Purely philosophical assertions which do not pertain to theology should not be solemnly condemned or forbidden by anyone, because in connection with such [assertions] anyone at all ought to be free to say freely what pleases him.”
William of Ockham (1287–1349) said by 1349 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Vol. I, Book 2, Ch. 22, as translated by John Scott (1999)
“The Holy Spirit through blessed John the evangelist makes a terrible threat against those who add anything to or take anything from divine scripture when he says in the last chapter of Revelations [22:18–9], "If any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues which are in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city, and from these things that are written in this book." We clearly gather from all these that nothing should be added to sacred scripture nor anything removed from it. To decide by way of teaching, therefore, which assertion should be considered catholic, which heretical, chiefly pertains to theologians, the experts on divine scripture. You see that I have set out opposing assertions in response to your question and I have touched on quite strong arguments in support of each position. Therefore consider now which seems the more probable to you.”
William of Ockham (1287–1349) said by 1349 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source