History of Psychology Quotes
Francesco Sizzi
1) “These are seven windows in the head, two nostrils, two ears, two eyes and a mouth;
so in the heavens there are two favourable stars, two unpropitious, two luminaries,
and Mercury alone undecided and indifferent. From which and many other similar
phenomena of nature,such as the seven metals, etc., which it were tedious to
enumerate, we gather that the number of planets is necessarily seven”
Johannes Kepler
1) “My aim is to show that the heavenly machine is not a kind of divine, living being, but
a kind of clockwork (...) in as far as nearly all the manifold motions are caused by a
moist simple, magnetic, and material force, just s all motions of the clock are caused
by a simple weight”
Rene Descartes
1) “(...) that it is possible to arrive at knowledge which is most useful in life, and that,
instead of the speculative philosophy taught in the Schools, a practical philosophy
can be found by which (...) we (...) make ourselves, as it were, masters and
possessors of nature”
2) “I shall suppose, therefore, that there is, not a true God, who is the sovereign source
of truth, but some evil demon, no less cunning and deceiving than powerful, who has
used all his artifice to deceive me. I will suppose that the heavens, the air, the earth,
colours, shapes, sounds and all external things that we see, are only illusions and
deceptions which he uses to take me in”
3) I suppose therefore that all the things I see are false; I persuade myself that none of
these things ever existed that my deceptive memory represents to me; I suppose I
have no sense; I believe that body, figure, extension, movement and place are only
fictions of my mind. What, then, shall be considered true? Perhaps only this, that
there is nothing certain in the world
4) “But I had persuaded myself that there was nothing at all in the world: no sky, no
earth, no minds or bodies; was I not, therefore, also persuaded that I did not exist?
No indeed; I existed without doubt, by the fact that I was persuaded, or indeed by the
mere fact that I thought at all. (...) So that (...) one must then, in conclusion, take as
assured that the proposition: I am, I exist, is necessarily true, everytime I express it or
conceive of it in my mind”
5) “I am, I exist: this is certain; but for how long? For as long as I think, it might perhaps
happen, if I ceased to think, that I would at the same time cease to be or to exist”
, 6) “(...) I here remark firstly, that there is a great difference between mind and body, in
that body, by its nature, is always divisible and that mind is entirely indivisible. For in
truth, when I consider my mind, that is to say myself in as far as I om only a thinking
thing, I can distinguish no parts, but conceive myself as one single and complete
thing. (...) This would suffice to teach me that the mind or soul of man is entirely
different from the body, if I were not already convinced of it on other grounds”
Thomas Hobbes
1) “(...) in the mind of a man, appetites, and aversions, hopes, and fears, concerning
one and the same thing, arise alternately; (...) so that sometimes we have an appetite
to it; sometimes an aversion from it; sometimes hope to be able to do it; sometimes
despair, or fear to attempt it (...)”
2) “In deliberation, the last appetite, or aversion, immediately adhering to the action, or
to the omission thereof, is that we call the will; the act (...) of willing. And beasts that
have deliberation, must necessarily also have will”
3) “In summary, in what matter soever there is a place for addition and subtraction,
there is also a place for reason (...) for reason, in this sense, is nothing but reckoning
(that is, adding and subtracting) (...)”
4) “Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common power to keep
them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called warre; and such a warre, as
is of every man, against every man”
5) “In such conditions, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is
uncertain; and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the
commodities that may be imported by sea; (...) no knowledge of the face of the earth;
no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is the worst of all,
continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty,
brutish, and short”
6) “That a man be willing, when others are too, as farre-forth, as for peace, and defence
of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be
contented with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men
against himself”
John Locke
1) “It is an established opinion amongst some men that there are in the understanding
certain innate principles, some primary notions (...) which the soul receives in its very
first being and brings into the world with it. It would be sufficient to convince
unprejudiced readers of the falseness of this supposition, if I should only show (...)
how men, barely by the use of their natural faculties, mat attain to all the knowledge
they have, without the help of any innate impressions, and may arrive at certainty
Francesco Sizzi
1) “These are seven windows in the head, two nostrils, two ears, two eyes and a mouth;
so in the heavens there are two favourable stars, two unpropitious, two luminaries,
and Mercury alone undecided and indifferent. From which and many other similar
phenomena of nature,such as the seven metals, etc., which it were tedious to
enumerate, we gather that the number of planets is necessarily seven”
Johannes Kepler
1) “My aim is to show that the heavenly machine is not a kind of divine, living being, but
a kind of clockwork (...) in as far as nearly all the manifold motions are caused by a
moist simple, magnetic, and material force, just s all motions of the clock are caused
by a simple weight”
Rene Descartes
1) “(...) that it is possible to arrive at knowledge which is most useful in life, and that,
instead of the speculative philosophy taught in the Schools, a practical philosophy
can be found by which (...) we (...) make ourselves, as it were, masters and
possessors of nature”
2) “I shall suppose, therefore, that there is, not a true God, who is the sovereign source
of truth, but some evil demon, no less cunning and deceiving than powerful, who has
used all his artifice to deceive me. I will suppose that the heavens, the air, the earth,
colours, shapes, sounds and all external things that we see, are only illusions and
deceptions which he uses to take me in”
3) I suppose therefore that all the things I see are false; I persuade myself that none of
these things ever existed that my deceptive memory represents to me; I suppose I
have no sense; I believe that body, figure, extension, movement and place are only
fictions of my mind. What, then, shall be considered true? Perhaps only this, that
there is nothing certain in the world
4) “But I had persuaded myself that there was nothing at all in the world: no sky, no
earth, no minds or bodies; was I not, therefore, also persuaded that I did not exist?
No indeed; I existed without doubt, by the fact that I was persuaded, or indeed by the
mere fact that I thought at all. (...) So that (...) one must then, in conclusion, take as
assured that the proposition: I am, I exist, is necessarily true, everytime I express it or
conceive of it in my mind”
5) “I am, I exist: this is certain; but for how long? For as long as I think, it might perhaps
happen, if I ceased to think, that I would at the same time cease to be or to exist”
, 6) “(...) I here remark firstly, that there is a great difference between mind and body, in
that body, by its nature, is always divisible and that mind is entirely indivisible. For in
truth, when I consider my mind, that is to say myself in as far as I om only a thinking
thing, I can distinguish no parts, but conceive myself as one single and complete
thing. (...) This would suffice to teach me that the mind or soul of man is entirely
different from the body, if I were not already convinced of it on other grounds”
Thomas Hobbes
1) “(...) in the mind of a man, appetites, and aversions, hopes, and fears, concerning
one and the same thing, arise alternately; (...) so that sometimes we have an appetite
to it; sometimes an aversion from it; sometimes hope to be able to do it; sometimes
despair, or fear to attempt it (...)”
2) “In deliberation, the last appetite, or aversion, immediately adhering to the action, or
to the omission thereof, is that we call the will; the act (...) of willing. And beasts that
have deliberation, must necessarily also have will”
3) “In summary, in what matter soever there is a place for addition and subtraction,
there is also a place for reason (...) for reason, in this sense, is nothing but reckoning
(that is, adding and subtracting) (...)”
4) “Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common power to keep
them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called warre; and such a warre, as
is of every man, against every man”
5) “In such conditions, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is
uncertain; and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the
commodities that may be imported by sea; (...) no knowledge of the face of the earth;
no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is the worst of all,
continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty,
brutish, and short”
6) “That a man be willing, when others are too, as farre-forth, as for peace, and defence
of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be
contented with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men
against himself”
John Locke
1) “It is an established opinion amongst some men that there are in the understanding
certain innate principles, some primary notions (...) which the soul receives in its very
first being and brings into the world with it. It would be sufficient to convince
unprejudiced readers of the falseness of this supposition, if I should only show (...)
how men, barely by the use of their natural faculties, mat attain to all the knowledge
they have, without the help of any innate impressions, and may arrive at certainty
