Quote#Nature
All that the book contains is the elucidation of but one precept:…
Quote byAlexander Bryan Johnson · 1786–1867
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: A Treatise on Language: Or, The Relation which Words Bear to Things, in Four Parts (1836), Preface..
English (original)
All that the book contains is the elucidation of but one precept: namely, to interpret language by nature. We [generally and incorrectly] reverse the rule and interpret nature by language.
— Alexander Bryan Johnson
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Man exists in a world of his own creation.
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when my language or positions shall, in a casual perusal, seem absurd
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Success but sharpens his avidity, and facility but augments his impatience.
As theories are the means by which we attempt to discourse of external existences that our senses cannot discover; and as the desire for such discourse originates a large portion of our theories; I will teach you the capacity of language …