There is assuredly no more effectual method of clearing up one's own mind on any subject than by talking it over, so to speak, with men of real power and grasp, who have considered it from a totally different point of view.
The parallax of time helps us to the true position of a conception, as the parallax of space helps us to that of a star.
[If animals are conscious automata with souls] the soul stands related to the body as the bell of a clock to the works, and consciousness answers to the sound which the bell gives out when it is struck.
Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men.
The only question which any wise man can ask himself, and which any honest man will ask himself, is whether a doctrine is true or false.