Francis Macdonald Cornford

“The safe man is he who has acquired a technique.”

“There is only one argument for doing something; the rest are arguments for doing nothing.”

“Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning.”

“The Principle of the Wedge is that you should not act justly now for fear of raising expectations that you may act still more justly in the future.”

“Every public action which is not customary, is either wrong, or, if it is right, is a dangerous precedent. It follows that nothing should ever be done for the first time.”

“Dogma is a defensive reaction against doubt in the mind of the theorist, but doubt of which he is unaware.”

“The carving of letters on stone is the turning point in the history of writing.”

“The art of public speaking is to make your audience feel wise and pleased with themselves.”

“A lecture is a process by which the notes of the professor become the notes of the student, without passing through the minds of either.”

“In the history of human thought, the most fruitful developments frequently take place at those points where two different lines of thought meet.”

“The scientific man is the only person who has anything to say and who does not know how to say it.”