Remarks by Thomas Stanley | V2Melody Quotations

“As for the severall moods, which, in musicall compositions, were observed by the Antients, for moving particular passions, there is a remarkable fragment of Damon the Musitian.”

His historical discussion recognises music as an ancient means of deliberately affecting human emotion. · The History of Philosophy, 1660

“I send this book to you, because you first directed me to this design.”

A brief expression of gratitude to the relative whose encouragement helped initiate the project. · Dedication to John Marsham, The History of Philosophy, 1655

“When advanced to such height wee look down to the bottom from which philosophy first took her rise, and see how great a progresse she hath made.”

He describes intellectual history as a vantage point from which the development of philosophy can be surveyed. · Preface, The History of Philosophy, 1655

“There is not any thing more difficult to be retrieved out of the Ruins of Antiquity than the Learning of the Eastern Nations, and particularly that of the Chaldaeans.”

He acknowledges the formidable difficulty of reconstructing knowledge from fragmentary ancient sources. · The History of the Chaldaick Philosophy, 1662

“Those on whom the Attribute of Wise was conferred are the subject of this History.”

A compact expression of his interest in philosophy through the lives and reputations of its practitioners. · Title page, The History of Philosophy, 1655

“The History of Philosophy containing the lives, opinions, actions and discourses of the philosophers of every sect.”

The formulation captures Stanley's unusually biographical conception of philosophical history. · Title and description, The History of Philosophy, 1655

“It is manifest that the original of the Greek Philosophy is to be deriv'd from Thales, who travelling into the East, first brought Natural learning, Geometry, and Astrology thence into Greece.”

He presents philosophy as a tradition transmitted across cultures rather than arising in isolation. · Preface, The History of Philosophy, 1656

“Although some Grecians have challenged to their Nation the Original of Philosophy, yet the more learned of them have acknowledged it derived from the East.”

Stanley challenges a purely Greek account of the origins of philosophy. · Preface, The History of Philosophy, 1656

“What is most particular, by its nearer affinity with us, hath greatest influence upon us.”

A succinct defence of the particular human example as a source of intellectual and moral influence. · Preface, The History of Philosophy, 1655

“He who rests satisfied with the general relation of affairs, not fixing upon some eminent actor in that story, loseth its greatest benefit.”

Stanley argues that individual lives make history more immediate and instructive. · Preface, The History of Philosophy, 1655

“History is not unlike Painting: their scope is the same; to represent things absent as if present, and make us acquainted with persons whom we never saw.”

He compares historical writing with painting as ways of bringing absent people and events vividly before the mind. · Preface, The History of Philosophy, 1655

“History, which by expounding actions past teacheth to regulate the future, and furnisheth us with wisdom at the cost of other mens experience.”

He presents history as a practical teacher whose lessons can be learned without repeating the past. · Preface, The History of Philosophy, 1655

“Our scope being of a greater latitude, affords less opportunity of those excursions, which, in his narrow bounds, are not only allowable, but necessary.”

A revealing statement about the constraints imposed by the breadth of his historical project. · Dedicatory epistle, The History of Philosophy, 1655

“The learned Gassendus was my precedent; whom nevertheless I have not followed in his partiality, for he, though limited to a single person, yet giveth himself liberty of enlargement.”

Stanley acknowledges his intellectual debt while stressing his intention to pursue a broader historical scope. · Dedicatory epistle, The History of Philosophy, 1655

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