Remarks by James Beattie | V2Melody Quotations

Search

Topic

Browse topics

Showing 15 of 15 remarks

“I wish in a word, not to make Humes of them, or Leibnitzes, but rather, if that were possible, Addisons.”

Preferring to form students of taste and principle rather than pure metaphysicians · Letter on his teaching aims

“Setting aside his merit as a poet, which, however, is greater in my opinion than any of his contemporaries can boast, in this or any other nation, I found him possessed of the most exact taste, the soundest judgment, and the most extensive learning.”

Praising Gray's conversation and learning beyond his poetry after meeting him · Letter to Sir William Forbes, on Thomas Gray

“I am resolved to write no more poetry with a view to publication, till I see some dawnings of a poetical taste among the generality of readers.”

Expressing reluctance to publish further verse until public taste improves · Letter to Thomas Blacklock

“Not long ago I began a poem in the style and stanza of Spenser, in which I propose to give full scope to my inclination, and be either droll or pathetic, descriptive or sentimental, tender or satirical, as the humour strikes me.”

Describing the flexible Spenserian form he chose for The Minstrel to suit varied moods and subjects · Letter to Thomas Blacklock

“The love of God ought continually to predominate in the mind, and give to every act of duty grace and animation.”

Holding that divine love should animate and elevate all moral duties · Elements of Moral Science

“I flatter myself that I shall ere long be in the way of becoming a great man. For have I not headaches like Pope? vertigo like Swift? grey hairs like Homer?”

Playfully equating his ailments with those of celebrated figures as a path to greatness · Letter to Charles Boyd

“There is not a book on earth so favorable to all the kind and to all the sublime affections, or so unfriendly to hatred and persecution, to tyranny, injustice, and every sort of malevolence, as the Gospel.”

Praising the Gospel for fostering benevolence and opposing cruelty and oppression · Elements of Moral Science

“To think everything disputable is a proof of a weak mind and a captious temper.”

Warning against habitual scepticism that undermines conviction and practical wisdom · Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth

“In every age, and in every man, there is something to praise, as well as something to blame.”

Urging balanced judgment that acknowledges both merits and faults across time and individuals · Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth

“The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men.”

Advocating education that cultivates independent judgment rather than mere accumulation of others' ideas · Elements of Moral Science

“A great part of the misery of mankind proceeds from their ignorance of themselves.”

Linking human suffering to a failure of self-knowledge · Essay on Truth

“The human mind is never at a stand; it is always advancing or receding.”

Emphasising the mind’s continual movement and moral development · Essay on Truth

Time
Truth

“Truth is the foundation of all knowledge, and the cement of all society.”

Presenting truth as both an intellectual and social necessity · Essay on Truth

“The pleasures of imagination are the most refined and exquisite of all.”

Celebrating imaginative experience as a particularly elevated form of pleasure · Essay on Poetry and Music

“Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason.”

Defining poetry as a collaboration between imagination, truth, and delight · Essay on Poetry and Music