Quotes from Joseph Priestley

In all controversies, it is better to wait the decisions of time, which are slow and sure, than to take those of synods, which are often hasty and injudicious

What I have known with respect to myself, has tended much to lessen both my admiration, and my contempt, of others.

In completing one discovery we never fail to get an imperfect knowledge of others of which we could have no idea before, so that we cannot solve one doubt without creating several new ones.

But it is not given to every electrician to die in so glorious a manner as the justly envied Richmann.

Will is nothing more than a particular case of the general doctrine of association of ideas, and therefore a perfectly mechanical thing.

The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.

But it is not given to every electrician to die in so glorious a manner as the justly envied Richmann. [G. W. Richmann died from being hit by lightning, which he had been investigating.]

In all controversies, it is better to wait the decisions of time, which are slow and sure, than to take those of synods, which are often hasty and injudicious

The wisdom of one generation will be folly in the next.

Every man, when he comes to be sensible of his natural rights, and to feel his own importance, will consider himself as fully equal to any other person whatever

Orthodoxy, my Lord,: said Bishop Warburton, in a whisper, — orthodoxy is my doxy, — heterodoxy is another man's doxy.

Could we have entered into the mind of Sir Isaac Newton, and have traced all the steps by which he produced his great works, we might see nothing very extraordinary in the process.

It is no use speaking in soft, gentle tones if everyone else is shouting.

When we say there is a GOD, we mean that there is an intelligent designing cause of what we see in the world around us, and a being who was himself uncaused.

Living in an age of advertisement, we are perpetually disillusioned. The perfect life is spread before us every day, but it changes and withers at a touch.

Marriage is like paying an endless visit in your worst clothes.