So, when on one side you hoist in Locke's head, you go over that way; but now, on the other side, hoist in Kant's and you come back again; but in very poor plight. Thus, some minds for ever keep trimming boat. Oh, ye foolish! throw all these thunder-heads overboard, and then you will float light and right. Herman Melville
About This Quote

To be honest, you need to throw out some of the books that you have read. A lot of the time we end up reading things that are not necessarily helpful to us. What we really need to do is toss all of the ideas that we have heard and read in chronological order. The most important thing is to understand what is true and what is not.

For example, if you read Plato’s Republic and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, you will not accomplish anything by doing so. It may actually cause you to feel confused and overwhelmed because both authors had different points of view.

Source: Mobydick Or, The Whale

Some Similar Quotes
  1. A day without laughter is a day wasted. - Nicolas Chamfort
  2. You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts. - Kahlil Gibran
  3. One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and... - Stephen Hawking
  4. There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. - William Shakespeare
  5. You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it. - Malcolm X
More Quotes By Herman Melville
  1. Cannibals? Who is not a cannibal? I tell you it will be more tolerable for the Fejee that salted down a lean missionary in his cellar against a coming famine; it will be more tolerable for that provident Fejee, I say, in the day of...
  2. So, when on one side you hoist in Locke's head, you go over that way; but now, on the other side, hoist in Kant's and you come back again; but in very poor plight. Thus, some minds for ever keep trimming boat. Oh, ye foolish!...
  3. Is it not curious, that so vast a being as the whale should see the world through so small an eye, and hear the thunder through an ear which is smaller than a hare's? But if his eyes were broad as the lens of Herschel's...
  4. Queequeg was a native of Kokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down in any map; true places never are.
  5. But vain to popularize profundities, and all truth is profound.
Related Topics