The Universe Ought To Be

We Shall Do Better To Abandon The Whole Attempt To Learn The Truthunless We Can Trust To The Human Mind's Having Such A Powerof Guessing Right That Before Very Many Hypotheses Shall Have Been Tried, Intelligent Guessing May Be Expected To Lead Us To One Which Will Support All Tests, Leaving The Vast Majority Of Possible Hypotheses Unexamined.

The Truth Is, That Common-sense, Or Thought As It First Emerges Above The Level Of The Narrowly Practical, Is Deeply Imbued With That Bad Logical Quality To Which The Epithet Metaphysical Is Commonly Applied; And Nothing Can Clear It Up But A Severe Course Of Logic.

The Entire Universe Is Perfused With Signs, If It Is Not Composed Exclusively Of Signs.

If Man Were Immortal He Could Be Perfectly Sure Of Seeing The Day When Everything In Which He Had Trusted Should Betray His Trust.

Truth Is That Concordance Of An Abstract Statement With The Ideal Limit Towards Which Endless Investigation Would Tend To Bring Scientific Belief, Which Concordance The Abstract Statement May Possess By Virtue Of The Confession Of Its Inaccuracy And One-sidedness, And This Confession Is An Essential Ingredient Of Truth.