title: Deep Thought: 42 Fantastic Quotes That Define Philosophy
author:  Gary Cox 
description: This entertaining and intelligent book of quotations is an excellent introduction to a vast and complex history of thought in the Western world that will leave you wiser for having read it. <i>The Bookbag</i>
zlib_text: ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
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  EPISTLE I. TO SIR RICHARD TEMPLE, LORD VISCOUNT COBHAM  
    
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com
  
  
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  # EPISTLE I. TO SIR RICHARD TEMPLE, LORD VISCOUNT COBHAM
  
  
  ### Alexander Pope
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
    
    
    
    
  
  
  Yes, you despise the Man to books confin'd,  
  
  
  Who from his Study rails at human kind;  
  
  
  Tho' what he learns he speaks, and may advance  
  
  
  Some gen'ral maxims, or be right by chance.  
  
  
  The coxcomb bird, so talkative and grave,  
  
  
  That from his cage cries cuckold, whore, and knave,  
  
  
  Tho' many a passenger he rightly call,  
  
  
  You hold him no Philosopher at all.  
  
  
  And yet the fate of all Extremes is such,  
  
  
  Men may be read, as well as books, too much,  
  
  
  To observations which ourselves we make,  
  
  
  We grow more partial for th'Observer's sake;  
  
  
  To written wisdom, as another's, less:  
  
  
  Maxims are drawn from Notions, t