We are the antiques

 We have a mistaken apprehension of antiquity,

calling that so, which in truth is the world's nonage.

-- Joseph Glanvill

Portents are a dime a dozen

 Every unwonted meteor is portentous, and some divine prognostick.

-- Joseph Glanvill

On the confident certainty of the ignorant

Shallow unimproved intellects, are confident pretenders to certainty;

as if, contrary to the adage, science had no friend but ignorance.

-- Joseph Glanvill

The unreliable testimony of sense

Whether the earth move or rest, I undertake not to determine: my work is to prove, that the common inducement to the belief of its quiescence, the testimony of sense, is weak and frivolous. ... Though the earth move, its motion must needs be as insensible as if it were quiescent.

-- Joseph Glanvill

Not so august antiquity

There is nothing so contemptible, but antiquity can render it august and excellent.

-- Joseph Glanvill

Jesus, we hardly knew ye

If we owe it to him that we know so much,

it is perhaps long of his fond adorers

that we know so little more.

-- Joseph Glanville

Imaginary appearances

 

 

Imaginary appearances offer themselves

to our impatient minds,

which entertain these counterfeits,

without the least suspicion of their cozenage.

-- Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680)