So far of the effects of the love of praise and distinction: and if after enumerating some of these, you should proceed to investigate its nature, We admit, it might be added, that a hasty and misjudging world often misapplies commendations and censures: and whilst we therefore confess, that the praises of the discerning few are alone truly valuable; we acknowledge that it were better if mankind were always to act from the sense of right and the love of virtue, without reference to the opinions of their fellow-creatures.
"A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity."
William Wilberforce
On the whole question he has but one remark of any value, and that he misapplies; namely, that the study of the conditions of national wealth as a detached subject is unphilosophical, because, all the different aspects of social phaenomena acting and reacting on one another, they cannot be rightly understood apart: which by no means proves that the material and industrial phaenomena of society are not, even by themselves, susceptible of useful generalizations, but only that these generalizations must necessarily be relative to a given form of civilization and a given stage of social advancement.
"Auguste Comte and Positivism"
John-Stuart Mill
The speaker misapplies to love and the truths obtained by love Browning's doctrine concerning knowledge.
"Robert Browning"
Edward Dowden
