“History is for human self-knowledge…the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.”
― R.G. Collingwood (1889-1943)
“Thus natural science is not a way of knowing the real world; its value lies not in its truth but in its utility; by scientific thought we do not know nature, we dismember it in order to master it.”
― R.G. Collingwood (1889-1943)
“Rational truth—and all truth is rational—is essentially that which can justify itself under criticism and in discussion.”
― R.G. Collingwood (1889-1943)
“A man ceases to be a beginner in any given science and becomes a master in that science when he has learned that he is going to be a beginner all his life.”
― R.G. Collingwood (1889-1943)
“Economics is not a true description of one kind of action but an abstract, arbitrary, and therefore erroneous description of all action; and the ‘economic man’ whom it describes is not, in these days, denied to be a fictitious entity”
― R.G. Collingwood (1889-1943)
“The world of imagination is thought implicit, the world of thought, so called, is thought explicit.”
― R.G. Collingwood (1889-1943)
"Like other revolutionaries I can thank God for the reactionaries. They clarify the issue."
― Robin G. Collingwood (1889-1943)
"Perfect Freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work, and in that work does what he wants to do."
― Robin G. Collingwood (1889-1943)
"Classical art stands for form; romantic art for content."
― Robin G. Collingwood (1889-1943)
"The value of history. ..is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is."
― Robin G. Collingwood (1889-1943)