Cogito, ergo sum

“ His great object, in the first place, was emphatically to signalize the very singular and altogether anomalous phenomenon we have spoken of, namely, the identity in man of thought and reality, and then to found upon this point as on a rock which no conceivable scepticism could shake; and, in the second place, he attempted to point out the genesis of the ego, in so far as it admitted of logical exposition. Cogito ergo sum—I am conscious, therefore I am—that is—consciousness—or the notion of "I," takes place in a particular Being—and the reality of "I" is the immediate result. ”

“ Cranmer, though a scholastic, seems to have perceived that nothing is more misleading and uncertain and unsatisfactory than any truth pushed out to its severest logical conclusions without reference to other truths which have for their support the same divine authority. It is not logic which has built up the most enduring institutions, but common-sense and plain truths, and appeals to human consciousness,—the cogito, ergo sum, without whose approval most systems have perished. ”

“ We cannot find the absolute basis of matter; we only know it by its properties; neither know we the soul in any other way. Cogito ergo sum is the only thing that we certainly know.
Why may not soul and matter be of the same substance (i.e., basis whereon to fix qualities; for we cannot suppose a quality to exist per se, it must have a something to qualify) , but with different qualities? ”

“ Physical laws appear self-evident just until they are subjected to comparison with metaphysical. The Cogito ergo sum is absolutely conclusive when man considers himself as a finite being; but when he includes [Pg 18] himself in God, the one true being, he realises that in truth he does not exist at all. By means of extension and its three dimensions we believe ourselves to establish eternal truths ”

“ There are said to have been people who, when a limb had been amputated, still felt pain in the severed member. Twofold mode of all being: what has been from the beginning and what has only become. Cogito ergo sum; am I not much more under the dominion of the thinking faculty within me than the latter is under my dominion? Individuality is not so much the goal as the way, and not so much the best way as the only one. ”

“ The affirmation, Cogito, ergo sum, Fichte rightly affirms to involve, not a deduction, of which the major premise is: Whatever thinks, is; but, a direct fact of consciousness. In another connection, he criticises Descartes unjustly, by affirming that thought represents only one form of our being, while there are, besides this, many other forms. We not only think, we do much else. This criticism is false, for Fichte seems not to have recognized the fact that thought, considered in its most universal form, is a constant element of all our other activity. ”

“ It was instituted in 1755 at the White Bear Inn (now St Bride’s Tavern) , Fleet Street, moved about 1850 to Discussion Hall, Shoe Lane, and in 1871 finally migrated to the Barley Mow Inn, Salisbury Square, E.C., its present quarters. The name is often wrongly spelt Codgers and Coggers; the “o” is really long, the accepted derivation being from Descartes’ Cogito, ergo sum, and thus meaning “The society of thinkers.” ”

“ And, moreover, it was the cogito that introduced a distinction which, although fruitful of truths, has been fruitful also of confusions, and this distinction is that between object, cogito, and subject, sum. There is scarcely any distinction that does not also lead to confusion. ”

“ If it were, since man, as the Cartesians admitted, consists of body and mind, thought would be the cause of the body: a doctrine which would plunge us into all the mazes of the controversy on the mutual effects of mind and matter. The cogito, then, is a mere sign or indication of my existence, and nothing more. The clear and distinct idea cannot serve as a criterion even of the mind itself, to say nothing of other things; since the mind, though it knows itself, does not create itself, and accordingly is ignorant of the genus or mode by which it has this knowledge. ”

“ The man, finding no other way to save himself, said, ‘Leave hold of me and fling yourself down on the road face upwards. At the first belching that you give half your soul will leave your body; at the second, all will go and not a particle will remain.’ The Cogia did so, and at the second belching, laying himself down on the ground, he cried, ‘I am dead,’ and remained motionless. Forthwith the Ulemas hastened to him, and bringing with them a coffin, placed him in it, saying, ‘Let us carry him home.’ On their way, coming to a miry place, they said, ‘We will rest,’ and began to talk together. ”

“ Once as Nasr Eddin Efendi was walking in Belgrade he cried out, ‘O Lord! give me a thousand altoons, but if one be wanting I will not take the rest.’ Now these words of the Cogia were heard by a neighbour of his, a Jew, who, in order to try the Cogia, put nine hundred and ninety-nine altoons into a purse and flung it down the Cogia’s chimney. The Cogia sees a purse full of money before him, up he gets, and saying, ‘Our prayer has been accepted,’ he opens the purse, and, counting the altoons, finds that one is wanting. ”

“ There's no use talking about the logical or the illogical, the rational or the irrational, when it comes to Coogan's story. Coogan's story is just Coogan's story, that's all there is to it. What one man does another doesn't. You can't cancel the human equation because there's nothing to cancel it with; it's there all the time swaying, compelling, dominating every act in a man's life. The higher branches of mathematics go far, and to some men three dimensions are but elemental, but there is one problem even they have never solved and never will solve—the human equation. ”

“ I am going about in bodily fear of him, Dr. Grimstone. I want him bound over to keep the peace. I decline to be left alone with him—he's not safe!'
'Is that so, Coggs? Are you mean and base enough to take this cowardly revenge on a boy who has had the moral courage to expose your deceit—for your ultimate good—a boy who is unable to defend himself against you?'
'He can fight when he chooses, sir,' said Coggs; 'he blacked my eye last term, sir!'
'I assure you,' said Paul, with the convincing earnestness of truth, 'that I never blacked anybody's eye in the whole course of my life. ”

“ One day they said to the Cogia, ‘Pray what may be your horoscope?’ Said the Cogia, ‘I was born under the sign of the He-goat.’ ‘O Cogia,’ said they, ‘there is no such sign as the He-goat.’ Said the Cogia, ‘When I was a child my mother had my horoscope taken, and at that time the Kid was in the ascension.’ ‘O Cogia,’ said they, ‘that’s all right; but a kid is one thing and a he-goat is another.’ Said the Cogia, ‘O you simpletons! ”

“ Bultitude stiffly, 'that I am indeed going to "catch it," as you call it.'
'Hooray!' shouted Coggs hysterically: 'I don't care now. And I'll have some revenge on my own account as well. I don't mind an extra licking, and you're in for one as it is. Will you stand up to me or not?'
'I don't understand you,' said Paul. 'Don't come so near. Keep off, you young demon, will you!' he cried presently, as Coggs, exasperated by all his wrongs, was rushing at him with an evidently hostile intent. 'There, don't be annoyed, my good boy,' he pleaded, catching up a chair as a bulwark. ”

“ The merchant owned that he had kept the jar belonging to Ali Cogia in his warehouse, but he denied having touched it, and made oath that he only knew that it contained olives because Ali Cogia had told him so, and that he considered them all as witnesses of the insulting affront which had been offered to him in his own house.
“You have drawn the affront on yourself,” said Ali Cogia, taking him by the arm; “but since you behave so wickedly, I cite you by the law of God. Let us see if you will have the face to say the same before the cadi.” ”

“ Coheleth has achieved the quest; he has solved his problem, and has given us his solution of it. He is about to repeat that solution. To give emphasis and force to the repetition, that he may carry his readers more fully with him, he dwells on his claims to their respect, their confidence, their affection. He is all that they most admire; he carries the very authority to which they most willingly defer. ”

“ One day a man came to the house of the Cogia and asked him to lend him his ass. ‘He is not at home,’ replied the Cogia. But it so happened that the ass began to bray within. ‘O Cogia Efendi,’ said the man, ‘you say that the ass is not at home, and there he is braying within.’ ‘What a strange fellow you are!’ said the Cogia. ‘You believe the ass, but will not believe a grey-bearded man like me.’ p. ”

“ Are you very poor?" [Pg 177]
"Poor enough for a hermit. My father is not much richer; and as I have the good fortune to be a younger son, the little he has will go to George, my elder brother, not to me."
Lucia was silent a moment, thinking.
"Are you frightened?" he asked her. "You did not know things were quite so bad?"
"I am not frightened," she answered. "But I was considering. Mamma has some money; she would give me what she could, but I am not like Bella, you know. I have not any fortune at all."
Mr. Percy laughed, "Do not puzzle yourself over such difficulties to-night, at any rate. ”

“ Coheleth is like the sieve. He is the good student who has sifted all the schemes and ways and aims of men, separating the wheat from the bran, teaching us to know the bran as bran, the wheat as wheat. It is a true "corn of heaven" which he offers us, and not any of the husks to obtain which reckless and prodigal man has often wasted his whole living—husks which, though they have the form and hue of wheat, have not its nutriment, and cannot therefore satisfy the keen hunger of the soul. ”

“ Coggs was clearly the culprit.
"Do you encourage your boys to make common nuisances of themselves in a public place, may I ask, Dr. Grimstone?" he inquired, fuming.
"Some scarcely seem to require encouragement, Bultitude," said the Doctor pointedly: "what is the matter now?"
"If he takes it medicinally," said Paul, "he should choose some other time and place to treat his complaint. If he has a depraved liking for the abominable stuff, for Heaven's sake make him refrain from it on occasions when it is a serious annoyance to others!" ”

“ A man who saw what happened, cried out, ‘There he goes!’ Whereupon the Cogia said, ‘Hallo, man: why do you cry out? You must not hinder a wolf who has dined from mounting.’
One day as the Cogia was conducting his ass to the market, the tail of the animal becoming draggled with mud, the Cogia cut it off and put it into a sack. Arriving at the market, he put up the ass to auction ”

“ Forty or fifty years have passed since then. Must not the kid have become an old goat?’
One day whilst the Cogia was holding an oration at the Castle of Siouri, he was contradicted by the Soubashi or Superintendent. Shortly after, it happened that the Soubashi died and was buried; whereupon they said, ‘Come, Efendi, preach a sermon over him.’ ‘You must find some one else,’ said the Cogia. ”

“ For one, Coheleth thinks it has not. In his judgment, according to his experience, instead of making a man happier even in this present time, to which it limits his thoughts and aims, it robs him of all quiet and happy enjoyment of his life. And, mark, it is not the unsuccessful man of business, who might naturally feel sore and aggrieved, but the successful man, the man who has made a fortune and prospered in his schemes, whom the Preacher describes as having lost all faculty of enjoying his gains. ”

“ Let some one go for a fly immediately. Boys, go into the waiting room till I come to you. Stay—there are too many for one fly. Coker, Coggs, and, let me see, yes, Bultitude, you all know your way. Walk on and tell Mrs. Grimstone we are coming.'
Paul Bultitude was perhaps more relieved than disappointed by this postponement of a disagreeable interview, though, if he had seen Coker dig Coggs in the side with a chuckle of exultant triumph, he might have had misgivings as to the prudence of trusting himself alone with them. ”

“ Bultitude; 'what do you say to a shilling?'
'You haven't got a shilling,' objected Coggs.
'Here's a shilling, see,' said Paul, producing one. 'Now then, I'll give this to any boy I see get into tea first!'
'Bultitude thinks he can run,' said Coker, with an amiable unbelief in any disinterestedness. 'He means to get in first and keep the shilling himself, I know.'
'I'll back myself to run him any day,' put in Coggs. ”

“ It was a most exciting and hotly contested race. Paul saw them for one brief moment in the lamplight. He saw Chawner scudding down the path like some great camel, and Coker squaring his arms and working them as if they were wings. Coggs seemed to be last.
He ran a little way himself just to encourage them, but, as the sound of their feet grew fainter and fainter, he felt that his last desperate ruse had taken effect, and with a chuckle at his own cleverness, turned round and ran his fastest in the opposite direction. He felt little or no interest in the result of the race. ”

“ Cody was fifty years old then, a product of the Nevada silver fields, of the Yukon, of every rush for metal since seventy-five. The transactions in Montana copper that made him many times a millionaire found him physically robust but on the verge of soft-mindedness, and, suspecting this, an infinite number of women tried to separate him from his money. The none too savory ramifications by which Ella Kaye, the newspaper woman, played Madame de Maintenon to his weakness and sent him to sea in a yacht, were common knowledge to the turgid sub or suppressed journalism of 1902. ”