Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike; Alike reserv'd to blame, or to commend, A tim'rous foe, and a suspicious friend.
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Assent -- and you are sane -- , demur -- you're straightway dangerous -- , and handled with a Chain -- .
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...although both the Academics and the Pyrrhonian Skeptics say that they believe some things, yet here too the difference between the two philosophies is quite plain. For the word believe has different meanings; it means not to resist but simply to follow without any strong impulse or inclination, as the boy is said to believe his tutor; but sometimes it means to assent to a thing of deliberate choice and with a kind of sympathy due to strong desire, as when the incontinent man believes him who approves of an extravagant mode of life. Since, therefore, Carneades and Cleitomachus declare that a strong inclination accompanies their credence
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In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.
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Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent.
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His lordship pronounced his assent to take to wife his destined prey (in the words 'I will'), with a voice as audible as generally breaks fort...
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You can get assent to almost any proposition so long as you are not going to do anything about it.
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The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.
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I trust the time is nigh when, with the universal assent of civilized people, all international differences shall be determined without resort...
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The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma
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That all men are equal is a proposition which, at ordinary times, no sane individual has ever given his assent.
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That all men are equal is a proposition to which, at ordinary times, no sane human being has ever given his assent.
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Faith means intense, usually confident, belief that is not based on evidence sufficient to command assent from every reasonable person.
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