Comments on: The sad decline of “refute” http://nostradoofus.com/2010/02/20/the-sad-decline-of-refute/ armchair futurology and stuff. Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:35:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Eric http://nostradoofus.com/2010/02/20/the-sad-decline-of-refute/comment-page-1/#comment-74 Eric Sun, 21 Feb 2010 08:50:36 +0000 http://nostradoofus.com/?p=734#comment-74 I refute this via George Will's favorite quote boy source: “After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, 'I refute it thus.' ” – Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791 I refute this via George Will’s favorite quote boy source:

“After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley’s ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, ‘I refute it thus.’ ”
– Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791

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