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The present state of things is the consequence of the former.
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“The present state of things is the consequence of the former.”

Samuel Johnson

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Source
Rasselas
Date
1759
Local voice
Fictional character · Imlac
Meaning

Meaning of “The present state of things is the consequence…”

Understanding present conditions requires tracing the earlier choices and causes that produced them rather than treating the present as isolated.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Rasselas, Chapter XXX; Imlac argues that studying history helps people understand the sources of present benefits and harms.

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Speaker context

Why the local voice matters

Imlac says this in Rasselas, Chapter XXX, while arguing that history helps explain the causes of present conditions.

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DecisionDeepLearning Quotes About Curiosity, Study & ExperienceLifeLife LessonsResponsibilityShortUnderstandingWisdom Quotes About Judgment & Living WellHistoryPastPerspective
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The judgment when formed is a decision; it closes (or concludes) the question at issue.
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“The judgment when formed is a decision; it closes (or concludes) the question at issue.”

John Dewey · How We Think · 1910
Meaning & context

Reflective judgment is not endless suspension: Dewey describes it as the point at which a particular uncertainty is concluded in a way that can also inform later judgments.

Source details

How We Think (1910), Chapter VIII, “Judgment: The Interpretation of Facts,” section 1, printed page 107, Project Gutenberg #37423. Dewey identifies a formed judgment as a decision that closes the issue at hand and may help establish a method for analogous later cases. The statement belongs to his early-twentieth-century theory of reflective judgment rather than current clinical, neuroscientific or experimentally settled cognitive science.

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We must know the truth; and we must avoid error.
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“We must know the truth; and we must avoid error.”

William James · The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy · 1897
Meaning & context

James separates two intellectual duties—seeking truth and avoiding falsehood—to show that prioritizing one over the other can produce different habits of belief and inquiry.

Source details

The Will to Believe, essay “The Will to Believe”; Project Gutenberg #26659. James immediately argues that truth-seeking and error-avoidance are distinct laws rather than two phrasings of one command.

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Happy is the man who learns from the misfortunes of others.
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“Happy is the man who learns from the misfortunes of others.”

Aesop · Aesop’s Fables — The Lion, the Fox, and the Ass · Townsend translation
Meaning & context

Other people’s failures can become instruction when we pay attention to consequences before repeating the same mistake ourselves.

Source details

Moral printed after “The Lion, the Fox, and the Ass”; the fox changes his conduct after observing the ass’s fate.

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He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.
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“He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.”

John Stuart Mill · On Liberty · 1859
Meaning & context

Understanding a position requires serious contact with competing arguments; familiarity with only one side can produce confidence without real comprehension.

Source details

On Liberty, Chapter 2; Mill argues for open discussion because opposing views expose weaknesses and sharpen understanding.

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It is never too late to be wise;
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“It is never too late to be wise;”

Daniel Defoe · Robinson Crusoe · 1719
Meaning & context

Crusoe reflects that judgment can improve even after years of mistakes, using later experience to reinterpret earlier choices and warnings he once ignored.

Source details

Robinson Crusoe, represented by Project Gutenberg #38705. Crusoe says this while reflecting on what he interprets as secret intimations of Providence; the sentence is fictional first-person religious reflection, not evidence for supernatural guidance.

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All men by nature desire to know.
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“All men by nature desire to know.”

Aristotle · Metaphysics · c. 350 BCE
Meaning & context

Aristotle treats the desire for knowledge as a basic human tendency, giving curiosity a foundational place in the movement from perception toward understanding.

Source details

Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book I, Chapter I, W. D. Ross translation (1908), validated Wikisource scan leaf 21. 'All men by nature desire to know' opens the work before the discussion of sensation, memory, experience, art and knowledge. This remains ancient philosophy mediated by translation, not a modern empirical finding about cognition.

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