Philosopher Quotes - Page 26

• The great Sufi poet and philosopher Rumi once advised his students to write down the three things they most wanted in life. If any item on the list clashes with any other item, Rumi warned, you are destined for unhappiness.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Writing, Three, Lists

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2009). “Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything”, p.30, Bloomsbury Publishing

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Philosophers play with the word, like a child with a doll.... It does not mean that everything in life is relative.

  Albert Einstein

  Children, Mean, Play

  6 Copy quote

• Earnsha was not to be civilized with a wish, and my young lady was no philosopher, and no paragon of patience; but both their minds tending to the same point - one loving and desiring to esteem, and the other loving and desiring to be esteemed - they contrived in the end to reach it.

  Emily Bronte

  Mind, Wish, Ends

  Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.592, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The philosopher Elaine Scarry has observed that "beauty always takes place in the particular." Cruelty, on the other hand, prefers abstraction.

  Jonathan Safran Foer

  Hands, Cruelty, Particular

  "Eating Animals". Book by Jonathan Safran Foer, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• This does not mean that you are warmongers. On the contrary, the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: "Only the dead have seen the end of war.

  Douglas MacArthur

  Plato, War, Mean

  Sylvanus Thayer Award Acceptance Address, delivered 12 May 1962, West Point, NY

  41 Copy quote

  Show source

• Some people spend their whole lives looking for themselves, yet our self is the one thing we surely cannot lose (how like a cheap philosopher I am become, staying in this benighted place). From the moment we are conceived it is the pattern in our blood and our bones are printed through with it like sticks of seaside rock. Nora, on the other hand, says that she’s surprised anyone knows who they are, considering that every cell and molecule in our bodies has been replaced many times over since we were born.

  Kate Atkinson

  Rocks, Self, Cells

  Kate Atkinson (2013). “Emotionally Weird: A Novel”, p.11, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• That's why it's always worth having a few philosophers around the place. One minute it's all is truth beauty and is beauty truth, and does a falling tree in the forest make a sound if there's no one there to hear it, and then just when you think they're going to start dribbling one of 'em says, incidentally, putting a thirty-foot parabolic reflector on a high place to shoot the rays of the sun at an enemy's ships would be a very interesting demonstration of optical principles.

  Terry Pratchett

  Fall, Thinking, Feet

  "Small Gods". Book by ‎Terry Pratchett, 1992.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I will not die, it's the world that will end." paraphrase of unknown philosopher

  Ayn Rand

  World, Ends, Paraphrase

  4 Copy quote

• Dad was a philosopher and had what he called his Theory of Purpose, which held that everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time.

  Jeannette Walls

  Dad, Space, Purpose

  Jeannette Walls (2009). “Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel”, p.24, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Symbols and emblems were everywhere. Buildings and pictures were designed to be read like books. Everything stood for something else; if you had the right dictionary, you could read Nature itself. It was hardly surprising to find philosophers using the symbolism of their time to interpret knowledge that came from a mysterious source.

  Philip Pullman

  Book, Symbolism, Mysterious

  Philip Pullman (1995). “Northern lights”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• From the philosopher Catulus, never to be dismissive of a friend's accusation, even if it seems unreasonable, but to make every effort to restore the relationship to its normal condition.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Effort, Normal, Accusation

  5 Copy quote

• The poets and philosophers I once loved had it wrong. Death does not come to us all, nor does the passage of time dim our memories and reduce our bodies to dust. Because while I was considered dead, and a headstone had been engraved with my name, in truth my life was just beginning.

  Kevin Williamson

  Memories, Dust, Names

  4 Copy quote

• Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox, whose philosopher is a juggler, and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking. Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another ruler with trumpetings again. Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years and whose strong men are yet in the cradle. Pity the nation divided into fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation.

  Khalil Gibran

  Art, Strong, Farewell

  274 Copy quote

• The feelings of our heart, the agitation of our passions, the vehemence of our affections, dissipate all its conclusions, and reduce the profound philosopher to a mere plebeian

  David Hume

  Passion, Heart, Profound

  David Hume (1772). “An inquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An. inquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion”, p.5

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• What you can imagine depends on what you know. Philosophers who know only philosophy consign themselves to a janitorial role in the great enterprises of exploration that are illuminating the mysteries of our lives.

  Daniel Dennett

  Philosophy, Roles, Mystery

  7 Copy quote

• How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Philosophy, Doe, Ephemeral

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2004). “On the Suffering of the World”, p.87, Penguin UK

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• Experiences are the chemicals of life with which the philosopher experiments

  Manly Hall

  Chemicals, Experiments

  Manly Palmer Hall (1926). “The All-seeing Eye”

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• George's son had done his work so thoroughly that he was considered too good a workman to live, and was, in fact, taken and tragically shot at twelve o'clock that same day—another instance of the untoward fate which so often attends dogs and other philosophers who follow out a train of reasoning to its logical conclusion, and attempt perfectly consistent conduct in a world made up so largely of compromise.

  Thomas Hardy

  Dog, Taken, Fate

  Thomas Hardy (2016). “Far from the Madding Crowd: Works of Hardy”, p.27, 谷月社

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we only look far enough off for the consequence of our actions, we can always find some point in the combination of results by which those actions can be justified: by adopting the point of view of a Providence who arranges results, or of a philosopher who traces them, we shall find it possible to obtain perfect complacency in choosing to do what is most agreeable to us in the present moment.

  George Eliot

  Views, Perfect, Looks

  George Eliot (2005). “Four Novels of George Eliot”, p.1166, Wordsworth Editions

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is the man of science, eager to have his every opinion regenerated, his every idea rationalized, by drinking at the fountain of fact, and devoting all the energies of his life to the cult of truth, not as he understands it, but as he does not yet understand it, that ought properly to be called a philosopher.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Drinking, Science, Men

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1958). “Selected Writings (Values in a Universe of Chance)”, p.274, Courier Corporation

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• This is a question too difficult for a mathematician. It should be asked of a philosopher"(when asked about completing his income tax form)

  Albert Einstein

  Income, Form, Should

  4 Copy quote

• A German philosopher once wrote that he who fights monsters must take care that he doesn't become one himself.

  Anthony Horowitz

  Fighting, Monsters, Care

  8 Copy quote

• Elric knew that everything that existed had its opposite. In danger he might find peace. And yet, of course, in peace there was danger. Being an imperfect creature in an imperfect world he would always know paradox. And that was why in paradox there was always a kind of truth. That was why philosophers and soothsayers flourished. In a perfect world there would be no place for them. In an imperfect world the mysteries were always without solution and that was why there was always a great choice of solutions.

  Michael Moorcock

  Peace, Imperfect World, Opposites

  Michael Moorcock (2009). “Duke Elric”, p.127, Del Rey

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• Success has always been the greatest liar - and the "work" itself is a success; the great statesman, the conqueror, the discoverer is disguised by his creations, often beyond recognition; the "work," whether of the artist or the philosopher, invents the man who has created it, who is supposed to have create it; "great men," as they are venerated, are subsequent pieces of wretched minor fiction

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Liars, Artist, Men

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2009). “Basic Writings of Nietzsche”, p.408, Modern Library

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Meditation is a gift confined to unknown philosophers and cows. Others don't begin to think till they begin to talk or write.

  Finley Peter Dunne

  Philosophy, Writing, Thinking

  9 Copy quote