Philosopher Quotes - Page 37

• One day, a philosopher asked, "What is the purpose of creation?" "Lovemaking," said the Master. Later, to his disciples, he said, "Before creation, love was. After creation, love was made. When love is consummated, creation will cease to be, and love will be forever."

  Anthony de Mello

  Love, Forever, One Day

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• I had a friend in college who loved to say: 'If you can dream it, you can do it.' It became my mantra. I assumed it was a pearl of wisdom from some great thinker, a philosopher perhaps, like Descartes. It turned out to be Walt Disney, which in no way diminishes the wisdom of the advice. Anyone who can build a Magic Kingdom deserves to be listened to.

  Michele Gorman

  Dream, College, Magic Kingdom

  Michele Gorman (2010). “Single in the City”, p.17, Penguin UK

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• What shocks the virtuous philosopher, delights the chameleon poet.

  John Keats

  Delight, Virtue, Poet

  John Keats (2015). “John Keats - The Man Behind The Lyrics: Life, letters, and literary remains: Complete Letters and Two Extensive Biographies of one of the most beloved English Romantic poets”, p.714, e-artnow

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• MONAD, n. The ultimate, indivisible unit of matter (see Molecule). The monad has body without bulk, and mind without manifestation - containing all the powers and possibilities needful to his evolution into a German philosopher . .

  Ambrose Bierce

  Mind, Molecules, Body

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.145, 谷月社

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• Another important historical factor is the fact that this already very simple religion was further simplified and purified by the early philosophers of ancient China. Our first great philosopher was a founder of naturalism; and our second great philosopher was an agnostic.

  Hu Shih

  Simple, Historical, Religion

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• Various accounts of Empedocle's death are given in ancient sources. His enemies said that his desire to be thought a god led him to throw himself into the crater of Mount Etna so that he might vanish from the world completely and thus lead men to believe he had achieved apotheosis. Unfortunately the volcano defeated his design by throwing out one of the philosopher's sandals.

  Empedocles

  Death, Believe, Science

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• As a German philosopher writing in the aftermath of the Nazi regime, Marcuse understood the sleep inducing force of indoctrination, its power to make people forget and forfeit their own real interests. "The fact that the vast majority of the population accepts, and is made to accept, this society does not render it less irrational and less reprehensible," he wrote. "The distinction between true and false consciousness, real and immediate interest still is meaningful."

  Daniel Pinchbeck

  Meaningful, Freedom, Real

  Daniel Pinchbeck (2007). “2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl”, p.67, Penguin

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• Watching a woman make Russian pancakes, you might think that she was calling on the spirits or extracting from the batter the philosopher's stone.

  Anton Chekhov

  Thinking, Calling, Stones

  "Russian Pancakes (Bliny)". Short Story by Anton Chekhov, 1886.

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• To this principle of vanity, which philosophers call a mean one, and which I do not, I owe a great part of the figure which I have made in life.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Mean, Vanity, Principles

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• Various philosophers and religious leaders tried to convince their disciples and followers that animals are nothing more than machines without a soul, without feelings. However, anyone who has ever lived with an animal-be it a dog, a bird, or even a mouse-knows that this theory is a brazen lie, invented to justify cruelty.

  Isaac Bashevis Singer

  Religious, Dog, Lying

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• Uncompromising thought is the luxury of the closeted recluse. Untrammeled reasoning is the indulgence of the philosopher, of the dreamer of sweet dreams.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Dream, Sweet, Luxury

  Woodrow Wilson, Arthur Stanley Link (1990). “The Papers of Woodrow Wilson”

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• It has been a long time since philosophers have read men's souls. It is not their task, we are told. Perhaps. But we must not be surprised if they no longer matter much to us.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Men, Long, Soul

  Emile M. Cioran (1976). “The Trouble with Being Born”, Viking Books

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• Upon the whole, I am inclined to think that the far greater part, if not all, of those difficulties which have hitherto amused philosophers, and blocked up the way to knowledge, are entirely owing to our selves. That we have first raised a dust, and then complain, we cannot see.

  George Berkeley

  Philosophy, Math, Thinking

  A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge introduction, sec. 3 (1710)

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• There is a famous formula, perhaps the most compact and famous of all formulas - developed by Euler from a discovery of de Moivre: e^(i pi) + 1 = 0... It appeals equally to the mystic, the scientist, the philosopher, the mathematician.

  Edward Kasner

  Education, Discovery, Scientist

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• The surface of the Moon is not smooth, uniform, and precisely spherical as a great number of philosophers believe it to be, but is uneven, rough, and full of cavities and prominences, being not unlike the face of the Earth, relieved by chains of mountains and deep valleys.

  Galileo Galilei

  Believe, Moon, Numbers

  Galileo Galilei, Raymond John Seeger (1966). “Men of physics: Galileo Galilei, his life and his works”

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• Science will...produce the data..., but never the
  full meaning. For perceiving real significance, we
  shall need...most of all the brains of poets, [and]
  also those of artists, musicians, philosophers,
  historians, writers in general.

  Lewis Thomas

  Real, Artist, Data

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• Many men talk like philosophers and live like fools.

  Philip K. Dick

  Men, Fool

  Philip K. Dick “13 Short Stories”, Lulu.com

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• Philosophy recovers itself when it ceases to be a device for dealing with the problems of philosophers and becomes a method, cultivated by philosophers, for dealing with the problems of men.

  John Dewey

  Philosophy, Men, Problem

  John Dewey, Jo Ann Boydston, Lewis E. Hahn (2008). “The Middle Works, 1899-1924: 1916-1917”, p.46, SIU Press

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• The code of Manu differs from the bible. By means of it the nobles, the philosophers, and the warriors keep the whip hand over the majority. It is full of noble valuations; it shows a feeling of perfection, an acceptance of life, and triumphant feeling toward self and life.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Mean, Warrior, Acceptance

  Friedrich Nietzsche “Writings of Nietzsche: Volume 1”, Lulu.com

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• Only a philosopher's mind grows wings, since its memory always keeps it as close as possible to those realities by being close to which the gods are divine.

  Plato

  Memories, Reality, Wings

  Plato, Alexander Nehamas, Paul Woodruff (1995). “Phaedrus”, p.37, Hackett Publishing

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• The philosopher whose dealings are with divine order himself acquires the characteristics of order and divinity.

  Plato

  Divine Order, Divinity, Characteristics

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• A philosopher of imposing stature doesn't think in a vacuum. Even his most abstract ideas are, to some extent, conditioned by what is or is not known in the time when he lives.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Thinking, Ideas, Vacuums

  Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price (2001). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”, p.225, David R. Godine Publisher

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• The history of India for many centuries had been happier, less fierce, and more dreamlike than any other history. In these favorable conditions, they built a character - meditative and peaceful and a nation of philosophers such as could nowhere have existed except in India.

  H. G. Wells

  Character, Peaceful, India

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• The photographer in Blow-Up, who is not a philosopher, wants to see things closer up. But it so happens that, by enlarging too far, the object itself decomposes and disappears. Hence there's a moment in which we grasp reality, but then the moment passes. This was in part the meaning of Blow-Up.

  Michelangelo Antonioni

  Blow, Reality, Want

  "Michelangelo Antonioni : The Complete Films" edited by Seymour Chatman and Paul Duncan, (p. 113), 2004.

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• Whether religion is man-made is a question for philosophers or theologians. But the forms are man-made. They are a human response to something. As a historian of religions, I am interested in those expressions.

  Mircea Eliade

  Men, Expression, Form

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