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Quotes by Philosopher

"Nonsense is so good only because common sense is so limited."


"Warfare is an utterly stupid method of settling differences of interest between different nations."

"I have this extraordinary curiosity about all subjects of the natural and human world and the interaction between the physical sciences and the social sciences."


"The role of the intelligence - that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit."

"It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth."


"To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top."

"He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers."

"The test of real and vigorous thinking, the thinking which ascertains truths instead of dreaming dreams, is successful application to practice."

"The beauty of shadow comes from the beauty of light!"

"Music conveys to us itself!"

"If you would listen, sir, in the sense of being aware of your conflicts and contradictions without forcing them into any particular pattern of thought, perhaps they might altogether cease."

"The will is conceived as a faculty of determining oneself to action in accordance with the conception of certain laws. And such a faculty can be found only in rational beings."

"It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding; And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving."


"Idealistic reformers are dangerous because their idealism has no roots in love, but is simply a hysterical and unbalanced rage for order amidst their own chaos."

"Finally there are simple ideas of which no definition can be given; there are also axioms or postulates, or in a word primary principles, which cannot be proved and have no need of proof."


"The mysteries of faith are degraded if they are made into an object of affirmation and negation, when in reality they should be an object of contemplation."

"I am never to act otherwise than so that I could also will that my maxim should become universal law."

"There are various levels above and below the human through which the individual soul may pass in the course of its reincarnations-the angelic, the titanic, the animal, the purgatories, and the realm of the frustrated ghosts."

"Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it."

"Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual."

"The truly apocalyptic view of the world is that things do not repeat themselves. It isn't absurd, e.g., to believe that the age of science and technology is the beginning of the end for humanity; that the idea of great progress is delusion, along with the idea that the truth will ultimately be known; that there is nothing good or desirable about scientific knowledge and that mankind, in seeking it, is falling into a trap. It is by no means obvious that this is not how things are."

"Freedom comes when you see the built-in contradiction of trying to manipulate something that is going right to begin with.... Stop trying to steer the river."

"Meditation is the only way to freedom from the illusions of the mind."

"If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance."

"What do you see from your window? Mostly the things you have been taught to you! And so your view is poor and so you too! To be rich, let the things which have not been taught to you reach you too!"


"Truth cannot be defined or tested by agreement with 'the world'; for not only do truths differ for different worlds but the nature of agreement between a world apart from it is notoriously nebulous."

"And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on."

"Good will, like a good name, is got by many actions, and lost by one."


"As Lucretius says: 'Thus ever from himself doth each man flee.' But what does he gain if he does not escape from himself? He ever follows himself and weighs upon himself as his own most burdensome companion. And so we ought to understand that what we struggle with is the fault, not of the places, but of ourselves."

"Tears of joy are lighter than smiles of sorrow."


"God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners."

"A jury is composed of twelve men of average ignorance."

"Philosophers, for example, often fail to recognize that their remarks about the universe apply also to themselves and their remarks. If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so."

"I said to myself, 'I want to die decently'."

"[representative government is] deciding once in three or six years which member of the ruling class was to misrepresent the people in Parliament."


"Riches and abundance come hypocritically clad in sheep's clothing, pretending to be security against anxieties, and they become then the object of anxiety. They secure a man against anxieties just about as well as the wolf that is put to tending the sheep."

"Many peoples' tombstones should read 'Died at 30, burried at 60.'"


"Infelicity is an ill to which all acts are heir which have the general character of ritual or ceremonial, all conventional acts."

"When it comes to judging individuals, I do not like remarks such as 'too good to be true.' They speak as though one is rewarding the nature of evil. Yet, ironically, we still wonder where all the good people have gone."

"You ask how it is possible to be your own father and son. You should seek answers, although it is better to anticipate some, to be the light and dream."


"There is one, and only one, thing in modern society more hideous than crime namely, repressive justice."


"Love is a sacred reserve of energy; it is like the blood of spiritual evolution."


"Imagery is not past but present. It rests with what we call our mental processes to place these images in a temporal order."

"If people notice you only when you do something very strange, then you are very lucky! You can enjoy your life without being noticed as long as you don't do anything very strange!"


"It may be added, to prevent misunderstanding, that when I speak of contemplated objects in this last phrase as objects of contemplation, the act of contemplation itself is of course an enjoyment."

"In short, superheroes balance the forces of light and dark, rage and serenity, and the sacred and the profane within themselves and from it forge an identity that is powerful and purposeful."

"Nothing is more singular about this generation than its addiction to music."
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