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Quotes by Philosopher

"Loneliness is the standard that separates life from death."

"Like the winds that we come we know not whence and blow whither soever they list, the forces of society are derived from an obscure and distant origin. They arise before the date of philosophy, from the instincts, not the speculations of men."

"Truth is a naked and open daylight, that does not show the masques, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. . . A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure."

"The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days."

"Liberty is like those solid and tasty foods or those full-bodied wines which are appropriate for nourishing and strengthening robust constitutions that are used to them, but which overpower, ruin and intoxicate the weak and delicate who are not suited for them."

"He awaits himself while walking, out of the icy circle to escape."

"No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port."

"Commitment is an act, not a word."


"The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer but rather what they miss."

"So what oppresses and scares us? It is our own thoughts, obviously, What overwhelms people when they are about to leaves friends, family, old haunts and their accustomed way of life? Thoughts."

"When we talk about understanding, surely it takes place only when the mind listens completely - the mind being your heart, your nerves, your ears- when you give your whole attention to it."

"Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim."

"Though you are as a drop in the ocean, without you, the universe would be empty."

"To renounce liberty is to renounce being a man, to surrender the rights of humanity and even its duties."

"It is characteristic of spontaneous friendship to take on without enquiry and almost at first sight the unseen doings and unspoken sentiments of our friends the part known gives us evidence enough that the unknown part cannot be much amiss."


"Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power."


"There are impertinent inquiries made; your rule is, to leave the inquirer uninformed on the matter; not, if you can help it, misinformed, but precisely as dark as he was!"

"I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is."

"The sun does not rise abruptly, but perseveres until it rules the sky."

"The heart has reasons which reason cannot understand."


"Who wishes to fight must first count the cost."

"The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy."

"The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him."

"The law of nations is naturally founded on this principle, that different nations ought in time of peace to do one another all the good they can, and in time of war as little injury as possible, without prejudicing their real interests."

"Had Rumsfeld said at any time 'get me a report on what's going on', he could have had it. You're right, it depends on choices that we make, which parts of the world we want to be in immediate contact with."

"We maintain, therefore, that the first essential, the life and soul, so to speak, of Tragedy is the Plot; and that the Characters come second-compare the parallel in painting, where the most beautiful colours laid on without order will not give one the same pleasure as a simple black-and-white sketch of a portrait."

"Liberation from the tyranny of the body contributes to greatness, but just as much to greatness in sin as to greatness in virtue."

"A sense of humour is a sense of proportion."


"And so when you see a man often wearing the robe of office, when you see one whose name is famous in the Forum, do not envy him; those things are bought at the price of life. They will waste all their years, in order that they may have one year reckoned by their name."

"If we do not know ourselves to be full of pride, ambition, lust, weakness, misery, and injustice, we are indeed blind. And if, knowing this, we do not desire deliverance, what can we say of a man...?"

"Virtue cannot separate itself from reality without becoming a principle of evil."

"The increase in value of the world of things is directly proportional to the decrease in value of the human world."


"We are like horses who hurt themselves as soon as they pull on their bits - and we bow our heads. We even lose consciousness of the situation, we just submit. Any re-awakening of thought is then painful."


"An unlearned carpenter of my acquaintance once said in my hearing: 'There is very little difference between one man and another but what there is is very important.'"

"Without space, there is no time."

"The man who finds that in the course of his life he has done a lot of wrong often wakes up at night in terror, like a child with a nightmare, and his life is full of foreboding: but the man who is conscious of no wrongdoing is filled with cheerfulness and with the comfort of old age."

"There is no compromise when it comes to someones delicate feelings, the only way out is to stop pretending and set yourself free from someones life."

"For a truly religious man nothing is tragic."

"The word 'slavery' and 'right' are contradictory, they cancel each other out. Whether as between one man and another, or between one man and a whole people, it would always be absurd to say: "I hereby make a covenant with you which is wholly at your expense and wholly to my advantage; I will respect it so long as I please and you shall respect it as long as I wish."

"Lingering, bottled-up anger never reveals the 'true colors' of an individual. It, on the contrary, becomes all mixed up, rotten, confused, forms a highly combustible, chemical compound then explodes as something foreign, something very different than one's natural self."

"He takes a few dazed steps, the waiters turn out the lights and he slips into unconsciousness: when this man is lonely he sleeps."

"It is beyond a doubt that all our knowledge that begins with experience."
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