top of page
.png){kind=small}
Quotes by Philosopher
"Man is not logical and his intellectual history is a record of mental reserves and compromises. He hangs on to what he can in his old beliefs even when he is compelled to surrender their logical basis."
38
"The difference between religion and morality lies simply in the classical division of things into the divine and the human, if one only interprets this correctly."
38
"Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone."
38
"When we ask for love, we don't ask others to be fair to us-but rather to care for us, to be considerate of us. There is a world of difference here between demanding justice... and begging or pleading for love."
38
"As soon as man enters into a state of society he loses the sense of his weakness; equality ceases, and then commences the state of war."
38
"A definition of poetry can only determine what poetry should be and not what poetry actually was and is; otherwise the most concise formula would be: Poetry is that which at some time and some place was thus named."
38
"Nothing truly convincing - which would possess thoroughness, vigor, and skill - has been written against the ancients as yet; especially not against their poetry."
38
"Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race."
38
"The first man, who, after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, "This is mine," and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. How many crimes, how many wars, how many murders, how many misfortunes and horrors, would that man have saved the human species, who pulling up the stakes or filling up the ditches should have cried to his fellows: Be sure not to listen to this imposter; you are lost, if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong equally to us all, and the earth itself to nobody!"
38
"Humanity may endure the loss of everything; all its possessions may be turned away without infringing its true dignity - all but the possibility of improvement."
38
"Do not seek for information of which you cannot make use."
38
"The remotest place on Earth can sometimes be the most attractive place on Earth especially in times when our belief in humanity is lost!"
38
"Only because of darkness are we able to clearly see the stars."
38
"Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair."
38
"Fate is the endless chain of causation, whereby things are; the reason or formula by which the world goes on."
38
"Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness."
38
"Homophobia is the ignorant and arrogant assumption that copulation and reproduction is all there is to a relationship."
38
"Bush sees the evil as out there in the wider world, residing in people who 'hate freedom'. Look at his immediate response to the pictures of prisoner abuse; this is not what Americans do, these are not our values."
38
"There is no justifiable prediction about how the hypothesis will hold up in the future; its degree of corroboration simply is a historical statement describing how severely the hypothesis has been tested in the past."
38
"If few can stand a long war without deterioration of soul, none can stand a long peace."
38
"No one succeeds without effort... Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance."
38
"Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered."
38
"What religion a man holds, to what race he belongs, these things are not important; the really important thing is this knowledge: the knowledge of God's plan for men. For God has a plan, and that plan is evolution."
38
"A desire arises in the mind. It is satisfied immediately another comes. In the interval which separates two desires a perfect calm reigns in the mind. It is at this moment freed from all thought, love or hate."
38
"The recent past always presents itself as if destroyed by catastrophes."
38
"The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn't any other test. If the machine produces tranquility it's right. If it disturbs you it's wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed."
38
"Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy."
38
"For you who no longer posses it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion."
38
"The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community."
38
"Many millions of pregnancies-many if not most of which have each led to the birth of at least one child-were each used as nothing but a conspicuous means to a secret end called the evasion of abortion."
38
"Avoid lawsuits beyond all things; they pervert your conscience, impair your health, and dissipate your property."
38
"But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go."
38
"The gifts of nature are infinite in their variety, and mind differs from mind almost as much as body from body."
38
"Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached."
38
"And History will smile to think that this is the species for which Socrates and Jesus Christ died."
38
"Women are treated as unjustly in poetry as in life. The feminine ones are not idealistic, and the idealistic not feminine."
38
"To so enter into it in nature and art that the enjoyed meanings of life may become a part of living is the attitude of aesthetic appreciation."
38
"Bush is morally a universalist. For instance, he says the freedom is good, the same thing is good, all over the world. So in that sense he's a universalist."
38
"Hence that general is skilful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skilful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack."
38
"We not only interpret the character of events... we may also interpret our interpretations."
38
"All I know is that I do not know anything."
38
"We inhabit a language rather than a country."
38
"Wit as an instrument of revenge is as infamous as art is as a means of sensual titillation."
38
"There is nothing so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it in expecting evil before it arrives?"
38
"There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live."
38
"A woman's elegance will charm you for days, her beauty will charm you for weeks, her grace will charm you for years, and her virtue will charm you for a lifetime."
38
"Raising children is an uncertain thing; success is reached only after a life of battle and worry."
38
"To be ordinary is the most extraordinary thing in life."
38
bottom of page