Motivational Quotes

Philosophers and philosophy

Keep quiet and people will think you a philosopher.

Famous Inspirational Daily Quotes

Philosophers and philosophy Motivational Quotes

Best Quotes about Philosophers and philosophy

The real discovery is the one which enables me to stop doing philosophy when I want to. -- The one that gives philosophy peace, so that it is no longer tormented by questions which bring itself into question.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

The philosopher must station themselves in the middle.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Then, like an old-time orator impressively he rose; I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes.

Teasdale, Sara

If he really thinks there is no distinction between vice and virtue, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

Johnson, Samuel

I have always taken as the standard of the mode of teaching and writing, not the abstract, particular, professional philosopher, but universal man, that I have regarded man as the criterion of truth, and not this or that founder of a system, and have from the first placed the highest excellence of the philosopher in this, that he abstains, both as a man and as an author, from the ostentation of philosophy, i.e., that he is a philosopher only in reality, not formally, that he is a quiet philosopher, not a loud and still less a brawling one.

Feuerbach, Ludwig

There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or another.

Descartes, Rene

Englishmen are babes in philosophy and so prefer faction-fighting to the labor of its unfamiliar thought.

Yeats, William Butler

Do not all charms fly at the mere touch of cold philosophy? There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: we know her woof, her texture; she is given in the dull catalogue of common things. Philosophy will clip an angel's wings, conquer all mysteries by rule and line, empty the haunted air, and gnome mine unweave a rainbow.

Keats, John

The usual picture of Socrates is of an ugly little plebeian who inspired a handsome young nobleman to write long dialogues on large topics.

Rorty, Richard

10.

The proper method of philosophy consists in clearly conceiving the insoluble problems in all their insolubility and then in simply contemplating them, fixedly and tirelessly, year after year, without any hope, patiently waiting.

Weil, Simone

11.

When philosophers try to be politicians they generally cease to be philosophers.

Lippmann, Walter

12.

Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

13.

Philosophy is doubt.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

14.

In philosophy if you aren't moving at a snail's pace you aren't moving at all.

Murdoch, Iris

15.

Bad philosophers may have a certain influence; good philosophers, never.

Russell, Bertrand

16.

How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, but musical as is Apollo's lute, and a perpetual feast of nectared sweets, where no crude surfeit reigns.

Milton, John

17.

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.

Aquinas, St. Thomas

18.

The philosopher proves that the philosopher exists. The poet merely enjoys existence.

Stevens, Wallace

19.

Look, I really don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive, you got to flap your arms and legs, you got to jump around a lot, you got to make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death. And therefore, as I see it, if you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy, or at least your thoughts should be noisy and colorful and lively.

Brooks, Mel

20.

If you set your heart upon philosophy, you must straightway prepare yourself to be laughed at and mocked by many who will say Behold a philosopher arisen among us! or How came you by that brow of scorn? But do you cherish no scorn, but hold to those things which seem to you the best, as one set by God in that place. Remember too, that if you abide in those ways, those who first mocked you, the same shall afterwards reverence you; but if you yield to them, you will be laughed at twice as much as before.

Epictetus

21.

The ultimate triumph of philosophy would be to cast light upon the mysterious ways in which Providence moves to achieve the designs it has for man.

Sade, Marquis De

22.

In it he proves that all things are true and states how the truths of all contradictions may be reconciled physically, such as for example that white is black and black is white; that one can be and not be at the same time; that there can be hills without valleys; that nothingness is something and that everything, which is, is not. But take note that he proves all these unheard-of paradoxes without any fallacious or sophistical reasoning.

Bergerac, Savinien Cyrano De

23.

If this is philosophy it is at any rate a philosophy that is not in its right mind.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

24.

Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings?

Diogenes of Sinope

25.

Tell me what gives a man or woman their greatest pleasure and I'll tell you their philosophy of life.

Carnegie, Dale

26.

What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?

Thoreau, Henry David

27.

Being a philosopher, I have a problem for every solution.

Zend, Robert

28.

If He Tom Sawyer had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do and Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

Twain, Mark

29.

When he who hears does not know what he who speaks means, and when he who speaks does not know what he himself means, that is philosophy.

Voltaire

30.

Philosophy is not a theory but an activity.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

31.

The courage of the truth is the first condition of philosophic study.

Hegel, Georg

32.

To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher.

Pascal, Blaise

33.

To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else's type of thinking.

James, William

34.

Perhaps it is of more value to infuriate philosophers than to go along with them.

Stevens, Wallace

35.

I have a simple philosophy. Fill what's empty. Empty what's full and scratch where it itches.

Longworth, Alice Roosevelt

36.

Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?

Pinter, Harold

37.

The most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless modern philosopher. Compared to him, burglars and bigamists are essentially moral men.

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

38.

Philosophy is the product of wonder.

Whitehead, Alfred North

39.

The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.

Marx, Karl

40.

Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society.

Brookner, Anita

41.

The origins of disputes between philosophers is, that one class of them have undertaken to raise man by displaying his greatness, and the other to debase him by showing his miseries.

Pascal, Blaise

42.

And new Philosophy calls all in doubt, the element of fire is quite put out; the Sun is lost, and the earth, and no mans wit can well direct him where to look for it.

Donne, John

43.

Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

44.

There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not already said it.

Cicero, Marcus T.

45.

The pursuit of what is true and the practice of what is good are the two most important objects of philosophy.

Voltaire

46.

Philosophy may be dodged, eloquence cannot.

Quinet, Edgar

47.

Philosophy! Empty thinking by ignorant conceited men who think they can digest without eating!

Murdoch, Iris

48.

Philosophy is a bully that talks loud when the danger is at a distant; but, the moment she is pressed hard by an enemy, she is nowhere to be found and leaves the brunt of the battle to be fought by her steady, humble comrade, religion.

Colton, Charles Caleb

49.

I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher; but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in.

Edwards, Oliver

50.

Many talk like philosophers yet live like fools.

Proverb