Quotes About Philosophy

the second half of the fifth century, intellectuals called sophists developed some philosophical skills, particularly in argument, and philosophical interests, particularly in ethical and social thought. The best known are Protagoras, Hippias, Gorgias and Prodicus.

One school of ancient philosophers, the Stoics, developed a distinctive view of Medea as part of their ethics and psychology. They think that the idea that there are really two distinct forces or motives at work in Medea is an illusion. What matters in this situation is always Medea herself, the person, and it is wrong to think in terms of different parts of her.

Stoicism often presented itself, particularly at first, in a deliberately harsh light, emphasizing doctrines that are so far from common sense as to be paradoxical. However, Stoicism as a philosophy is holistic – that is, its parts can be developed separately, but ultimately the aim is to understand them all in relation to the other parts.

many ways of teaching Stoicism; where you begin depends on the audience's level of interest and expertise.

The universal aspect of Stoicism is illustrated by the fact that Epictetus, a former slave, was influential on the Stoic reflections of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121–180).

The Stoics think that there are no parts or divisions to the human soul, and that it is all rational. (By the soul they mean the item that makes humans live in a characteristically human way.) Emotions are not blind, non-rational forces which can overcome rational resolve; they are themselves a kind of reason which the person determines to act on.

Academy, Plato's own school, for hundreds of years – until it came to an end in the first century BC – took its task to be that of arguing against the views of others without relying on a position of one's own.

We come from not being and march toward not being:nothing between two nothings, zero between two zeros,and since between two nothings nothing can be,let's drink to the splendor of not being our bodies.

Yo, fatalista, mirando la vida llegándose y alejándose de mis semejantes. Yo, dentro de mí misma, siempre en espera de algo que no acierta mi mente. Me, fatalist, watching life coming and going from my contemporaries. Me, inside myself, always waiting for something that my mind can't define. ("Momentos/Moments")

Utilitarianism holds that an action, or a law, is right only if it produces the best outcome – only if it brings about the "greatest good for the greatest number.

Within depression, if my existence is on the verge of collapsing, its lack of meaning is not tragic--it appears obvious to me, glaring and inescapable.

How can I be without border?

The depressed person is a radical, sullen atheist.

That faith be analyzable does not necessarily imply a method for getting by without it. . . .

veces los ideales de la razón van por detrás de la realidad, de manera que había que luchar para cambiar la realidad.

No insistas en tu cita con la muerte, es una cita que ninguno podemos esquivar pero no debemos provocarle

aquella frase de Pascal de que el corazón tiene razones que la razón no entiende.

Hasta para no creer en Dios se tiene una idea de Dios

Seguramente Nietzsche pensaba en su hermana cuando teorizó sobre el superhombre.

Si quiere saber qué pienso, se lo resumiré: aborrezco todos los «ismos»: comunismo, socialismo, nacionalismo, fascismo… En definitiva, todo lo que lleva el germen del totalitarismo.

For myself, I do not now know in any concrete human terms wherein my individuality consists. In my present human form of consciousness I simply cannot tell.

I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas.

I'm not afraid of death. How can you be afraid of something that's inevitable?

You know, I've never actually really believed that death is inevitable. I just think it's a rumor.