Quotes About Philosophy

De haber vivido, ¿habría disfrutado de la vida, como la mayoría hacemos o intentamos hacer? Quizá; o tal vez habría albergado culpa y remordimiento por no haber sabido acoplar sus actos con sus argumentos.

And so, wisely no doubt, I left philosophy to my brother, and returned to literature, which did, and still does, tell us best what the world consists of. It can also tell us how best to live in that world, thought it does so most effectively when appearing not to do so.

A veces pienso que el sentido de la vida es menoscabarnos para que nos reconciliemos con su pérdida final, demostrando, por mucho tiempo que tarde, que la vida no es tan buena como la pintan.

Una vez dijo que para ser feliz había que cumplir tres requisitos previos –ser estúpido, ser egoísta y gozar de buena saludy que él no estaba seguro de cumplir más que el segundo. De modo que discutí, peleé, pero él quería creer que la felicidad es imposible; esta creencia le proporcionaba cierto extraño consuelo.

He said that there were three preconditions for happiness — stupidity, selfishness and good health

Miss Fergusson had maintained, when they first stood before the haloed mountain, that there were two explanations of everything, that each required the exercise of faith, and that we had been given free will in order that we might choose between them. This dilemma was to preoccupy Miss Logan for years to come. 7

How could I possibly be a better person without her than with her? Later, I thought: but he is just echoing Nietzsche's line about what doesn't kill us making us stronger. And as it happens, I have long considered this epigram particularly specious. There are many things that fail to kill us but weaken us for ever. Look around at those emotionally damaged by mere ordinary life.

Another piece of appropriated maternal wisdom I remember from this time was this: "If you lower your expectations, you can't be disappointed." This struck me as a dismal approach to life, whether for a forty-five-year-old mother or a twenty-year-old daughter.

he didn't feel pity for Macleod, despite all the humiliations and infirmities visited upon him. These he regarded as inevitabilities; indeed, he nowadays regarded most things that happened as inevitabilities.

Which are truer, the happy memories, or the unhappy ones? He decided, eventually, that the question was unanswerable.

And if that was so, then perhaps the argument could be extended. For example, to say that you had once been happy, and to believe what you were saying, was the same as actually to have been happy. Could that be true? No, that was surely specious. On the other hand, the emotional record was not like a history book; its truths were constantly changing, and true even when incompatible.

When we killed - or exiled - God we also killed ourselves. Did we notice sufficiently at the time? No God, no afterlife, no us. We were right to kill Him, of course, this long-standing imaginary friend of ours. And we weren't going to get an afterlife anyway. But we sawed off the branch we were sitting on. And the view from there, from that height - even if it was only the illusion of a view - wasn't so bad.

Destiny. It was just a grand term for something you could do nothing about.

People say of death, 'There's nothing to be frightened of'. They say it quickly, casually. Now let's say it again, slowly, with re-emphasis. 'There's NOTHING to be frightened of'. Jules Renard: 'The word that is most true, most exact, most filled with meaning, is the word nothing'.

People say of death, 'There's nothing to be frightened of.' They say it quickly, casually. Now let's say it again, slowly, with re-emphasis. 'There's NOTHING to be frightened of.' Jules Renard: "The word that is most true, most exact, most filled with meaning, is the word nothing'.

Well, in one sense, I can't know what it is that I don't know. That's philosophically selfevident." He left one of those slight pauses in which we again wondered if he was engaged in subtle mockery or a high seriousness beyond the rest of us.

She had that absolute faith in the judgement of her own kind, seldom seen since 1914. No doubt it was common enough before then, which must have made Edwardian society such a philosophically relaxing place to be. If one were an aristocrat.

For if consciousness is based on language, then it follows that it is of a much more recent origin than has heretofore been supposed. Consciousness come after language! The implications of such a position are extremely serious.

The ugliness is what makes the beautiful things beautiful.

Vale, entonces un recuerdo. ¿Tiene que ser feliz? —No. Prefiero que sea verdadero a que sea feliz.

One must not get too attached to the things of this world. AS

Believing in books is a lot like believing in God.

The blood of the heroes is closer to God than the ink of the philosophers and the prayers of the faithful.

The Americans are the living refutation of the Cartesian axiom, I think, therefore I am: Americans do not think, yet they are.