Quotes About Philosophy

No existe el instante, sólo el pasado o el futuro. Porque ahora, por ejemplo, este instante… cuando hablo de él ya ha pasado.

The professor smiled. "If people knew the nature of death," he said after a moment's silence, "they'd cease to be afraid of it. And if they ceased to be afraid of it, no one could rob them of their time any more.

Asl?nda zaman nedir?… …belki de hep var olduÄŸu için duyulmayan bir müzik gibidir.

Na verdade é terrível - disse e escreveu o Velho. - Isso significa o final sem final. Vamos entrar no círculo do Eterno Retorno. E dele ninguém pode fugir.

Benim anlayamad???m baÅŸka bir ÅŸey,' diye aç?klamaya çal??t? Bastian. 'Her ÅŸey ancak ben isteyince mi var oluyor, yoksa önceden var da ben onlar? bir biçimde ortaya m? ç?kar?yorum yaln?zca?' 'Her ikisi de,' dedi Graograman.

Bohr: Heisenberg, I have to say - if people are to be measured strictly in terms of observable quantities... Heisenberg: Then we should need a strange new quantum ethics.

Look at your hand. Its structure does not match the structure of assertions, the structure of facts. Your hand is continuous. Assertions and facts are discontinuous.... You lift your index finger half an inch; it passes through a million facts. Look at the way your hand goes on and on, while the clock ticks, and the sun moves a little further across the sky.

Plato believed that insanity was essential to our nature and assumed that it held esoteric knowledge about who we are.

Spinoza spoke of vitality as the purest virtue, the only virtue. The drive to persist, to flourish, he said, is the absolute quality shared by all living beings. What happens, however, when vitality is inverted, and instead of flourishing, one is driven to eat oneself alive?

It is as if the time has come for us to play 'Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?'  It is important because it is apparent we do not all follow the same Jesus.  Why is that?  I intend to show you that certain philosophical and theological assumptions, structuring principles and interpretive grids, blind us from seeing what is right there in front of our eyes.  Or rather, who is right there. 

Timor mortis conturbat me

The way things are does not determine the way they ought to be

Other animals can make sounds, and sounds can indicate pleasure and pain. But language, a distinctly human capacity, isn´t just for registering pleasure and pain. It´s about declaring what is just and what is unjust, and distinguishing right from wrong. We don´t grasp these things silently, and then put words to them; language is the medium through which we discern and deliberate about the good.

A philosophy untouched by the shadows on the wall can only yield a sterile utopia.

Happiness is not a state of mind but a way of being, "an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.

It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question."29

Philosophy is a distancing, if not debilitating, activity.

But what is your religion?" "I don't have one." "But you believe in God?" "No." He thinks this over. "Then I'm pretty sure they can't let you in.

I reached the conclusion that there was no God. That was the end of my religious life.

What is it with you freedom-loving Americans? he asked. Live free or die. I don't get it. I say, "Regulate me gently. I'd rather live.

My interest in psychology was as a way to do philosophy," he said. "To understand the world by understanding why people, especially me, see it as they do. By then the question of whether God exists left me cold. But the question of why people believe God exists I found really fascinating. I was not really interested in right and wrong. But I was very interested in indignation. Now that's a psychologist!

El hombre es un artefacto determinista metido en un universo probabilístico

Amos approached intellectual life strategically, as if it were an oil field to be drilled, and after two years of sitting through philosophy classes he announced that philosophy was a dry well. "I remember his words," recalled Amnon. "He said, 'There is nothing we can do in philosophy. Plato solved too many of the problems. We can't have any impact in this area. There are too many smart guys and too few problems left, and the problems have no solutions.

By then the question of whether God exists left me cold. But the question of why people believe God exists I found really fascinating. I was not interested in right and wrong. But I was very interested in indignation. Now that's a psychologist!