Quotes About Philosophy

Nietzsche mourns the loss of "man's belief in his dignity, his uniqueness, his irreplace-ability in the scheme of existence." For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principle that they are laboring to dethrone: but if they argue without reason (which, in order to be consistent with themselves they must do), they are out of reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument.

Socrates described his philosophical inspiration as the work of a personal, benign demon. His teacher, Diotima of Mantineia, tells him (in Plato's Symposium) that "Everything demonic is intermediate between God and mortal. God has no contact with man," she continues; "only through the demonic is there intercourse and conversation between man and gods, whether in the waking state or during sleep.

And were the vision of Democritus to have been adopted by Western civilization, instead of being cast aside for the pale views of Plato and Aristotle, we would be vastly further ahead today, in

the English philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that silencing an opinion is "a peculiar evil." If the opinion is right, we are robbed of the "opportunity of exchanging error for truth"; and if it's wrong, we are deprived of a deeper understanding of the truth in "its collision with error.

Each time it happens we're tempted to infer the direct intervention of a Maker.

Sagan is an astronomer with one eye on the stars, another on history, and a third—his mind's—on the human condition.…

To what purpose should I trouble myself in searching out the secrets of the stars, having death or slavery continually before my eyes? —A question put to Pythagoras by Anaximenes (c. 600 B.C.), according to Montaigne

the metaphysicist has no laboratory.

Plainly, there's something within me that's ready to believe in life after death. And it's not the least bit interested in whether there's any sober evidence for it. So I don't guffaw at the woman who visits her husband's grave and chats him up every now and then, maybe on the anniversary of his death. It's not hard to understand. And if I have difficulties with the ontological status of who she's talking to, that's all right. That's not what this is about. This is about humans being human.

The fifth regular solid must then, they thought, correspond to some fifth element that could only be the substance of the heavenly bodies.

When I say I'm an agnostic, I only mean that the evidence isn't in. There isn't compelling evidence that God exists—at least your kind of god—and there isn't compelling evidence that he doesn't.

Uma marca infalível do amor à verdade", escreveu John Locke em 1690, "é não considerar nenhuma proposição com uma convicção maior do que a autorizada pelas provas em que se fundamenta.

Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us—there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.

El reduccionismo no parece conceder un respeto suficiente a la complejidad del universo. A algunos se les antoja como un híbrido curioso de arrogancia y pereza intelectual.

I believe in Spinoza's God, who revealed himself in the harmony of all being, not in the God who concerns himself with the fate and actions of men"—a more subtle religious view embraced by many theologians today.

Önümde ölüm ve sürekli kölelik bulunduÄŸuna göre, y?ld?zlar?n gizlerini araÅŸt?rma zahmetine neden gireyim?

No Satan, no God.

How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and said, 'This is better than we thought! The universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. God must be even greater than we dreamed'?

The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us - there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries

We must not believe the many, who say that only free people ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the philosophers who say that only the educated are free. EPICTETUS, Roman philosopher and former slave, Discourses

Göz önünde tutmak'' anlam?ndaki Ä°ngilizce ''consider'' sözcüÄŸünün köken anlam? ÅŸudur: ''Gezegene bakarak konuÅŸmak.'' Gezegenlere bakarak konuÅŸmaksa oldukça ciddi bir iÅŸti.

I have not the qualifications for teaching my philosophy of life. I have barely qualifications for practicing the philosophy I believe. I am but a poor struggling soul yearning to be Ã¢â'¬Â¦ wholly truthful and wholly nonviolent in thought, word and deed, but ever failing to reach the ideal.

It would seem that our intelligence is the source of our unhappiness in an almost literal way; but it would also imply that our unhappiness is the source of our strength as a species.