Quotes About Philosophy

When the structure of a civilisation is rotten, it is always the masses that bring about its downfall. It is at such a juncture that their chief mission is plainly visible, and that for a while the philosophy of number seems the only philosophy of history.

The philosophic absurdity that often marks general beliefs has never been an obstacle to their triumph. Indeed the triumph of such beliefs would seem impossible unless on the condition that they offer some mysterious absurdity.

Notwithstanding all its progress, philosophy has been unable as yet to offer the masses any ideal that can charm them; but, as they must have their illusions at all cost, they turn instinctively, as the insect seeks the light, to the rhetoricians who accord them what they want. Not truth, but error has always been the chief factor in the evolution of nations,

Dejemos pues la razón a los filósofos, pero no exijamos que intervenga demasiado en el gobierno de los hombres. No con la razón, sino a pesar de ella, se han creado sentimientos tales como el honor, la abnegación, la fe religiosa, el amor a la gloria y a la patria, que han sido hasta ahora los grandes resortes de todas las civilizaciones.

Lo que ha sido no tiene razón de ser nuevamente y no será.

Hebben de goden ons geen verstand gegeven om mee te denken en te oordelen?

Sadly, schools deal in the sale and exchange of knowledge, not wisdom." ~ "The Hole

Nothing within the universe itself can exist to explain the fact that it exists.

Some fundamentalists have done their best to turn the term Christian into a dirty word, signifying all that is narrow-minded and bigoted and self-righteous. But then, a hundred years ago, the sloppy liberals at the other end of the philosophical spectrum tried to turn it into a formless generic term, where a "Christian" was anyone who had ever had an occasional urge to be a nice guy.

Bonnie Jean (who thinks all philosophers are idiots) has this quarrel with Wittgenstein, who in several places says that reddish green is inconceivable. Yet every summer, when our peppers are drying from green to red, one can see an intermediate stage that is precisely reddish green.

breathing, sleeping, drinking, eating, working, dreaming, everything we do is dying. to live, in fact, is to die.

If I could, I would stop the passage of time. But hour follows on hour, minute on minute, each second robbing me of a morsel of myself for the nothing of tomorrow. I shall never experience this moment again.

In fact living is dying.

Never work.

I have written much less than most people who write; I have drunk much more than most people who drink.

the names we use for things bear no inherent relation to the things themselves.

The German starts by claiming: 'German is off course ze best language. It is ze language off logik and philosophy, and can commuicate viz great clarity and precision even ze most complex ideas.' 'Boeff,' shrugs the Frenchman, 'but French, French, it ees ze language of lurve! In French, we can convey all ze subtletees of romance weez elegance and flair.

He didn't think he would understand the strangeness of life if he lived to be a hundred years old.

It was surprising how easy it was to think about the unthinkable if you'd had a few glasses of wine on a spring night.

My philosophy when it came to pets was much like that of having children: You got what you got, and you loved them unconditionally regardless of whatever their personalities or flaws turned out to be.

I don't think it ever ocurred to me to aim for happyness, though. I mean, do you do that? No, just try to get trough with as little pain as possible, that's the way ...

Hiába rohadsz meg az élet nevében. Aki egyszer már megrohadt, az nem az egészséget, hanem a rohadást konzerválja magában.

There is no religion higher than the truth.

If one proceeds philosophically before proceeding poetically, and this is central to the philosopher, pleasure is crushed, But if one begins by having pleasure, it is like knowing how to swim: one never forgets it [Clarice Lispector, The Stream of Life, trans Elizabeth Lowe & Earl Fitz, Foreword by Hélène Cixous trans Verena Conley, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989].