Quotes About Philosophy

Happiness as a human condition is something I never believed in. I think there are moments of happiness. I don't think there is a lasting happiness. I think this is unthinkable.

For many, to live in a universe that may have no purpose, and no creator, is unthinkable.

Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.

The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.

Call no man happy until he is dead, but only lucky.

I read Plato's 'Republic.' I read it through about five times until I could actually understand it.

I was an agnostic until I realized that I had to choose between God and fate. The idea that humanity and nature are the result of fate was not convincing at all. I find the presence of God everywhere.

We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up until now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future.

Men speak of natural rights, but I challenge any one to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws.

No matter how correct a mathematical theorem may appear to be, one ought never to be satisfied that there was not something imperfect about it until it also gives the impression of being beautiful.

When Keats says: 'Axioms in philosophy are not axioms until they are proved upon our pulses', what he means is that we don't necessarily believe what a poem is saying if it comes out and tells us in an absolutely head-on, in-your-face way; we only believe it to be true if we feel it to be true.

I'm sorry, but until my last day as a coach, I will try to play from my goalkeeper.

It's simply untrue that religion provides the only framework for a universal morality.

I'm becoming more of a religious person actually as I get older, which I think is not an unusual phenomenon.

I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

I don't mind if other people call me an atheist, but I call myself a naturalist. Atheism doesn't tell you much about what I do believe in; the term naturalist opens up the discussion better.

Psychologists say don't expect your life to be happy all the time. I go with the philosophy that every day can't be tops. Life is not like that - it's up and down.

I think I'm generally an upbeat person. Obviously I can get moody, but my whole philosophy is to try and have a good time.

I could have easily said that I don't believe in anything when I came out of the upbringing that I had, but I do still believe that there is something there, and I have a difficult time figuring it out. I suppose I don't want to be thought of as stupid or unintelligent because I believe that there's something out there bigger than us in the world.

The only thing I have retained from my upbringing - I did not retain the religious element - is the idea that you do not do things for money.

A liberal is a person who believes that water can be made to run uphill. A conservative is someone who believes everybody should pay for his water. I'm somewhere in between: I believe water should be free, but that water flows downhill.

I'm trying to uphold what was true about conservatism. I consider myself a Reagan conservative.

Major religions are examples of 'noble lies' aimed at uplifting human stature.

Doubts never end. If one doubt is removed, another takes its place. It is like removing the leaves of a tree one by one. Even if all the leaves are clipped off, new ones grow. The tree itself must be uprooted.