Quotes About Philosophy

Exactitude is not truth.

I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm some kind of a Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer.

[G]eometry is not true, it is advantageous.

Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything.

Liberty, equality bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice; and justice to the feeble becomes necessarily protection or kindness.

At bottom there is but one subject of study: the forms and metamorphoses of mind. All other subjects may be reduced to that; all other studies bring us back to this study.

A belief is not true because it is useful.

The ideal, after all, is true than the real: for the ideal is the eternal element in perishable things.

The soul may be immortal because she is fitted to rise towards that which is neither born nor dies, towards that which exists substantially, necessarily, invariably, that is to say towards God.

The pillars of truth and the pillars of freedom - they are the pillars of society.

Gustavo Solivellas dice: "Piensa como un hombre de acción, actúa como un hombre de pensamiento" (Henri-Louis Berson)

The philosopher says--I am, and the church scouts his philosophy. She answers:--No! you are NOT, you have no existence of your own. You were and are and ever will be only a part of the supreme I AM, of which the church is the emblem.

Philosophy . . .consists chiefly in suggesting unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.

From cradle to grave this problem of running order through chaos, direction through space, discipline through freedom, unity through multiplicity, has always been, and must always be, the task of education, as it is the moral of religion, philosophy, science, art, politics and economy; but a boy's will is his life, and he dies when it is broken, as the colt dies in harness, taking a new nature in becoming tame...

And what of Nature itself, you say – that callous and cruel engine, red in tooth and fang? Well, it is not so much of an engine as you think. As for "red in tooth and fang," whenever I hear the phrase or its intellectual echoes I know that some passer-by has been getting life from books.

We can only reason from what is; we can reason on actualities, but not on possibilities.

ces quelques lignes nous livrent peut-être le suprême message de la philosophie ismaélienne : " L'Imam a dit : Je suis avec mes amis partout où ils me cherchent, sur la montagne, dans la plaine et dans le désert. Celui à qui j'ai révélé mon Essence, c'est-à-dire la connaissance mystique de moi-même, celui-là n'a pas besoin d'une proximité physique. Et c'est cela la Grande Résurrection.

Our western philosophy has been the theater of what we may call the "battle for the Soul of the world." … Is it a matter of a battle that has finally been lost, the world having lost its soul, a defeat whose consequences weigh upon our modern visions of the world without compensation? If there has been a defeat, a defeat is still not a refutation.

To be a philosopher is to take to the road, never settling down in some place of satisfaction with a theory of the world, not even a place of reformation, nor of some illusory transformation of the conditions of this world. It aims for self- transformation, for the inner metamorphosis which is implied by the notion of a new, or spiritual rebirth.... The adventure of the mystical philosopher is essentially seen as a voyage which progresses towards the Light.

Shiism is already and of itself the spiritual way, the ?ar?qah —that is to say, initiation.

Rhythm is a conception, not a physical reality. It is true that, to be realized in music, rhythm must be marked by some sort of sound, but this sound is not itself the rhythm.

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but to so love wisdom as to live according to its dictates a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust

What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?