Quotes About Philosophy

Theory does not derive its legitimacy from established facts, but from future events. Its value is not in the past events it can illuminate, but in the shockwave of the events it prefigures. It does not act upon consciousness, but directly on the course of things from which it draws its energy. It therefore has to be dis tinguished from the academic practice of philosophy and from all that is written with an eye to the history of ideas.

When we had no means, we said the end justifies the means. Now that we have no ends, we say the means justify the end. Neither is immoral. What is entirely immoral is that there is no longer any contradiction between the two: ends and means have become indifferent to one another. They are quite simply no longer of the same order.

Theory is never so fine as when it takes the form of a fiction or a fable.

The 'therapeutic window'. What a delicious term for the interruption of medical treatment! Might you perhaps hurl yourself into the void through this therapeutic window? How about a hermeneutic window from which to hurl yourself beyond meaning. Or an existential window from which to hurl yourself out of existence and the perpetual reasons for existing.

The Transphilosophical Divide: the point where truth begins to exist on both sides of the line, the point where all contradictory hypotheses can be simultaneously verified.

He who has everything will keep what he has. From him who has nothing, even that will be taken away. Philosophy leads to death, sociology leads to suicide. Shrivelled anus, short-windedness, limp member, short-sightedness, angioplastied ventricle, urethral polyps - but a clear, hard head.

He does not define concepts, he does not analyse them, he does not criticize them: he murders them (but the crime is never perfect).

En último término, el objeto y el sujeto son lo mismo.

Concordance between a 'real' situation and a discourse ought to be an indication of 'truth', but it is, for that very reason, philosophically unbearable.

Watch yourself all your life in a mirror and you'll see Death at work like bees in a glass hive.

A film is a petrified fountain of thought.

The spirit of creation is the spirit of contradiction, the breakthrough of appearances toward an unknown reality.

Am scris adeseori c? spiritul creator nu este altceva decât spiritul de contradicÅ£ie sub forma lui cea mai înalt?.

Le temps des hommes est de l'éternité pliée

Death never takes the wise man by surprise; He is always ready to go.

It is a great and beautiful spectacle to see a man somehow emerging from oblivion by his own efforts, dispelling with the light of his reason the shadows in which nature had enveloped him, rising above himself, soaring in his mind right up to the celestial regions, moving, like the sun, with giant strides through the vast extent of the universe, and, what is even greater and more difficult, returning to himself in order to study man there and learn of his nature, his obligations, and his end.

I will simply ask: What is philosophy? What do the writings of the best known philosophers contain? What are the lessons of these friends of wisdom? To listen to them, would one not take them for a troupe of charlatans crying out in a public square, each from his own corner: Come to me. I'm the only one who is not wrong?

Yeryüzünde benim için her ÅŸey bitti. Burada bana art?k ne iyilik edebilirler ne de kötülük. Ne umaca??m ne de korkaca??m bir ÅŸey kald? bu dünyada; zavall? bahts?z bir ölümlü ve Tanr? kadar kayg?s?z, telaÅŸs?z olan ben, uçurumun en dibindeyim.

Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know. Among the most necessary knowledge is the knowledge of how to live well, that is, how to produce the least possible evil and the greatest goodness in one's life. At present, people study useless sciences, but forget to study this, the most important knowledge.

What conclusion is to be drawn from this paradox so worthy of being born in our time; and what will become of virtue when one has to get rich at all cost? The ancient political thinkers forever spoke of morals and of virtue; ours speak only of commerce and money.

It is too difficult to think nobly when one only thinks to get a living.

In this world it is much easier to hear the echo than the answer

Quanto a noi, ci rifiutiamo di lasciarci squartare tra la tesi e l'antitesi. Concepiamo senza alcuna difficoltà come un uomo, anche se il suo ambiente lo condiziona totalmente, possa essere un centro di indeterminazione irriducibile.

I must be without remorse or regrets as I am without excuse; for from the instant of my upsurge into being, I carry the weight of the world by myself alone without help, engaged in a world for which I bear the whole responsibility without being able, whatever I do, to tear myself away from this responsibility for an instant.