Quotes About Philosophy

Be his [Sophocles']My special thanks, whose even-balanced soul,From first youth tested up to extreme old age,Business could not make dull, nor passion wild:Who saw life steadily and saw it whole.

Culture, then, is a study of perfection, and perfection which insists on becoming something rather than in having something, in an inward condition of the mind and spirit, not in an outward set of circumstances.

Is it so small a thing To have enjoy'd the sun, To have liv'd light in the spring, To have lov'd, to have thought, to have done; To have advanc'd true friends, and beat down baffling foes; That we must feign a bliss Of doubtful future date, And while we dream on this Lose our present state, And relegate to worlds yet distant our repose? Empedocles on Etna: Act I, Scene II

Socrates has drunk his hemlock and is dead; but in his own breast does not every man carry about with him a possible Socrates, in that power of a disinterested play of consciousness upon his stock notions and habits, of which this wise and admirable man gave all through his lifetime the great example, and which was the secret of his incomparable influence?

Tis not the times, 'Tis not the Sophists vex him: There is some root of suffering in himself, Some secret and unfollow'd vein of woe, Which makes the times look black and sad to him. Empedocles on Etna: Act I, Scene I

Is there no life, but these alone? Madman or slave, must man be one?

philosophers of difference are, in fact, hyperethical and radical political thinkers, concerned with how movements that seek to address marginalization need to become even more ethical, even more radical in their desire to change the status quo in view of justice.

In the Randian cosmology the dollar replaced the crucifix. Christianity, she said, is "the symbol of the sacrifice of the ideal to the nonideal.

Humor and paradox are often the only ways to respond to life's sorrow with grace.

it. Philosophy may instruct men to be calm under their troubles; but Christianity teaches them to be joyful, because such exercises proceed from love and not fury in God.

Individualism • The first of these practical philosophies is individualism. When most people today are faced with a decision, the question that seems to dominate their inner dialogue is, "What's in it for me?" This question is the creed of individualism, which is based on an all-consuming concern for self. In the present climate, the most dominant trend governing the decision-making process—and therefore the formation of our

dreams provide rare insights into their philosophy about life and money [ ]

Seldom have I seen children dissatisfied with the product they took from a philosophical discussion, even if it is only some modest philosophical distinction, for they recognize how before that acquisition they had even less. Children, unlike adults, do not look insistently for answers or conclusions. They look rather for the kind of transformation that philosophy provides – not giving a new answer to an old question, but transforming all the questions.

As if you could TELL time without injuring eternity.

The realm of immediate or personal knowledge is a narrow circle in which these bodies move the realm of knowledge derived through faith is as wide as the universe, and old as eternity.

Spinoza tells us that we do not desire or detest things because we judge them to be good or evil; we judge them good or evil because we desire or detest them.

The present is an age of philosophy; and America, the empire of reason," said the American revolutionary Joel Barlow. 5 I aim to show that he was mostly right about that.

To think freely about things is also to separate ourselves from the flesh we are crammed into. To escape from that limiting cage that is our flesh, to break free of our chains and take flight into pure reason. In reason lies the natural life. That's what is at the core of freedom of thought." (66)

Ati?a, following N?g?rjuna's commentator Candrak?rti, held that although our everyday language adequately describes apparent reality, philosophical discourse nevertheless has a necessary role: not system-building but the criticism of our presuppositions, dismantling them until we arrive at the profound realization of emptiness and the opening that this entails.

the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

Paraphrasing Spinoza, Alexandre adds, "In pity, sadness comes first. I am sad that the other is suffering, but I don't really love him. In compassion, love comes first."23 The

Sober, a philosopher of science, has shown through convincing models that isolated, selfless individuals who come into contact with only selfish and violent individuals will be taken advantage of and tend to disappear quickly.4 Conversely, when such altruists group together and cooperate with one another, they have a definite evolutionary advantage over the selfish people, who also fight among themselves and therefore may slowly disappear from the population.

Buddhist texts say that in the cycle of death and rebirth, no place, not even one the size of a needle's point, is exempt from suffering.

How should I lead my life? How should I live in society? What is knowable?