Quotes About Philosophy

For history and for science facts are self-evident and are the subject-matter of these studies, but for philosophy they are the most puzzling things imaginable, and when they are really discovered its part is played.

The Buddhist version of poverty is a situation where you have nothing to contribute.

In essence, they predict that science, not religion, will guarantee us an afterlife.

And while his brain kept whirring with the problems of a unified theory, his body became frail and thin, wrinkles fell over him like elephant skin, and began to slouch, as if with each new day he was carrying a slightly heavier pack on his back.

The process of philosophic and scientific enlightenment has shaken the stability of beliefs held explicitly as articles of faith.

a mysterious force that everyone feels and no philosopher has explained…. [It] is not in the throat: the duende surges up, inside, from the soles of the feet. Meaning, it's not a question of skill, but of a style that's truly alive: meaning, it's in the veins: meaning, it's of the most ancient culture of immediate creation. It is the spirit of the earth.

Albert Einstein was never clear if he believed in time travel, but had he raised a toddler, he certainly would have.

Intelligence, Kant reminds, is not so much a result of genius, rather it is a consequence of a determination to use it.

I did that," says my memory. "I could not have done that," says my pride, and remains inexorable. Eventually—??the memory yields. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

Every society gets the criminals it deserves" is her philosophy. "And the police force it's willing to pay for, rather than the one it insists upon.

I ONCE DISMISSED FAITH BECAUSE I VIEWED IT FROM AN INTELLECTUAL STANDPOINT, BUT FAITH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH INTELLECT.

Or really, the question is: Is there a difference between when life begins and when life as a human begins?

Liberal education intertwines the philosophical and rhetorical so that we learn how to learn, so that we continue both inquiry and cultural participation throughout our lives because learning has become part of who we are.

The goal of life is living in agreement with nature. —Zeno of Elea (490–430 B.C., Greek philosopher)

The opposite is beneficial; from things that differ comes the fairest attunement; all things are born through strife. —Heraclitus (c. 540–c. 480 B.C., Greek philosopher)

on death pools] This attitude is an unwholesome mix of frivolity and obsession—toying with death even while fixating upon it.

God is about belief and faith. It is not about proving there is a God, for there is no proof. What proof can there be?

It should be apparent that the belief in objectivity in journalism, as in other professions, is not just a claim about what kind of knowledge is reliable. It is also a moral philosophy, a declaration of what kind of thinking one should engage in, in making moral decisions. It is, moreover, a political commitment, for it provides a guide to what groups one should acknowledge as relevant audiences for judging one's own thoughts and acts.

Anarchy is a state of society where the only government is reason.

I'm not a magician. I'am an alchemyst, a man of science, though perhaps not the science you would be familiar with.

I met an immortal humani once, a man called William Shakespeare, who wrote that there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. -Aoife the Shadows

To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man.

'Hamlet' is one of the most dangerous things ever set down on paper. All the big, unknowable questions like what it is to be a human being the difference between sanity and insanity the meaning of life and death what's real and not real. All these subjects can literally drive you mad.

Whatever its psychological origins, vegetarianism appears to stem less from a rational consideration of the evidence than an emotional rejection of killing animals