Quotes About Philosophy

Researchers also trace the dramatic increase in addiction to a shift in health-care philosophy that started to emphasize treating a patient's pain rather than treating the underlying ailments. That led to an increase in opioid use.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.—Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

The twentieth-century philosopher of religion Rudolf Otto famously characterized the transcendent God as the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, the mystery that fascinates us even as it causes us to tremble with fear—

Reflective man produces new philosophies; it is only regenerate man who holds the clue to a society that is really new.

I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply.

Wenn das Leben eine Illusion ist, dann bin ich es nicht weniger, und somit ist die Illusion für mich Wirklichkeit.

For Aristotle, it is not within our power to seek anything else, and thus /all/ acts have for their basic purpose the attainment of happiness or that which is good in itself and not merely as a means to something else.

Is it really so bad if no mound is built over your bones, and you are tossed out unburied? What odds does it make if you are cremated, exposed to be eaten by dogs or ravens, or consumed underground by worms?

The skeptic is never for real. There he stands, cocktail in hand, left arm draped languorously on one end of the mantelpiece, telling you that he can't be sure of anything, not even of his own existence. I'll give you my secret method of demolishing universal skepticism in four words. Whisper to him: 'Your fly is open.' If he thinks knowledge is so all-fired impossible, why does he always look?

Kierkegaard's most remarkable and subtle observations, that life can only be understood backwards but must be lived forwards. I think it means you have to turn around and start walking backwards, facing the past, if the present is going to make any sense at all.

God and I have decided to ignore each other. It's for the best.

Linguistic philosophers continue to argue that probably music is not a language, that is in the philosophical debate. Another point of view is to say that music is a very profound language.

Every cradle asks us "Whence?" and every coffin "Whither?" The poor barbarian, weeping above his dead, can answer these questions as well as the robed priest of the most authentic creed.

Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result.

I admit that reason is a small and feeble flame, a flickering torch by stumblers carried in the star-less night, -- blown and flared by passion's storm, -- and yet, it is the only light. Extinguish that, and nought remains.

Theology is a superstition—Humanity a religion.

If God created the universe, there was a time when he commenced to create. Back of that commencement there must have been an eternity. In that eternity what was this God doing? He certainly did not think. There was nothing to think about. He did not remember. Nothing had ever happened. What did he do? Can you imagine anything more absurd than an infinite intelligence in infinite nothing wasting an eternity?

Suppose it should turn out that no such person as Christ ever lived. What harm would that do justice or mercy? Wouldn't the tear of pity be as pure as now, and wouldn't justice, holding aloft her scales, from which she blows even the dust of prejudice, be as noble, as admirable as now? Is it not better to love justice and mercy than to love a name, and when you put a name above justice, above mercy, are you sure that you are benefiting your fellowmen?

Religion can never reform mankind, because religion is slavery.

Science has nothing in common with religion. Facts and miracles never did, and never will agree. They are not in the least related. They are deadly foes. What has religion to do with facts? Nothing. Can there be Methodist mathematics, Catholic astronomy, Presbyterian geology, Baptist biology, or Episcopal botany?

The theologians dead, knew no more than the theologians now living.

The idea that an infinite God, creator of all worlds, came to this grain of sand, learned the trade of a carpenter, discussed with Pharisees and scribes, and allowed a few infuriated Hebrews to put him to death that he might atone for the sins of men and redeem a few believers from the consequences of his own wrath, can find no lodgment in a good and natural brain.

A religion that does not command the respect of the greatest minds will, in a little while, excite the mockery of all.

All this is true, and if it were all, how beautiful, how touching, how glorious it would be. But it is not all. There is another side.