Quotes About Philosophy

All the new thinking is about loss. In this it resembles all the old thinking

What is the sound of a soul made of numbers?

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.

It also reflects a tendency in our society to focus on negatives. Doctors, for instance, study illness, not health. Business leaders analyse failure, not success. Economists study cost, not value. Philosophers mostly debate original sin, not original blessing.

There are three dominant worldviews in psychology and philosophy. Each worldview is represented

Friendliness took the place of charity, contentment the place of hope, and knowledge the place of faith.

This is what I see," becomes replaced by a question: "Is this what I see?" You share his hesitations about the positions of a tree or a branch; or the final shape of Mont Ste-Victoire, and the trees in front of it. Relativity is all. Doubt becomes part of the painting's subject.

Joan Maragall

In our era, just as in every transitional age, God seems dead, but it is really our Enlightenment culture that has died.

The inner meaning of history . . . involves speculation and an attempt to get at the truth, subtle explanation of the causes and origins of existing things, and deep knowledge of the how and why of events. (History,) therefore, is firmly rooted in philosophy. It deserves to be accounted a branch of (philosophy).

Averroes, the last of the great medieval Arab philosophers, was fighting a rearguard defense of philosophy that was under attack from theologians, and, though translations of his works were to be much read in the universities of Christian Europe, he had little influence on later generations of thinkers in the Muslim world.

Pataphysics is the science of imaginary solutions.

But things are not what they seem. The normal Arabic word for "philosophy" was and is falasifa and a "philosopher" is a faylasuf. Plato was a faylasuf and so were Aristotle, Avicenna, Averroes, and al-Farabi. But the word that Rosenthal has translated as "philosophy" in the passage quoted above is hikma, and hikma has a subtly different range of meaning.

Those who make compassion an essential part of their lives find the joy of life. Kindness deepens the spirit and produces rewards that cannot be completely explained in words. It is an experience more powerful than words. To become acquainted with kindness one must be prepared to learn new things and feel new feelings. Kindness is more than a philosophy of the mind. It is a philosophy of the spirit.

To become acquainted with kindness one must be prepared to learn new things and feel new feelings. Kindness is more than a philosophy of the mind. It is a philosophy of the spirit.

Cornerstone No. 4 is the Ice-Ball Theory, which states: Given the apparent, ultimate fate of the earth, it is vain and nonsensical to take oneself too seriously.

My attitude was unyielding, solidly backed by the wisdom of the Bluff Theory, which states: The secret to bluffing is to not bluff.

I guess you might say that it was a paradox of sorts in that I prepared for long-term success by bracing myself against the effects of short-term failure. I again emphasize that this philosophy works only if you are prepared to succeed. It does not work if you simply use it as an excuse to fail in a situation where it may have been possible to succeed had you tried harder or been more persistent.

Es nuestra concepción de la muerte lo que determina nuestras respuestas a todas las preguntas que la vida nos plantea.

once believed that a published author must be an Olympian being—a wise or at least worldly philosopher-god who rises at noon, feeds his muse a diet of scotch/rocks, and debauches his soul into the keys of a rusty Underwood Noiseless while the rest of the world sleeps.

I have described to you why God must exist—or, at least, must have at one time existed—in mathematical terms that come as close to certainty as anything in science possibly could. And still you deny his existence." The pain was growing worse. It would subside, of course. "Yes," I said. "I deny God's existence.

Free will is not always the most important thing

This specious fallacy of a theology built on the philosophy of men, instead of the revelation of God, has not only survived the anathema of Christ, but it has since branched out into a multitude of contending schools until confusion has become more confounded, and the name of the Prince of Peace is used as the battlecry for inhuman slaughter.

wondering about a man to whom the difference between a pasture and a meadow seemed important, [...] who seemed like the wind. And moved like it. Came from it, perhaps.