Quotes About Philosophy

Why, in truth, sir, was Monte Cristo's reply, man is but an ugly caterpillar for him who studies him through a solar microscope; but you said, I think, that I had nothing else to do. Now, really, let me ask, sir, have you? — do you believe you have anything to do? or to speak in plain terms, do you really think that what you do deserves being called anything?

My son, philosophy as I understand it, is reducible to no rules by which it can be learned; it is the amalgamation of all the sciences, the golden cloud which bears the soul to heaven.

Life is a chaplet of little miseries which the philosopher counts with a smile. Be philosophers, as I am, gentlemen; sit down at the table and let us drink. Nothing makes the future look so bright as surveying it through a glass of chambertin.

Death is the only serious preoccupation in life.

The King! I thought him enough of a philosopher to realize that there is no such thing as murder in politics. You know as well as I do, my dear boy, that in politics there are no people, only ideas; no feelings, only interests. In politics, you don't kill a man, you remove an obstacle, that's all.

what is life? Is it not a hall in Death's anteroom?

il n'y a ni bonheur ne malheur en ce monde, il y a la comparaison d'un etat a un autre, voila tout.

The most curious spectacle in life is that of death.

apprendre n'est pas savoir; il y a les sachants et les savants: c'est la memoire qui fait les uns, c'est la philosophie qui fait les autres.

Il y a les sachants et les savants: c'est la mémoire qui fait les uns, c'est la philosophie qui fait les autres. La philosophie ne s'apprend pas; la philosophie est la réunion des sciences acquises au génie qui les applique.

Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth; it is like the golden cloud in which the Messiah went up into heaven.

thought he was philosopher enough to allow that there was no murder in politics. In politics, my dear fellow, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas—no feelings, but interests; in politics we do not kill a man, we only remove an obstacle, that is all.

Life isn't about finding the answers, life is about knowing there are always more questions.

Dogma", spelled backwards, is "Am God". When a person allows someone else's dogma to become their God, they have things backwards.

What do we mean when we say "meaning"? For our purposes it's not one thing, a single gem of wisdom. It's the stream of insight, understanding, realization, and acceptance that one continually gains from personal experience, and that adds up to the subjective reality called me. The me in meaning is aimed primarily at seeing the significance of our experiences not for others, but for ourselves. We are philosophers of I. Take

They ask of me only to weep repentance for a sin that does not concern me and I shall get in return an alien freedom I don't understand: to be drubbed in one thin, wounding water after another of their philosophy - and confidently they would hang their washing in the heavens.

Historical reminder Always put Horace before Descartes.

ideology refers to belief, or better, to configurations of beliefs. Ideology exists—if it exists—in the mind.

Genghis Khan who's read Marx," to quote Bukharin.

each of the best minds ends by making fairy tales

The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty.

The only way you can motivate people is to communicate with them." Effective communication also shapes values for people by "not only bringing company philosophy to life . . . ," as Peters and Austin put it, but also "helps newcomers understand how shared values affect individual performance.

As Marion Montgomery, summarizing Etienne Gilson, puts it, "We know, and know that we know, that life and meaning have real existence, though science cannot substantiate that reality because the reality at issue lies in a dimension of immateriality."4

What these first central precepts the yamas and niyamas ask us to remember is that the techniques and forms are not goals in themselves but vehicles for getting to the essence of who we are.