Quotes About Philosophy

The mathematical method is disinterested in the efficient cause and the final cause or the goodness of a thing and it should not be so disinterested.

The familiar would of sense experience is not entirely objectively real, but is to some extent a product of the scientists' reasoning.

Do mathematics have a relation to reality or are they only a mathematical symbol?

There are ultimately only two possible adjustments in life: one is to suit our lives to principles; the other is to suit principles to our lives. "If we do not live as we think, we soon begin to think as we live.

there are only two philosophies of life: one is first the feast, then the headache; the other is first the fast and then the feast.

There would be a course on the philosophy of history; another year the philosophy of Marxism, another the philosophy of religion, the philosophy of science, etc. All of these were presented in the light of the thought of St. Thomas.

How the modern world needs a Socrates, who used to walk into the market place of Athens asking people questions in order to make them discover themselves! True, he was put to death for unmasking others, but he left the world the heritage of "know thyself." Guide to Contentment, 80

Perhaps the solicitation to pamper the way men live is too strong for them, for much of the business of philosophy at the present time seems to be to give high-sounding names to cover the sins of men. The clay is now molding the potter and the marble carving out the sculptor.

The most current philosophy of life is self-expressionism: "Let yourself go"; "Do whatever you please." Any suggestion of restraining errant impulses is called a masochistic survival of the dark ages. The truth is that the only really self-expressive people in the world are in the insane asylum. They have absolutely no inhibitions, no conventions, and no codes. They are as self-expressive as hell, i.e., in complete disorder.

Death was such a mystery. The complete disappearance of something as complex and miraculous as a living, breathing human being had always been beyond her comprehension.

In thinking the of the eternal, we must link the eternal with the accidentality of our thinking

Thinking is, indeed, essentially the negation of that which is before us.

The wise man knows how to run his life so that contemplation is possible.

We must, therefore, break away once and for all from the metaphors which depict consciousness as a luminous circle round which there is nothing, to its own eyes, but darkness. On the contrary, the shadow is at the centre.

Je ne peux rien affirmer de moi-même qui soit authentiquement moi-même.

March 7th It is a serious error, if I am not mistaken, to treat time as a mode of apprehension. For one is then forced to consider it also as the order according to which the subject apprehends himself, and he can only do this by breaking away from himself, as it were, and mentally severing the fundamental engagement which makes him what he is.

Philosophy is experience transmitted into thought.

Il est de toute nécessité que je perde conscience de la réalité individuelle de l'être que je puis être amené à supprimer.

Confronted with the choice between having time and having things, we've chosen to have things. Today it is a luxury to read what Socrates said, not because the books are expensive, but because our time is scarce.

La muerta del Creador implica finalmente la muerte del creador. Lo cual no impide que Michel Foucault y Jacques Derrida firmen como autores de sus libros...

Hoy, es un lujo leer a Sócrates, no por el costo de los libros, sino del tiempo escaso.

Everyone dies. You needn't go on about it so.

And, believe me, if I were again beginning my studies, I should follow the advice of Plato and start with mathematics.

Philosophy is written in that great book which ever lies before our eyes — I mean the universe — but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols, in which it is written. This book is written in the mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it; without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.