Quotes About Philosophy

Hence the young man is not a fit student of Moral Philosophy, for he has no experience in the actions of life, while all that is said presupposes and is concerned with these: and in the next place, since he is apt to follow the impulses of his passions, he will hear as though he heard not, and to no profit, the end in view being practice and not mere knowledge.

And here we must not forget the difference between reasoning from principles, and reasoning to principles:

Thus then Happiness is most excellent, most noble, and most pleasant, and these attributes are not separated as in the well-known Delian inscription-- Most noble is that which is most just, but best is health; And naturally most pleasant is the obtaining one's desires.

For to people of that sort, just as to those lacking self-restraint,15 knowledge is without benefit. But to those who fashion their longings in accord with reason and act accordingly, knowing about these things would be of great profit.

baseness that does not possess its own starting point [or principle] is always less harmful than that which does possess it, and intellect is such a starting point. It

In general, then, pleasure is not good, because every pleasure is a perceptible process of coming into its nature; but no coming-into-being belongs to the same class as the ends we pursue—for

Virtue, then, is twofold, intellectual and moral. Both the coming-into-[1103a] being and increase of intellectual virtue result mostly from teaching—hence it requires experience and time—whereas moral virtue is the result of habit, and so it is that moral virtue got its name [?thik?] by a slight alteration of the term habit [ethos].

Neither by nature, therefore, nor contrary to nature are the virtues present; they are instead present in us who are of such a nature as to receive them, and who are completed1 through habit.

And if you don't like that you can acquaint yourself with the axioms that neither you nor anybody else are the centre of the universe and that what you call complications are simply another name for life itself. Worry is life, and life is worry. And the absence of worry is death.

When one has thoroughly got imbued into one's head the leading truth that nothing happens without a cause, one grows not only large-minded, but large-hearted.

Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time.

It is a fine thing to be a walking encyclopaedia of philosophy, but if you happen to have no liking for philosophy, and to have a like for the natural history of street-cries, much better leave philosophy alone, and take to street-cries.

Geluk werd tegenwoordige tijd en geluk dat tegenwoordige tijd is geworden is angstaanjagend geluk, geluk in de verleden tijd of in de toekomende tijd is stukken draaglijker.

Everything happens for a reason, and part of that beauty of life is that we're not allowed to know those reasons for certain.

Samuel Beckett já disse: Toda palavra é uma mancha desnecessária no silêncio e no vazio. Por outro lado, ele DISSE isso.

The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion

I don't believe in God but I'm very interested in her.

all the world's religions cannot be right, and they know it. Sooner or later man has to learn the truth:

A wise man once said that all human activity is a form of play. And the highest form of play is the search for Truth, Beauty and Love. What more is needed? Should there be a 'meaning' as well, that will be a bonus? If we waste time looking for life's meaning, we may have no time to live — or to play.

no one of intelligence resents the inevitable.

Death focuses the mind on the things that really matter: why are we here, and what should we do?

There's an ancient philosophical joke that's much subtler than it seems. Question: Why is the Universe here? Answer: Where else would it be?

Atheism is unprovable, so uninteresting. However unlikely it is, we can never be certain that God once existed—and has now shot off to infinity, where no one can ever find him… Like Gautama Buddha, I take no position on this subject.

harsh verdict of the great philosopher Lucretius: all religions were fundamentally immoral, because the superstitions they peddled wrought more evil than good.