Quotes About Philosophy

He [Samuel Butler] made a practise of doing the forks last when washing up, on the grounds that he might die before he got to them. This is very much his principle of 'eating the grapes downwards', so that however many grapes you have eaten the next is always the best of the remainder.

Days What are days for? Days are where we live. They come, they wake us Time and time over. They are to be happy in: Where can we live but days? Ah, solving that question Brings the priest and the doctor In their long coats Running over the fields.

philosophers will forever wrangle about the true nature of science as a prelude to their dream of the final knockdown argument which will silence all doubt and opposition to their own favorite utopia.

The writing of contemporary history can be among the most treacherous of ambitions. Everybody knows we never appreciate what we have till it's gone; that the owl of Minerva flies at dusk; that familiarity breeds contempt; and so forth.

I think it's perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it, but I don't know everything, and there may well be a God somewhere, hiding away. Actually, if he is keeping out of sight, it's because he's ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they're responsible for promoting in his name. If I were him, I'd want nothing to do with them.

I don't profess any religion; I don't think it's possible that there is a God; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words 'spiritual' or 'spirituality.' [ Interview, The New Yorker, Dec. 26, 2005 ]

I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief... I'm not in the business of offending people. I find the books upholding certain values that I think are important, such as life is immensely valuable and this world is an extraordinarily beautiful place. We should do what we can to increase the amount of wisdom in the world. [ Washington Post interview, 19 February 2001 ]

Godshawk looked surprised, the way that people generally do when you ask them philosophical questions in shrubberies in the middle of the night.

Reason cannot save us, nothing can; but reason can mitigate the cruelty of living.

Freud is the least confused of modern minds because he has no message; he accepts contradiction, and builds his psychology on it.

The faith instinct…simply cannot be killed. That 'simply cannot' means that we simply cannot not live—cannot live as if life were meaningless, without purpose; as if life were merely material or mechanical or not spiritual. Such an effort in its deadly futility represents a historical ending time, a time just before the faith instinct will show itself again.

A deconstructed text is tantamount to a forgery.

You put too much stock in human intelligence, it doesn't annihilate human nature.

we must simply develop our spiritual potential in order to escape the chaos of a purely empirical relationship with the universe.

Paul was the only scholar among the apostles. He never displays his learning, considering it of no account as compared with the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, for whom he suffered the loss of all things, but he could not conceal it, and turned it to the best use after his conversion. Peter and John had natural genius, but no scholastic education; Paul had both, and thus became the founder of Christian theology and philosophy.

The facts must rule philosophy, not philosophy the facts.

Anger, the Stoics said, was a short madness.

The only thing I know is that I know nothing' Socrates

The greatest danger to both society and the individual, we learn from Socrates, is the suspension of critical thought.

Marcus Aurelius 121–180 'The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts' Adopted

Nietzsche held that the strong had a duty towards the less fortunate: 'The man of virtue, too, helps the unfortunate, but not, or almost not, out of pity, but prompted by an urge which is begotten by the excess of power'.

The history of social, political and technological change is inextricably bound to the history of thought.

In answer to Zeno, Democritus held that whilst atoms could be geometrically divided, it is only matter containing spaces – literally, parts of the void between the atoms – that can be physically divided. An atom itself could not be physically divided since it is perfectly solid, completely excluding the void, and thereby indivisible.

The history of social, political and technological change is inextricably bound to the history of thought. To