In it he proves that all things are true and states how the truths of all contradictions may be reconciled physically, such as for example that white is black and black is white; that one can be and not be at the same time; that there can be hills without valleys; that nothingness is something and that everything, which is, is not. But take note that he proves all these unheard-of paradoxes without any fallacious or sophistical reasoning.
—Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–55) French Soldier, Duelist, Writer
Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
In philosophy if you aren’t moving at a snail’s pace you aren’t moving at all.
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
And new Philosophy calls all in doubt, the element of fire is quite put out; the Sun is lost, and the earth, and no mans wit can well direct him where to look for it.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you, and that the most interesting and important thing about you is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.
—Rene Descartes (1596–1650) French Mathematician, Philosopher
If I wished to punish a province, I would have it governed by philosophers.
—Frederick II of Prussia (1712–86) Prussian Monarch
Every philosophy is the philosophy of some stage of life.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
When philosophers try to be politicians they generally cease to be philosophers.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator, Writer
All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
In Plato’s opinion, man was made for philosophy; in Bacon’s opinion, philosophy was made for man.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–59) English Historian, Essayist, Philanthropist
Tell me what gives a man or woman their greatest pleasure and I’ll tell you their philosophy of life.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
We are much beholden to Machiavelli and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
A writer must always try to have a philosophy and he should also have a psychology and a philology and many other things. Without a philosophy and a psychology and all these various other things he is not really worthy of being called a writer. I agree with Kant and Schopenhauer and Plato and Spinoza and that is quite enough to be called a philosophy. But then of course a philosophy is not the same thing as a style.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?
—Harold Pinter (1930–2008) British Playwright
To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else’s type of thinking.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Then, like an old-time orator impressively he rose; I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes.
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) American Poet
A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Every philosophy is tinged with the coloring of some secret imaginative background, which never emerges explicitly into its train of reasoning.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
We often have need of a profound philosophy to restore to our feelings their original state of innocence, to find our way out of the rubble of things alien to us, to begin to feel for ourselves and to speak ourselves, and I might almost say to exist ourselves.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
A new philosophy generally means in practice the praise of some old vice.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
—Denis Diderot (1713–84) French Philosopher, Writer
The philosopher is like a man fasting in the midst of universal intoxication. He alone perceives the illusion of which all creatures are the willing playthings; he is less duped than his neighbor by his own nature. He judges more sanely, he sees things as they are. It is in this that his liberty consists—in the ability to see clearly and soberly, in the power of mental record.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
What wreath for Lamia? What for Lycius?
What for the sage, old Apollonius?
Upon her aching forehead be there hung
The leaves of willow and of adder’s tongue;
And for the youth, quick, let us strip for him
The thyrsus, that his watching eyes may swim
Into forgetfulness; and, for the sage,
Let spear-grass and the spiteful thistle wage
War on his temples. Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel’s wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine –
Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made
The tender-person’d Lamia melt into a shade.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings?
—Diogenes Laertius (f.3rd Century CE) Biographer of the Greek Philosophers
There is today-in a time when old beliefs are withering-a kind of philosophical hunger, a need to know who we are and how we got here. It is an on-going search, often unconscious, for a cosmic perspective for humanity.
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
Englishmen are babes in philosophy and so prefer faction-fighting to the labor of its unfamiliar thought.
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
In the information age, you don’t teach philosophy as they did after feudalism. You perform it. If Aristotle were alive today, he’d have a talk show.
—Timothy Leary (1920–96) American Psychologist, Author
If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
It is one of the chief skills of the philosopher not to occupy himself with questions which do not concern him.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
One may summon his philosophy when they are beaten in battle, not till then.
—John Burroughs (1837–1921) American Naturalist, Writer
There was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently, however they have writ the style of gods, and made a pish at chance and sufferance.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Keep quiet and people will think you a philosopher.
—Unknown
How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Philosophy! Empty thinking by ignorant conceited men who think they can digest without eating!
—Iris Murdoch (1919–99) British Novelist, Playwright, Philosopher
Perhaps it is of more value to infuriate philosophers than to go along with them.
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American Poet
Why, ever since Adam, who has got to the meaning of this great allegory—the world? Then we pygmies must be content to have out paper allegories but ill comprehended.
—Herman Melville (1819–91) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist, Poet
The usual picture of Socrates is of an ugly little plebeian who inspired a handsome young nobleman to write long dialogues on large topics.
—Richard Rorty (1931–2007) American Philosopher
The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful.
—A. J. Ayer (1910–89) English Philosopher
Philosophy is the product of wonder.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.
—Samuel Butler
Bad philosophers may have a certain influence; good philosophers, never.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Bishop Berkeley destroyed this world in one volume octavo; and nothing remained, after his time, but mind; which experienced a similar fate from the hand of Mr. Hume in 1737.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
Unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters
Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty?
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter