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Philosopher Quotes

Browse 2040 quotes about Philosopher.

Philosopher Quotes

“Theoretical scientists who probe the secrets of the universe and philosophers who seek answers to existence, as well as painters such as Paul Klee who find the thoughts of men of science compatible with art, influence me far more than most photographers.”

Men Wells Art Universe Answers Secret Existence Influence Photography Scientist Photographer Philosopher Painter Theoretical Compatible

Book:Wynn Bullock, photographing the nude: the beginnings of a quest for meaning

Source: Wynn Bullock, photographing the nude: the beginnings of a quest for meaning

“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.”

Wells Looks Philosophy Earth Lost Sun Doubt Fire Elements Direct Philosopher Wit Coherence

Author:John Donne

“When men abandon reason, physical force becomes their only means of dealing with one another and of settling disagreements.”

Source: The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution

“All the reasons which made the initiation of physical force evil, make the retaliatory use of physical force a moral imperative.”

Made Reason Use Evil Force Moral Philosopher Novelists Imperatives Playwright Screenwriters Initiation Physical Force

Author:Ayn Rand

“I mean, it’s true, nobody talks about them, but when you bring it up, the idea that you have to rent yourself to somebody and follow their orders, and that they own and you work there, and you built it but you don’t own it, that’s a highly unnatural notion. You don’t have to study any complicated theories to see that this is an attack on human dignity.”

Humans Mean Ideas Order Work Study Theory Respect Built Dignity Critics Notion Philosopher Following Complicated Historian Attacking Unnatural Human Dignity Subordination Linguists

Book:On Anarchism

Source: On Anarchism

“The corporations plainly want academic scholarship to create a web of mystification that will avoid any public awareness of the way in which power actually functions in the society, and the faculty has caught the message and they do it magnificently.”

Way Want Power Society Awareness Messages Function Critics Caught Philosopher Corporations Faculty Historian Academic Avoiding Scholarship Linguists Social Awareness

Book:Language and Politics

Source: Language and Politics

“An army of philosophers would not be sufficient to change the nature of error and to make it truth.”

Army Errors Philosopher Sufficient

Author:Averroes

“Life is too short to be wasted in finding answers. Enjoy the questions.”

Life Inspirational Wisdom Life Is Enjoy Answers Wise Words Words Of Wisdom Findings Asking Philosopher Novelists Questioning Too Short Life Is Short Life Is Too Short Short Life Lyricists

Author:Paulo Coelho

“We don't need to explain our love. We only need to show it.”

“Avoiding problems you need to face is avoiding the life you need to live.”

“The philosopher believes that the value of his philosophy lies in the whole, in the building: posterity discovers it in the bricks with which he built and which are then often used again for better building: in the fact, that is to say, that building can be destroyed and nonetheless possess value as material.”

Believe Philosophy Whole Facts Used Lying Values Building Materials Built Philosopher Destroyed Bricks Posterity

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.”

Want Philosophy Wisdom Wish Philosopher Insight Breathe Greek Philosopher

Author:Socrates

“If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.”

Ifs Government Political Politics Interest Fool Affair Philosopher Doomed Rules Governing Wise Man Once Said Greek Philosopher

Author:Plato

“Too many young folk have addiction to superficial things and not enough conviction for substantial things like justice, truth and love.”

People Love Enough Truth Young Justice And Love Addiction Folks Philosopher Conviction Superficial Truth And Love Justice Truth Superficial Things

Author:Cornel West

“When you make music you are acting as a philosopher. You can either do that consciously or you can do it unconsciously, but you're doing it.”

Can Do Acting Philosopher You Can Do It

Author:John Cage

“There was a German philosopher who is very well known, his name was Immanuel Kant, and he said there are two things that don’t have to mean anything, one is music and the other is laughter. Don’t have to mean anything that is, in order to give us deep pleasure.”

Giving Wells Mean Said Two Order Names Pleasure Known Laughter Philosopher Two Things Well Known German Philosopher

Author:John Cage

“Don't be someone that searches, finds and then runs away.”

Inspirational Wisdom Running Achieve Wise Words Words Of Wisdom Findings Philosopher Seeking Novelists Reaching Running Away Lyricists

Author:Paulo Coelho

“Don't give to anyone the power to put you down. Haters are losers pretending to be winners.”

Inspirational Giving Wisdom Power Wise Words Words Of Wisdom Philosopher Winner Novelists Loser Pretending Humiliate Hater Lyricists

Author:Paulo Coelho

“Different Chinese philosophers, writing probably in 5-4 centuries B.C., presented some major ideas and a way of life that are nowadays known under the name of Taoism, the way of correspondence between man and the tendency or the course of natural world.”

Men World Way Writing Ideas Different Courses Names Natural Known Century Majors Philosopher Tendencies Chinese Taoism Natural World Correspondence Chinese Philosopher

Author:Alan Watts

“Future generations may or may not judge Wittgenstein to be one of the great philosophers. Even if they do not, however, he is sure always to count as one of the great personalities of philosophy. From our perspective it is easy to mistake one for the other; which he is time will tell.”

Ifs May Philosophy Easy Mistake Generations Judging Perspective Personality Philosopher Future Generation Great Person Great Philosophers Time Will Tell Great Personality

Book:Wittgenstein

Source: Wittgenstein

“The true cook is the perfect blend, the only perfect blend, of artist and philosopher. He knows his worth: he holds in his palm the happiness of mankind, the welfare of generations yet unborn.”

Knows Artist Perfect Generations Mankind Food Cooking Philosopher Cooks Welfare Culinary Palms Unborn

Book:South Wind

Source: South Wind

“Shouldn't I join the ranks of philosophers and merely make unsubstantiated claims about the wonders of human consciousness? Shouldn't I stop trying to do some science and keep my head down? Indeed not.”

Trying Humans Consciousness Wonder Claims Philosopher Stop Trying Human Consciousness

Author:Kevin Warwick

“I feel that we are all philosophers, and that those who describe themselves as a 'philosopher' simply do not have a day job to go to.”

Feels Jobs Philosopher Day Jobs

Author:Kevin Warwick

“I persist in preferring philosophers to rabbis priests imams ayatollahs and mullahs. Rather than trust their theological hocus-pocus I prefer to draw on alternatives to the dominant philosophical historiography: the laughers materialists radicals cynics hedonists atheists sensualists voluptuaries. They know that there is only one world and that promotion of an afterlife deprives us of the enjoyment and benefit of the only one there is. A genuinely deadly sin.”

Source: Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam

“The teacher, like the artist, the philosopher, and the man of letters, can only perform his work adequately if he feels himself to be an individual directed by an inner creative impulse, not dominated and fettered by an outside authority.”

Ifs Feels Artist Individual Creative Teacher Authority Philosopher Impulse

Author:Bertrand Russell

“All art preserves mysteries which aesthetic philosophers tackle in vain.”

Art Mystery Philosopher Vain Preserves Aesthetic

Author:Anthony Burgess

“Many scientists think that philosophy has no place, so for me it's a sad time because the role of reflection, contemplation, meditation, self-inquiry, insight, intuition, imagination, creativity, free will, is in a way not given any importance, which is the domain of philosophers.”

“Wherefore all theology, when separated from Christ, is not only vain and confused, but is also mad, deceitful, and spurious; for, though the philosophers sometimes utter excellent sayings, yet they have nothing but what is short-lived, and even mixed up with wicked and erroneous sentiments.”

Sometimes Christ Mad Philosopher Theology Vain Excellent Confused Wicked Sentiments Deceitful Short Lived

Book:John Calvin's Commentaries On The Gospel Of John Vol. 2 (Annotated Edition)

Source: John Calvin's Commentaries On The Gospel Of John Vol. 2 (Annotated Edition)

“Summer weather, like being in love,is a philosopher's stone which turns our ordinary days to gold. But not the whole day ... For it is never the whole day, never all our life which is transformed in any happiness, but only the exquisite moments.”

Whole Moments Turns Love Is Our Lives Summer Ordinary Stones Gold Philosopher Weather Transformed Being In Love Exquisite Ordinary Days Summer Weather

Book:An English Year

Source: An English Year

“Cavendish was a great Man with extraordinary singularities-His voice was squeaking his manner nervous He was afraid of strangers & seemed when embarrassed to articulate with difficulty-He wore the costume of our grandfathers. Was enormously rich but made no use of his wealth... He Cavendish lived latterly the life of a solitary, came to the Club dinner & to the Royal Society: but received nobody at his home. He was acute sagacious & profound & I think the most accomplished British Philosopher of his time.”

“Every philosophical thinker hails it [The Origin of Species] as a veritable Whitworth gun in the armoury of liberalism.”

Gun Philosophical Species Philosopher Liberalism Thinker Hail Origin Of Species

Author:Thomas Huxley

“For other great mathematicians or philosophers, he [Gauss] used the epithets magnus, or clarus, or clarissimus; for Newton alone he kept the prefix summus.”

Science Used Philosopher Mathematician Newton Epithet

Book:A Short Account of the History of Mathematics

Source: A Short Account of the History of Mathematics

“Historically the most striking result of Kant's labors was the rapid separation of the thinkers of his own nation and, though less completely, of the world, into two parties;-the philosophers and the scientists.”

World Two Science Nations Results Party Labor Scientist Philosopher Separation Thinker Rapids

Author:Lawrence Joseph Henderson

“In England, philosophers are honoured, respected; they rise to public offices, they are buried with the kings... In France warrants are issued against them, they are persecuted, pelted with pastoral letters: Do we see that England is any the worse for it?”

Kings Office Letters England Philosopher France Buried Persecuted Warrants Public Office

Author:John Dewey

“It has often been said, and certainly not without justification, that the man of science is a poor philosopher.”

Men Said Poor He Man Philosopher Justification

Book:The Albert Einstein Collection: Essays in Humanism, The Theory of Relativity, and The World As I See It

Source: The Albert Einstein Collection: Essays in Humanism, The Theory of Relativity, and The World As I See It

“It is told of Faraday that he refused to be called a physicist; he very much disliked the new name as being too special and particular and insisted on the old one, philosopher, in all its spacious generality: we may suppose that this was his way of saying that he had not over-ridden the limiting conditions of class only to submit to the limitation of a profession.”

Way May Science Names Class Special Conditions Particular Philosopher Profession Limitation Submit Biographies Physicist Generalities Nomenclature

Book:The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent: Selected Essays

Source: The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent: Selected Essays

“People complain that our generation has no philosophers. They are wrong. They now sit in another faculty. Their names are Max Planck and Albert Einstein. Upon appointment as the first president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, Berlin, formed for the advancement of science.”

People Firsts Names President Generations Philosopher Complaining Faculty Advancement Max Berlin Appointments Our Generation Advancement Of Science

Author:Adolf von Harnack

“Philosophers and psychiatrists should explain why it is that we mathematicians are in the habit of systematically erasing our footsteps. Scientists have always looked askance at this strange habit of mathematicians, which has changed little from Pythagoras to our day.”

Should Littles Science Changed Strange Habit Scientist Mathematics Philosopher Mathematician Psychiatrist Footsteps

Author:Gian-Carlo Rota

“Since the princes take the Earth for their own, it's fair that the philosophers reserve the sky for themselves and rule there, but they should never permit the entry of others.”

Should Earth Sky Fairs Philosopher Permit Reserves Entry

Author:Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle

“Students of the heavens are separable into astronomers and astrologers as readily as the minor domestic ruminants into sheep and goats, but the separation of philosophers into sages and cranks seems to be more sensitive to frames of reference.”

Seems Science Heaven Students Philosopher Separation Sensitive Sheep Minors Sage Goats Astronomers Crank Frame Of Reference

Author:Willard Van Orman Quine

“Zoological taxonomists in general are inclined to be practical workers rather than philosophers, if only because they face such an unending task that they are not encouraged to sit back and philosophize.”

Ifs Faces Tasks Workers Philosopher Practicals Unending

Author:Richard E. Blackwelder

“Look not for refuge to anyone beside yourself. Heed fast to the truth as a lamp.”

Looks Philosopher Refuge Lamps Heed

Author:Gautama Buddha

“Wisdom, humanity & courage, these three are universal virtues. The way by which they are practiced are one.”

Way Humanity Three Virtue Universal Philosopher

Author:Confucius

“Just as it is agreed that we all wish to be happy, so it is that we all wish to be wise, since no one without wisdom is happy.”

Wish Wise Philosopher Being Wise

Author:Saint Augustine

“The mind is a kind of theater, where several perceptions successively make their appearence; pass, re-pass, glide away, and mingle in an infinite variety of postures and situations.”

Mind Kind Situation Perception Theater Infinite Philosopher Variety Posture

Book:A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Source: A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

“It is precisely in knowing its limits that philosophy consists.”

Philosophy Knowing Limits Philosopher

Book:Immanuel Kant's Critique Of Pure Reason

Source: Immanuel Kant's Critique Of Pure Reason

“We should be surprised that a matter that generally plays such an important part in the life of man has hitherto been almost entirely disregarded by philosophers, and lies before us as raw and untreated material.”

Men Should Important Matter Play Lying Materials Philosopher Chemistry Disregarded

Book:The World as Will and Representation

Source: The World as Will and Representation

“All that philosophers have handled for millennia has been conceptual mummies; nothing actual has ever escaped from their hands alive.”

Has Beens Hands Alive Philosopher Existential Mummy

Book:The Vision of Nietzsche

Source: The Vision of Nietzsche

“Development of Western science is based on two great achievements: the invention of the formal logical system (in Euclidean geometry) by the Greek philosophers, and the discovery of the possibility to find out causal relationships by systematic experiment (during the Renaissance). In my opinion, one has not to be astonished that the Chinese sages have not made these steps. The astonishing thing is that these discoveries were made at all.”

“It is time, therefore, to abandon the superstition that natural science cannot be regarded as logically respectable until philosophers have solved the problem of induction. The problem of induction is, roughly speaking, the problem of finding a way to prove that certain empirical generalizations which are derived from past experience will hold good also in the future.”

Way Problem Past Certain Natural Prove Findings Logic Philosopher Abandon Superstitions Respectable Natural Science Generalization Past Experiences

Author:A.J. Ayer