Home / Topics / Philosophical Quotes

Philosophical Quotes

Browse 2604 quotes about Philosophical.

Philosophical Quotes

“Theories of genius are the peculiar constructions of our own philosophical times; ages of genius had passed away, and they left no other record than their works; no preconcerted theory described the workings of the imagination to be without imagination, nor did they venture to teach how to invent invention.”

Age Left Imagination Teach Records Theory Genius Philosophical Invention Peculiar Construction Venture Passed Away

Author:Isaac D'Israeli

“The book is what we have come to expect from Marion: challenging, subtle and nuanced analyses, dassling formulations, . . a provocative and original philosophical genius.”

Book Challenges Genius Philosophical Originals Analysis Subtle Provocative

Author:John D. Caputo

“Aptitude found in the understanding and is often inherited. Genius coming from reason and imagination, rarely.”

Reason Found Understanding Imagination Ability Genius Philosophical Aptitude Vivid Imagination

Author:Marcus Aurelius

“The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.”

Knows Awareness Genius Essence Philosophical Creative Genius

Author:William James

“It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.”

Time Women Genius Philosophical Nothingness Doing Nothing Incubation

Author:Gertrude Stein

“It is the privilege of true genius, And especially genius who opens up a new path, To make great mistakes with impunity”

Mistake Path Genius Philosophical Privilege Impunity Great Mistakes New Paths True Genius

Author:Lewis Carroll

“And indeed nothing but the most determined scepticism, along with a great degree of indolence, can justify this aversion to metaphysics. For if truth be at all within the reach of human capacity, it is certain it must lie very deep and abstruse: and to hope we shall arrive at it without pains, while the greatest geniuses have failed with the utmost pains, must certainly be esteemed sufficiently vain and presumptuous. I pretend to no such advantage in the philosophy I am going to unfold, and would esteem it a strong presumption against it, were it so very easy and obvious.”

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

“Like Flannery O'Connor, McCorkle's genius is to give us both philosophical speculation and a riveting narrative filled with unforgettable characters. Great writing, poignancy, humor, wisdom-all are in abundance here. Jill McCorkle is one of the South's greatest writers; she is also one of America's.”

Giving Writing Character America Genius Philosophical Filled South Narrative Abundance Speculation Great Writing Unforgettable Poignancy

Author:Ron Rash

“When we read with attention the poetical and philosophical monuments of the East--above all, those of India, which are beginning to spread in Europe--we discover there many a truth, and truths so profound, and which make such a contrast with the meanness of the results at which European genius has sometimes stopped, that we are constrained to bend the knee before the philosophy of the East, and to see in this cradle of the human race the native land of the highest philosophy.”

Source: Course of the History of Modern Philosophy

“There is a form of poetic and esthetic and moral genius necessary to make philosophical issues truly incandesce for students, and even though I indeed had some world-class professors myself when I went through the curriculum, I rarely saw such gnosic or concretist/poetic passion among them. I am not speaking of broad histrionics or melodramatic delivery, but rather a moral investment of concern, of loving delight and pathos in exposing one's consciousness to the full horrific and magnificent implications of the materials.”