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Philosophy Quotes

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Philosophy Quotes

“I am only about half alive - a large part of my strength is consumed in sitting up or walking. My nervous system is a shattered wreck, and I am absolutely bored & listless save when I come upon something which peculiarly interests me. However - so many things do interest me, & interest me intensely, in science, history, philosophy, & literature; that I have never actually desired to die, or entertained any suicidal designs, as might be expected of one with so little kinship to the ordinary features of life.”

“Should philosophers be expected to change the world? Such an expectation seems to me extravagant. Marx himself didn't change the world: he reinterpreted it, then other people changed it.”

People World Should Philosophy Seems Changed Expectations Philosopher Expected Changing The World Extravagant

Author:J. M. Coetzee

“Hegel's philosophy is so odd that one would not have expected him to be able to get sane men to accept it, but he did. He set it out with so much obscurity that people thought it must be profound. It can quite easily be expounded lucidly in words of one syllable, but then its absurdity becomes obvious.”

People Men Philosophy Able Accepting Profound Obvious Expected Odd Sane Absurdity Obscurity Syllables Hegel

Book:Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68

Source: Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68

“When we call something unfair or indecent or unconscionable or evil, when we speak of mercy and pity and compassion, those words have meaning, regardless of our particular faith or moral philosophy. They appeal to common standards we all are expected to understand and accept, standards without which we could not live any common life at all.”

Philosophy Evil Speak Common Compassion Accepting Moral Particular Standards Mercy Expected Pity Appeals Unfair Moral Philosophy Common Life

Book:Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy

Source: Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy

“Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.”

Art Philosophy Watches History Worst Expected English Language Dictionary Lexicographer

Author:Samuel Johnson

“Until I was a junior in high school, I was a "boy scientist" type and expected to go into chemistry. Then I discovered the humanities. I read the plays of Shakespeare voraciously, some novels, such as Pasternack's Dr. Zhivago and Sinclair Lewis' Main Street, and I got into philosophy by reading Kierkegaard and Nietzsche.”

Philosophy Play School Humanity Reading Boys Novel Streets Type High School Scientist Expected Chemistry Drs Juniors Main Street

Author:Allen W. Wood