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Philosophy Quotes

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Philosophy Quotes

“We fall into states of illusion - we forget all this. We get caught up in desires, frustrations, political movements, philosophies, religions, the getting of a living, the pain of a body, the pleasure of a body.”

States Philosophy Body Pain Political Desire Fall Forget Pleasure Movement Ignorance Illusion Caught Frustration Caught Up Political Movements

Author:Frederick Lenz

“While the dogmatist is harmful, the sceptic is useless ...; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or of ignorance. Knowledge is not so precise a concept as is commonly thought. Instead of saying 'I know this', we ought to say 'I more or less know something more or less like this'. ... Knowledge in practical affairs has not the certainty or the precision of arithmetic.”

Knows Should Philosophy Science Certain Knowledge Knowing Ignorance Ought Concepts Affair Practicals Certainty Useless Not Knowing Precise Precision Arithmetic Sceptic

Author:Bertrand Russell

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

“There are two threats to reason, the opinion that one knows the truth about the most important things and the opinion that there is no truth about them. Both of these opinions are fatal to philosophy; the first asserts that the quest for truth is unnecessary, while the second asserts that it is impossible. The Socratic knowledge of ignorance, which I take to be the beginning point of all philosophy, defines the sensible middle ground between two extremes.”

Knows Firsts Two Important Reason Philosophy Opinion Impossible Middle Ignorance Truth Is Important Things Threat Extremes Sensible Quests Unnecessary Middle Ground Two Extremes Socratic

Author:Allan Bloom

“The most perfect philosophy of the natural kind only staves off our ignorance a little longer: as perhaps the most perfect philosophy of the moral or metaphysical kind serves only to discover larger portions of it. Thus the observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy, and meets us at every turn, in spite of our endeavours to elude or avoid it.”

Humans Kind Littles Philosophy Turns Natural Perfect Results Moral Ignorance Weakness Observation Spite Portions Blindness Metaphysical Endeavour Elude

Book:Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects

Source: Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects

“Even those who have desired to work out a completely positive philosophy have been philosophers only to the extent that, at the same time, they have refused the right to install themselves in absolute knowledge. They taught not this knowledge, but its becoming in us, not the absolute but, at most, our absolute relation to it, as Kierkegaard said. What makes a philosopher is the movement which leads back without ceasing from knowledge to ignorance, from ignorance to knowledge, and a kind of rest in this movement.”

Kind Has Beens Said Philosophy Movement Ignorance Taught Becoming Relation Absolutes Philosopher Work Out

Book:In Praise of Philosophy and Other Essays

Source: In Praise of Philosophy and Other Essays

“The annals of the French Revolution prove that the knowledge of the few cannot counteract the ignorance of the many.... The light of philosophy, when it is confined to a small minority, points out the possessors as the victims rather than the illuminators of the multitude.”

Philosophy Light Atheism Ignorance Revolution Prove Victim Positive Atheism Minorities Multitudes Confined French Revolution

Book:The Friend: a series of essays ... First American, from the second London edition

Source: The Friend: a series of essays ... First American, from the second London edition

“The way in which we manage the business of getting and spending is closely tied to our personal philosophy of living. We begin to develop this philosophy long before we have our first dollar to spend; and unless we are thinking people, our attitude toward money management may continue through the years to be tinged with the ignorance and innocence of childhood.”

“Wonder is the foundation of all philosophy; research, the progress; ignorance, the end. There is, by heavens, a strong and generous kind of ignorance that yields nothing, for honour and courage, to knowledge: an ignorance to conceive which needs no less knowledge than to conceive knowledge.”

Needs Kind Ends Philosophy Strong Heaven Wonder Knowledge Progress Ignorance Research Philosophical Foundation Generous Yield Honour

Author:Michel de Montaigne

“Science is a philosophy of discovery; intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance... Something fundamamental is going on in people's minds when they confront things they don't understnd.”

People Mind Philosophy Design Ignorance Discovery Intelligent Intelligent Design

Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson