“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.” MenShouldPhilosophyBodyUsedHealingBrainProgressProductsBalanceShould HaveMachinesHarmInventionCyclesBikeBeneficialConvenienceTouringBicycleAttainmentPrecisionCyclingIrritationBikingCyclistsTandemTandem BikesTandem Bicycles Author:Elizabeth West
“Tantra is not sexual yoga. When the word tantra is used in the West, very often people immediately associate it with some kind of sexual yoga in which you use sex as a vehicle for enlightenment.” PeopleKindPhilosophyUseUsedSexEnlightenmentYogaWestVehicleAssociatesTantra Author:Frederick Lenz
“There is nothing that you shouldn't do. Everything can be used as a tool for liberation.” PhilosophyUsedToolsLiberation Author:Frederick Lenz
“The most disappointing feature of working for a cause is that so few people have a philosophy of life. We used to say, in the suffrage movement, that we could trust the woman who believed in suffrage, but we could never trust the woman who just wanted to vote.” PeoplePhilosophyWantedUsedCausesMovementLife PhilosophyVoteActivismFeaturesDisappointingSuffrageNever TrustSuffrage Movement Author:Jeannette Rankin
“Philosophy used to be a field that had content, but then natural philosophy became physics, and physics has only continued to make inroads. Every time theres a leap in physics, it encroaches on these areas that philosophers have carefully sequestered away to themselves, and so then you have this natural resentment on the part of philosophers.” PhilosophyUsedNaturalFieldsAreasPhilosopherPhysicsUsed To BeLeapResentmentNatural Philosophy Author:Lawrence M. Krauss
“Logical investigations can obviously be a useful tool for philosophy. They must, however, be informed by a sensitivity to the philosophical significance of the formalism and by a generous admixture of common sense, as well as a thorough understanding both of the basic concepts and of the technical details of the formal material used. It should not be supposed that the formalism can grind out philosophical results in a manner beyond the capacity of ordinary philosophical reasoning. There is no mathematical substitute for philosophy.” ShouldWellsPhilosophyUsedUnderstandingResultsCommonMaterialsOrdinaryConceptsCapacityToolsPhilosophicalDetailsCommon SenseMathematicalGenerousReasoningLogicalSignificanceSubstitutesInvestigationFormalSensitivityGrindThoroughThorough Understanding Author:Saul Kripke
“The beginning of sense, not to say wisdom, is to realize that 'doing an action,' as used in philosophy, is a highly abstract expression--it is a stand-in used in the place of any (or almost any?) verb with a personal subject, in the same sort of way that 'thing' is a stand-in for anynoun substantive, and 'quality' a stand-in for the adjective.” WayPhilosophyActionUsedRealizingQualitySubjectsExpressionAbstractVerbsAdjectives Author:J. L. Austin
“The late Président de Montesquieu told me that he knew how to be blind--he had been so for such a long time--but I swear that I do not know how to be deaf: I cannot get used to it, and I am as humiliated and distressed by it today as I was during the first week. No philosophy in the world can palliate deafness.” KnowsWorldFirstsLongPhilosophyTodayUsedKnow HowWeekLateLong TimeBlindSwearBlindnessDeafHumiliatedDeafnessMontesquieu Author:Lord Chesterfield
“My dad said, "As long as you're happy." I used to think it was kind of a very simple idea or philosophy because he wasn't religious. But you've got to try and be happy. And if you're not happy, you can't help anyone else. So obviously, some crazy people could go to places, but I just think you need to be content within yourself, so that's the thing.” PeopleIfsThinkingNeedsTryingKindLongSaidIdeasPhilosophyHelpingUsedReligiousSimpleCrazyDadMy DadNot HappyCrazy PeopleSimple Ideas Author:Eddie Izzard
“Phenomenology is not a philosophy; it is a philosophical method, a tool. It is like an adjustable spanner that can be used for dismantling a refrigerator or a car, or used for hammering in nails, or even for knocking somebody out.” PhilosophyUsedCarToolsPhilosophicalMethodNailsKnockingRefrigeratorsPhenomenology Author:Colin Wilson
“Every faith uses some kind of tool to understand itself better. Faith seeks understanding. The Western tradition has used philosophy to understand the truths of the faith and you come up with theology. Where as, Islam at a certain point said: we'll use law. There are these four major, developed schools of Islamic jurisprudence.” KindSaidPhilosophyUseSchoolLawUsedCertainUnderstandingFourMajorsTraditionToolsIslamWesternCome UpTheologyIslamicJurisprudence Author:Francis George
“The doctrine (of) maintaining that the language of daily life, with words used in their ordinary meanings, suffices for philosophy . . . I find myself totally unable to accept . . . . Because it makes almost inevitable the perpetuation amongst philosophers of the muddle-headedness they have taken over from common sense.” PhilosophyUsedLanguageCommonAcceptingTakenOrdinaryPhilosopherDoctrineCommon SenseInevitableDaily LifeMaintainingMuddle Author:Bertrand Russell
“UNIX has a philosophy, it has 25 years of history behind it, and most importantly, it has a clean core. It strives for something - some kind of beauty. And that's really what struck me as a programmer. Operating systems that normal home users are used to, such as DOS and Windows, didn't have any way of life. Nobody tried to design Windows - it just grew in random directions without any kind of thought behind it. [...] I don't think Microsoft is evil in itself; I just think that they make really crappy operating systems.” ThinkingWayYearsKindPhilosophyHomeUsedEvilBehindsDesignGrewNormalWindowCleanStriveCoreUsersStrifeMicrosoftProgrammersOperating SystemsUnix Author:Linus Torvalds
“The only thing Martha and I have in common is that we both used to model. Martha Stewart is extremely talented. Her designs are picture perfect. Our philosophy is life is messy, and rather than being afraid of those messes we design products that work the way we live.” WayPhilosophyLife IsUsedPerfectCommonDesignProductsModelsMessMessyBeing AfraidPicture Perfect Author:Kathy Ireland
“Hitherto acceptable norms of human conduct do not apply. If the United States is to survive, long-standing American concepts of 'fair play' must be reconsidered. We must develop effective espionage and counterespionage services and must learn to subvert, sabotage and destroy our enemies by more clever, more sophisticated, and more effective methods than those used against us. It may become necessary that the American people be made acquainted with, understand and support this fundamentally repugnant philosophy.” PeopleIfsHumansMayLongMadeStatesPhilosophyPlayUsedUnitedEnemyUnited StatesSupportConceptsFairsStandingMethodCleverAcceptableSophisticatedNormEspionageSabotageFair Play Author:Jimmy Doolittle
“My ex-wife was a philosophy major at NYU. Yeah, she and I used to have deep philosophical discussions where she would prove that I didn't exist.” PhilosophyUsedWifeProveMajorsPhilosophicalYeahDiscussionExesEx WifeNyuDeep Philosophical Author:Woody Allen