Philosophical Quotations | Page 3

We pity in others only the those evils which we ourselves have experienced.

Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck.

I'd never say I'll never have a facelift, but I'm way too scared of looking like a different person. I have no philosophical or political position on plastic surgery; I just don't want to look crazy. And I don't like not being able to tell how old someone is: It's creepy.

The reason Buddhism can be so naturalised is because, stripped of its supernatural elements, its core teachings can be giving a sound, secular philosophical interpretation. In other words, it becomes a religion acceptable to the contemporary, naturalistic mind only when it ceases to be a religion.

We do not say: Being is, time is, but rather: there is Being and there is time.

The good is, like nature, an immense landscape in which man advances through centuries of exploration.

I'm very educated and can give you somewhat of a vocabulary, but I don't get to the philosophical side.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.

First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.

Justice... is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.

There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.

The winding down of summer puts me in a heavy philosophical mood.

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

A friend is, as it were, a second self.

Man has to awaken to wonder - and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again.

To learn something new, take the path that you took yesterday.

Sudden glory is the passion which maketh those grimaces called laughter.

The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.

Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.

He that is jealous is not in love.

Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.

Politics is a science. You can demonstrate that you are right and that others are wrong.

Nothing can have value without being an object of utility.

Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.

To philosophical materialists God is no more than an idea in the human mind, and not a very important idea.

Study the past, if you would divine the future.

We cannot attribute to fortune or virtue that which is achieved without either.

The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing.

Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.

I'm not from a milieu where high-register language or philosophical ideas were welcome.

To be a philosophical sceptic is, in a man of letters, the first and most essential to being a sound, believing Christian.

One cannot become a saint when one works sixteen hours a day.

A categorical imperative would be one which represented an action as objectively necessary in itself, without reference to any other purpose.

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.

We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression.

It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.

Everything that happens happens as it should, and if you observe carefully, you will find this to be so.

If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.

He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.

The law always limits every power it gives.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases.

A philosophical problem has the form: I don't know my way about.

Such truth, as opposeth no man's profit, nor pleasure, is to all men welcome.

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.

The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good.

Death, like birth, is a secret of Nature.

Whatever I take, I take too much or too little; I do not take the exact amount. The exact amount is no use to me.

Life begins on the other side of despair.

Logic is not a body of doctrine, but a mirror-image of the world. Logic is transcendental.

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

There are men so philosophical that they can see humor in their own toothaches. But there has never lived a man so philosophical that he could see the toothache in his own humor.

The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.

Where there is no property there is no injustice.

Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good.

From my example learn to be just, and not to despise the gods.

Be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy be still a man.

So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to be.

Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract that which is concrete.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason.

When I was eight, I would look at the cover of the 'Ghost Rider' comic book in my little home in Long Beach, California, and I couldn't get my head around how something that scary could also be good. To me it was my first philosophical awakening - 'How is this possible, this duality?'

A man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by force, to take away his life.

It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.

Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.

War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms.

If one swain scorns you, you will soon find another.

To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.

Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is.

But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience.

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.

Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.

He enters the port with a full sail.

The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.

Man is fully responsible for his nature and his choices.

What region of the earth is not full of our calamities?

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.

Falsehood has an infinity of combinations, but truth has only one mode of being.

The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.

Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.

If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please.

All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit.

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.

Everything in the world is purchased by labor.

Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect.

Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.

But every historical statement and legitimization itself moves within a certain relation to history.

Philosophy, like medicine, has plenty of drugs, few good remedies, and hardly any specific cures.

A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes.

Death and life have their determined appointments; riches and honors depend upon heaven.

In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.

Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts.

To the extent that philosophical positions both confuse us and close doors to further inquiry, they are likely to be wrong.

And I also see how this body influences external images: it gives back movement to them.

A new word is like a fresh seed sown on the ground of the discussion.

Entire ignorance is not so terrible or extreme an evil, and is far from being the greatest of all.

Human salvation demands the divine disclosure of truths surpassing reason.