Philosopher Quotes

We’re neither pure, nor wise, nor good; we do the best we know.

This is a universe that does not favor the timid.

Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw.

How much more the seeker of abstract truth, who needs periods of isolation, and rapt concentration, and almost a going out of thebody to think!

Time & Co. are, after all, the only quite honest and trustworthy publishers that we know.

To think historically is almost the same thing now as if in all ages history had been made according to theory.

The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.

Speaking is a beautiful folly; with that man dances over all things.

I have yet to meet a man as fond of high moral conduct as he is of outward appearances.

By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, the duty which is in our hands, we make ourselves stronger

There is one single thread binding my way together...the way of the Master consists in doing one's best...that is all.

It is my principle that the will of the majority should always prevail.

Don't go outside; get back to yourself, in the inner man lies the Truth.

Except for Love, nothing you see will remain forever.

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

Seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied.

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.

When you find the way/ others will find you./ Passing by on the road/ they will be drawn to your door./ The way that cannot be heard/ will be echoed in your voice./ The way that cannot be seen/ will be reflected in your eyes.

It is so wonderful to our neurologists that a man can see without his eyes, that it does not occur to them that is just as wonderful that he should see with them; and that is ever the difference between the wise and the unwise: the latter wonders at what is unusual, the wise man wonders at the usual.

He overcomes a stout enemy who overcomes his own anger.

To gain anything we have longed for is only to discover how vain and empty it is; and even though we are always living in expectation of better things, at the same time we often repent and long to have the past back again.

The office of liberality consisteth in giving with judgment.

It was completely fruitless to quarrel with the world, whereas the quarrel with oneself was occasionally fruitful and always, she had to admit, interesting.

When a man speaks the truth in the spirit of truth, his eye is as clear as the heavens. When he has base ends, and speaks falsely, the eye is muddy, and sometimes asquint.

To praise the sun is to praise your own eyes.

An apt and true reply was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride. "What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor."

We should be as careful of our words as of our actions.

To be rich is to have a ticket of admission to the masterworks and chief men of each race. It is to have the sea, by voyaging; to visit the mountains, Niagara, the Nile, the desert, Rome, Paris, Constantinople: to see galleries, libraries, arsenals, manufactories.

Let arms give place to the robe, and the laurel of the warriors yield to the tongue of the orator.

All men have a sweetness in their life. That is what helps them go on. It is towards that they turn when they feel too worn out.

As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.

And, indeed, what little of beauty and peace is to be found in the societies of men is owing to the daily performance of small duties, not to big doings and fine talk.

A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do.

To let them share in the highest offices is to take a risk; inevitably, their unjust standards will cause them to commit injustice, and their lack of judgement will lead them into error. On the other hand there is a risk in not giving them a share, and in their non participation, for when there are many who have no property and no honours they inevitably constitute a huge hostile element in the state. But it can still remain open to them to participate in deliberating and judging.

Let no one ignorant of Mathematics enter here.

I have, I believe, the courage to doubt everything; I have, I believe, the courage to fight against everything; but I do not have the courage to acknowledge anything, the courage to possess, to own anything.

Nothing can rightly compel a simple and brave man to a vulgar sadness.

Misery motivates, not utopia.

No one may shut his eyes to think the pain, which is therefore not visible to him, is non-existent.

Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts.

The lover never despairs.For a committed heart everything is possible.

In the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible.

If I am building a mountain and stop before the last basketful of earth is placed on the summit, I have failed.

The highest form of pure thought is in mathematics.

Can one generation bind another, and all others, in succession forever? I think not. The Creator has made the earth for the living, not the dead. Rights and powers can only belong to persons, not to things, not to mere matter endowed with will...Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

There is much coldness among men because we do not dare to be as cordial as we really are.

A slight sound at evening lifts me up by the ears, and makes life seem inexpressibly serene and grand. It may be Uranus, or it may be in the shutter.

What sort of space is that which separates a man from his fellows and makes him solitary?

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

Give me a Wildness whose glance no civilization can endure.

It is impossible, or not easy, to alter by argument what has long been absorbed by habit

We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.

The hour-hand of life.

Style is what gives value and currency to thoughts.

All art, all education, can be merely a supplement to nature.

Imagination decides everything.

A true Lover is proved such by his pain of Heart!No sickness is there like sickness of Heart!!!

What I need is someone who will make me do what I can.

Now know I well what people sought formerly above all else when they sought Teachers of virtue. Good sleep they sought for themselves, and poppy-head virtues to promote it! To all those be-lauded sages of the academic chairs, wisdom was sleep Without dreams: they knew no higher significance of life. Even at present, to be sure, there are some like this preacher of virtue, and not always so honorable: but their time is past. And not much longer do they stand: there they already lie. Blessed are those drowsy ones: for they shall soon nod to sleep.-Thus spoke Zarathustra.

In order to arouse sympathy, the aristocracy was obliged to lose sight, apparently, of its own interests, and to formulate its indictment against the bourgeoisie in the interest of the exploited working class alone. Thus, the aristocracy took their revenge by singing lampoons on their new masters and whispering in his ears sinister prophesies of coming catastrophe.