PHILOSOPHY QUOTES VI

quotations about philosophy

More and more it seems to me that the philosopher, being of necessity a man of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, has always found himself, and had to find himself, in contradiction to his today: his enemy was ever the ideal of today. So far all these extraordinary furtherers of men whom one calls philosophers, though they themselves have rarely felt like friends of wisdom but rather like disagreeable fools and dangerous question marks, have found their task, their hard, unwanted, inescapable task, but eventually also the greatness of their task, in being the bad conscience of their time.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Beyond Good and Evil

Tags: Friedrich Nietzsche


There are moments in life where the question of knowing whether one might think otherwise than one thinks and perceive otherwise than one sees is indispensable if one is to continue to observe or reflect ... What is philosophy today ... if it does not consist in, instead of legitimizing what we already know, undertaking to know how and how far it might be possible to think otherwise?

MICHEL FOUCAULT

History of Sexuality

Tags: Michel Foucault


The philosophical problems that can be solved from the armchair have already been solved.

JOSHUA GREENE

"Philosophers are using science and data points to test theories of morality", Quartz, March 28, 2016


The problems of philosophy and the systems designed to solve them are formulated in terms which tend to refer, not to the realm of actuality, but to the realms of possibility and necessity: to what might be and what must be, rather than to what is.

ROGER SCRUTON

Short History of Modern Philosophy

Tags: Roger Scruton


For philosophy to be effective, it has to understand the world in which it operates.

RICHARD BOURKE

"Hume's Call to Action", The Nation, April 20, 2016


A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring.

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

Personal Recollections

Tags: Ludwig Wittgenstein


Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love.

KARL MARX

The German Ideology

Tags: Karl Marx


Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind is also rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

The Problems of Philosophy

Tags: Bertrand Russell


It has been said that he is a fool who works for philosophy instead of making philosophy work for him; but a man cannot give to the world even a little of a true philosophy without reaping sevenfold himself.

ELSA BARKER

Letters from a Living Dead Man

Tags: Elsa Barker


Philosophy does not exist. It is nothing but an hypostatized abstraction.

R. D. LAING

Reason and Violence

Tags: R. D. Laing


Philosophy ... must not bargain away anything of the emphatic concept of truth.

THEODOR W. ADORNO

Why Still Philosophy?

Tags: Theodor W. Adorno


In order to live, man must act; in order to act, he must make choices; in order to make choices, he must define a code of values; in order to define a code of values, he must know what he is and where he is -- i.e. he must know his own nature (including his means of knowledge) and the nature of the universe in which he acts -- i.e. he needs metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, which means: philosophy. He cannot escape from this need; his only alternative is whether the philosophy guiding him is to be chosen by his mind or by chance.

AYN RAND

"Philosophy, Who Needs It?"

Tags: Ayn Rand


Philosophy unravels the knots in our thinking; hence its results must be simple, but its activity is as complicated as the knots that it unravels.

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

Philosophical Occasions

Tags: Ludwig Wittgenstein


Philosophy is a good horse in a stable, but an arrant jade on a journey.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The Good-Natured Man

Tags: Oliver Goldsmith


Welders make more than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.

MARCO RUBIO

Republican presidential debate, November 10, 2015

Tags: Marco Rubio


In the information age, you don't teach philosophy as they did after feudalism. You perform it. If Aristotle were alive today he'd have a talk show.

TIMOTHY LEARY

attributed, The Best Advice Ever for Teachers

Tags: Timothy Leary


Philosophy will clip an angel's wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line.

JOHN KEATS

"Lamia"

Tags: John Keats


A philosopher is one who disengages himself from all former prejudices, masters his passions, and learns to think, speak, and act, according to rule and order. He is ready to teach, but more ready to learn. He is of all, and yet of no sect.... If he thinks with few, it is not because they are few, but because there are few that think.

ANNE MARY PERCEVAL

Miscellaneous Thoughts, Maxims, Essays, Aphorisms, and Extracts


Philosophy is life's dry-nurse, who can take care of us -- but not suckle us.

SOREN KIERKEGAARD

Journals and Papers, 1837

Tags: Soren Kierkegaard


Philosophers, for the most part, are constitutionally timid, and dislike the unexpected. Few of them would be genuinely happy as pirates or burglars.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

Unpopular Essays

Tags: Bertrand Russell