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Quotes about philosophy

250 quotes from 124 people

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We feel and know that we are eternal.
Baruch Spinoza1632–1677Ethics (1677), Part V, Prop. XXIII, Scholium
I am of opinion that the revelation of God can only be established by the wisdom of the doctrine, not by miracles, or in other words by ignorance.
Baruch Spinoza1632–1677Letter 21 (73) to Henry Oldenburg , November (1675)
- God
- Theology
I do not presume that I have found the best philosophy, I know that I understand the true philosophy.
Baruch Spinoza1632–1677Letter 74 (76) to Albert Burgh (1675)
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
Wallace Stevens1879–1955The Snow Man (1921)In context
- Nature
Every man is his own doctor of divinity, in the last resort.
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894An Inland Voyage (1878).
- Religion
- Theology
It is as absurd to expect members of philosophy departments to be philosophers as it is to expect members of art departments to be artists.
Leo Strauss1899–1973“What Is Liberal Education?”, in Liberalism Ancient and Modern (1968), p. 7
- Clever Jabs
It is safer to try to understand the low in the light of the high than the high in the light of the low.
Leo Strauss1899–1973Liberalism: Ancient and Modern (1968), p. 225
The problem inherent in the surface of things, and only in the surface of things, is the heart of things.
Leo Strauss1899–1973Thoughts on Machiavelli (1958), p. 13
The Stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
My idea of the modern Stoic sage is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into information, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.
Nassim Nicholas Talebborn 1960Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012), p. 156
- Wisdom
There is neither spirit nor matter in the world; the stuff of the universe is spirit-matter. No other substance but this could produce the human molecule.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin1881–1955A Sketch of a Personalistic Universe (1936)
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts; but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862
- Wisdom
There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Walden (1854), Economy (1 of 3)In context
- Wisdom
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the God of the philosophers is the same God.
Paul Tillich1886–1965Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality (1955), p. 80
- God
- Theology
Man is infinitely concerned about the infinity to which he belongs, from which he is separated, and for which he is longing.
Paul Tillich1886–1965Systematic Theology (1951–63)
- Theology