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Quotes about philosophy

250 quotes from 124 people

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The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.
Henry Ward Beecher1813–1887
Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.
Jeremy Bentham1748–1832An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789; 1823), Ch. 1: Of the Principle of Utility
- Morality
A man contains all that is needed to make up a tree; likewise, a tree contains all that is needed to make up a man. Thus, finally, all things meet in all things, but we need a Prometheus to distill it.
Cyrano de Bergerac1619–1655The Other World (1657)
- Nature
No sooner do we depart from sense and instinct to follow reason but we are insensibly drawn into uncouth paradoxes, difficulties, and inconsistencies, which multiply and grow upon us as we advance in speculation; till at length, having wandered through many intricate mazes, we find ourselves just where we were, or, which is worse, sit down in a forlorn scepticism.
George Berkeley1685–1753
I liked the idea that a piece of information is really defined only by what it’s related to, and how it’s related. There really is little else to meaning. The structure is everything.
Tim Berners-Leeborn 1955Weaving the Web (1999)
- Knowledge
Not even the apparently enlightened principle of the ‘greatest good for the greatest number’ can excuse indifference to individual suffering. There is no test for progress other than its impact on the individual.
Aneurin Bevan1897–1960In Place of Fear (1952), pp. 167-168
- Morality
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
The Bible (King James Version)Ecclesiastes 1:2 (KJV)In context
- Life & Death
All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914Epigrams, p. 369
Philosophy: A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
When lost in a forest go always down hill. When lost in a philosophy or doctrine go upward.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914Epigrams, p. 354
- Advice
Physics is to be regarded not so much as the study of something a priori given, but rather as the development of methods of ordering and surveying human experience.
Niels Bohr1885–1962“The Unity of Human Knowledge” (October 1960)
- Science
It is clear that there is no classification of the Universe that is not arbitrary and full of conjectures. The reason for this is very simple: we do not know what kind of thing the universe is.
Jorge Luis Borges1899–1986The Analytical Language of John Wilkins
- Knowledge
No one is anyone, one single immortal man is all men. Like Cornelius Agrippa, I am god, I am hero, I am philosopher, I am demon and I am world, which is a tedious way of saying that I do not exist.
Jorge Luis Borges1899–1986“The Immortal” (1949)
It is venturesome to think that a coordination of words (philosophies are nothing more than that) can resemble the universe very much.
Jorge Luis Borges1899–1986“Avatars of the Tortoise” (1939), collected in Discussion (1957 edition)
There is a concept which corrupts and upsets all others. I refer not to Evil, whose limited realm is that of ethics; I refer to the infinite.
Jorge Luis Borges1899–1986“Avatars of the Tortoise” (1939), collected in Discussion (1957 edition)
- Ideas