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Quotes about philosophy

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Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape.
Erich Fromm1900–1980Man for Himself (1947), Ch. 3 “Human Nature and Character”
- Life & Death
Philosophy is written in this grand book⁠—I mean the Universe⁠—which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.
Galileo Galilei1564–1642
When Life does not find a singer to sing her heart she produces a philosopher to speak her mind.
Kahlil Gibran1883–1931Sand and Foam (1926)
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.
Kahlil Gibran1883–1931The Prophet (1923), On Self-KnowledgeIn context
Destiny is something not to be desired and not to be avoided … it is a mystery not contrary to reason, for it implies that the world, and the course of human history, have meaning.
Dag Hammarskjöld1905–1961Vägmärken · Markings (1963), 26 December 1956
- History
You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it. You are the storm.
Sam Harrisborn 1967Free Will (2012), p. 14
Consciousness is the one thing in this universe that cannot be an illusion.
Sam Harrisborn 1967Waking Up (2014), p. 54
The self really is an illusion⁠—and realizing this is the basis of spiritual life.
Sam Harrisborn 1967Interview with The Minimalists (19 August 2014)
Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings.
Sam Harrisborn 1967The End of Faith (2004)
- Anti-Religion
- Theology
The illusion of free will… is itself an illusion.
Sam Harrisborn 1967Sam Harris at Sydney Opera House Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2012, Discussion on Free Will.
The deeper the experience of an absence of meaning — in other words, of absurdity — the more energetically meaning is sought.
Václav Havel1936–2011Disturbing the Peace (1986), Ch. 5
My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.
Stephen Hawking1942–2018
I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.
Stephen Hawking1942–2018Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (1993), pp. 133–135.
The objects of philosophy, it is true, are upon the whole the same as those of religion. In both the object is Truth, in that supreme sense in which God and God only is the Truth.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel1770–1831Logic, Chapter 1
- Religion
The owl of Minerva first begins her flight with the onset of dusk.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel1770–1831Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820/1821)
- Wisdom