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Quotes about philosophy

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Pretend what we may, the whole man within us is at work when we form our philosophical opinions.
William James1842–1910The Sentiment of Rationality (1882)
No philosophy can ever be anything but a summary sketch, a picture of the world in abridgment, a foreshortened bird’s-eye view of the perspective of events.
William James1842–1910A Pluralistic Universe (1909), Lecture I
There is… a curious fascination in hearing deep things talked about, even though neither we nor the disputants understand them. We get the problematic thrill, we feel the presence of the vastness.
William James1842–1910Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)
All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience for it.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III (15 April 1778) p. 393
- Experience
Unsheathe your dagger definitions. Horseness is the whatness of allhorse. Streams of tendency and eons they worship.
James Joyce1882–1941Ulysses (1922), Part II, Episode 9In context
The end and aim of the Cynic philosophy, as indeed of every philosophy, is happiness, but happiness that consists in living according to nature, and not according to the opinions of the multitude.
Julian331–363Oration to the Uneducated Cynics (tr. W. C. Wright, ii, 1913)
- Happiness
The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life. If it be true that optimism compels the world forward, and pessimism retards it, then it is dangerous to propagate a pessimistic philosophy.
Helen Keller1880–1968Optimism (1903)
Who knows, my God, but that the universe is not one vast sea of compassion actually, the veritable holy honey, beneath all this show of personality and cruelty?
Jack Kerouac1922–1969“The Origins of the Beat Generation” in Playboy (June 1959)
It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards.
Søren Kierkegaard1813–1855Journals IV A 164 (1843)
- Life & Death
The greatest danger, that of losing one’s own self, may pass off as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, that of an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife etc., is sure to be noticed.
Søren Kierkegaard1813–1855The Sickness unto Death (July 30, 1849)
I am Kim. I am Kim. And what is Kim?
Rudyard Kipling1865–1936Kim (1901), Chapter XVIn context
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao;
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
LLaozi580–501 BCTao Te Ching, Ch. 1, tr. Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English (1972)
I’m a philosophy major. That means I can think deep thoughts about being unemployed.
Bruce Lee1940–1973
Man’s consciousness not only reflects the objective world, but creates it.
Vladimir Lenin1870–1924Conspectus of Hegel’s Science of Logic — Book III: Subjective Logic or the Doctrine of the Notion (December 1914)
Natural man did not precede society, nor is he outside it.
Claude Lévi-Strauss1908–2009Tristes Tropiques (1955), Chapter 38: A Little Glass of Rum, p. 392