Inspirational Quotes on Philosophy

“As for Doing-good, that is one of the professions which are full. Moreover, I have tried it fairly, and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution. Probably I should not consciously and deliberately forsake my particular calling to do the good which society demands of me, to save the universe from annihilation; and I believe that a like but infinitely greater steadfastness elsewhere is all that now preserves it.”

“...even nursery tales only echo an almost pre-natal leap of interest and amazement. These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water.”

“There is more things in heaven and earth...than are dreamt of by your philosophy.”

“...the aim of civilization is to translate everything into enjoyment.”

“O vitae Philosophia dux! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque vitiorum! Unus dies, bene et ex praeceptis tuis actus, peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus. translation (non-literal): O philosophy, life’s guide! O searcher of virtues and expeller of vices! Just a single day lived well and according to your lessons is to be preferred to an eternity of errors. — Cicero, As quoted in Ben Franklin’s Autobiography”

“ said: ”

“Cinta memperindah hidup kita sebab pengalaman cinta pada dasarnya indah dan memperindah seluruh semesta. Mencintai seseorang atau sesuatu berarti mengabdikan yang tidak abadi, memuliakan yang tidak bermoral, meninggikan yang rendah, dan memperindah yang buruk rupa. Apapun yang terlihat oleh mata yang menatap penuh cinta selalu kelihatan cantik, selalu indah di mata - Pitirim Sorokin”

“I never said a word against eminent men of science. What I complain of is a vague popular philosophy which supposes itself to be scientific when it it really nothing but a sort of new religion and an uncommonly nasty one.”

“Do not weep, life is paradise, and we are all in paradise, but we do not want to know it, and if we did want to know it, tomorrow there would be paradise the world over.”

“Thought constitutes the greatness of man. Man is a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.”

“الحق قوة، لكننا لا نراه هكذا إلا في حالات نادرة. لأنه حق يتألم دائماً ويجب أن يُهزم طالما هو حق· أما عندما ينتصر هذا الحق فنرى الآخرين ينصتون إليه· لماذا؟ ألأنه حق؟ لا، فلو كان لهذا السبب لانضموا إليه عندما كان يتألم أيضاً· ولهذا فإن عدم انضمامهم إليه ليس للقوة التي يمتلكها؛ إنهم ينضمون إليه بعد أن يصبح قوة لأن الآخرين يكونون قد سبقوهم لذلك.”

“Stand in the divine rain, and seeds of wisdom will grow in your soul.”

“It is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.”

“Oh, you knew that your deed would be preserved in books, would reach tghe depths of the ages and the utmost limits of the earth, and you hoped that, following you, man, too, would remain with God, having no need of miracles. But you did not know that as soon as man rejects miracles, he will at once reject God as well, for man seeks not so much God as miracles. And since man cannot bear to be left without miracles, he will go and create new miracles for himself... Oh, there will be centuries of free reason, of their science and anthropophagy... Freedom, free reason, and science willl lead them into such a maze, and confront them with such miracles and insoluble mysteries, that some of them, unruly and ferocious, will exterminate themselves.”

“I find my data first in myself, not first in the poets. For if I did not find it in myself, I would not be able to find it in the poets.”

“Certainly my work is negative, destructive; but … only in relation to the unhuman, not to the human[.]”

“Le bonheur, c'est continuer à désirer ce que l'on a déjà.”

“The present importance of the Book of Job cannot be expressed adequately even by saying that it is the most interesting of ancient books. We may almost say of the Book of Job that it is the most interesting of modern books. In truth, of course, neither of the two phrases covers the matter, because fundamental human religion and fundamental human irreligion are both at once old and new; philosophy is either eternal or it is not philosophy. The modern habit of saying, 'This is my opinion, but I may be wrong,' is entirely irrational. If I say that it may be wrong I say that is not my opinion. The modern habit of saying 'Every man has a different philosophy; this is my philosophy and its suits me'; the habit of saying this is mere weak-mindedness. A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon.”

“The modern mind is merely a blank about the philosophy of toleration; and the average agnostic of recent times has really had no notion of what he meant by religious liberty and equality. He took his own ethics as self-evident and enforced them; such as decency or the error of the Adamite heresy. Then he was horribly shocked if he heard of anybody else, Moslem or Christian, taking his ethics as self-evident and enforcing them; such as reverence or the error of the Atheist heresy. And then he wound up by taking all this lop-sided illogical deadlock, of the unconscious meeting the unfamiliar, and called it the liberality of his own mind. Medieval men thought that if a social system was founded on a certain idea it must fight for that idea, whether it was as simple as Islam or as carefully balanced as Catholicism. Modern men really think the same thing, as is clear when communists attack their ideas of property. Only they do not think it so clearly, because they have not really thought out their idea of property.”

“As Sicknesse is the greatest misery, so the greatest misery of sicknes is solitude; when the infectiousness of the disease deterss them who should assist from coming; even the Phisician dares scarse come... it is an Outlawry, and excommunication upon the patient....”