Quotes about philosophers and philosophy

"Unintelligible answers to insoluble problems."

Adams, Henry Brooks on philosophers and philosophy   

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"The philosopher is like a man fasting in the midst of universal intoxication. He alone perceives the illusion of which all creatures are the willing playthings; he is less duped than his neighbor by his own nature. He judges more sanely, he sees things as they are. It is in this that his liberty consists -- in the ability to see clearly and soberly, in the power of mental record."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on philosophers and philosophy
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"Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder."

Aquinas, St. Thomas on philosophers and philosophy
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"The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful."

Ayer, Sir Alfred Jules on philosophers and philosophy   

"We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do."

Bacon, Francis on philosophers and philosophy   

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"In it he proves that all things are true and states how the truths of all contradictions may be reconciled physically, such as for example that white is black and black is white; that one can be and not be at the same time; that there can be hills without valleys; that nothingness is something and that everything, which is, is not. But take note that he proves all these unheard-of paradoxes without any fallacious or sophistical reasoning."

Bergerac, Savinien Cyrano De on philosophers and philosophy   

"What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind."

Berkeley, George on philosophers and philosophy
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"A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing."

Bierce, Ambrose on philosophers and philosophy
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"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher."

Bierce, Ambrose on philosophers and philosophy
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"Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society."

Brookner, Anita on philosophers and philosophy
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"Look, I really don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive, you got to flap your arms and legs, you got to jump around a lot, you got to make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death. And therefore, as I see it, if you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy, or at least your thoughts should be noisy and colorful and lively."

Brooks, Mel on philosophers and philosophy
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"Real philosophy seeks rather to solve than to deny."

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G. on philosophers and philosophy   

"One may summon his philosophy when they are beaten in battle, not till then."

Burroughs, John on philosophers and philosophy   

"All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others."

Butler, Samuel on philosophers and philosophy   

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"Pythagoras, Locke, Socrates -- but pages might be filled up, as vainly as before, with the sad usage of all sorts of sages, who in his life-time, each was deemed a bore! The loftiest minds outrun their tardy ages."

Byron, Lord on philosophers and philosophy   

"Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it."

Camus, Albert on philosophers and philosophy
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"The profoundest thoughts of the philosophers have something trickle about them. A lot disappears in order for something to suddenly appear in the palm of the hand."

Canetti, Elias on philosophers and philosophy   

"Tell me what gives a man or woman their greatest pleasure and I'll tell you their philosophy of life."

Carnegie, Dale on philosophers and philosophy
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"To philosophize is only another way of being afraid and leads hardly anywhere but to cowardly make-believe."

Celine, Louis-Ferdinand on philosophers and philosophy   

"Philosophy, like medicine, has plenty of drugs, few good remedies, and hardly any specific cures."

Chamfort, Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De on philosophers and philosophy   

"A new philosophy generally means in practice the praise of some old vice."

Chesterton, Gilbert K. on philosophers and philosophy   

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"The most dangerous criminal now is the entirely lawless modern philosopher. Compared to him, burglars and bigamists are essentially moral men."

Chesterton, Gilbert K. on philosophers and philosophy   

"There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not already said it."

Cicero, Marcus T. on philosophers and philosophy   

"Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom."

Cicero, Marcus T. on philosophers and philosophy
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"Philosophy is a bully that talks loud when the danger is at a distant; but, the moment she is pressed hard by an enemy, she is nowhere to be found and leaves the brunt of the battle to be fought by her steady, humble comrade, religion."

Colton, Charles Caleb on philosophers and philosophy   

"There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or another."

Descartes, Rene on philosophers and philosophy   

"Philosophers are only men in armor after all."

Dickens, Charles on philosophers and philosophy   

"The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers."

Diderot, Denis on philosophers and philosophy
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"Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anybody's feelings?"

Diogenes of Sinope on philosophers and philosophy   

"And new Philosophy calls all in doubt, the element of fire is quite put out; the Sun is lost, and the earth, and no mans wit can well direct him where to look for it."

Donne, John on philosophers and philosophy   

"I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher; but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in."

Edwards, Oliver on philosophers and philosophy   

"Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on philosophers and philosophy   

"If you set your heart upon philosophy, you must straightway prepare yourself to be laughed at and mocked by many who will say Behold a philosopher arisen among us! or How came you by that brow of scorn? But do you cherish no scorn, but hold to those things which seem to you the best, as one set by God in that place. Remember too, that if you abide in those ways, those who first mocked you, the same shall afterwards reverence you; but if you yield to them, you will be laughed at twice as much as before."

Epictetus on philosophers and philosophy
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"As an example of just how useless these philosophers are for any practice in life there is Socrates himself, the one and only wise man, according to the Delphic Oracle. Whenever he tried to do anything in public he had to break off amid general laughter. While he was philosophizing about clouds and ideas, measuring a flea's foot and marveling at a midge's humming, he learned nothing about the affairs of ordinary life."

Erasmus, Desiderius on philosophers and philosophy   

"I have always taken as the standard of the mode of teaching and writing, not the abstract, particular, professional philosopher, but universal man, that I have regarded man as the criterion of truth, and not this or that founder of a system, and have from the first placed the highest excellence of the philosopher in this, that he abstains, both as a man and as an author, from the ostentation of philosophy, i.e., that he is a philosopher only in reality, not formally, that he is a quiet philosopher, not a loud and still less a brawling one."

Feuerbach, Ludwig on philosophers and philosophy   

"If I wished to punish a province, I would have it governed by philosophers."

Frederick The Great, (Frederick II) on philosophers and philosophy   

"Philosophy goes no further than probabilities, and in every assertion keeps a doubt in reserve."

Froude, James A. on philosophers and philosophy   

"Art requires philosophy, just as philosophy requires art. Otherwise, what would become of beauty?"

Gauguin, Paul on philosophers and philosophy   

"The philosopher must station themselves in the middle."

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von on philosophers and philosophy   

"There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher. Fontenelle says he would undertake to persuade the whole public of readers to believe that the sun was neither the cause of light or heat, if he could only get six philosophers on his side."

Goldsmith, Oliver on philosophers and philosophy