Great Philosophers Quotes

• Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Love, Funny, Marriage

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.155, University of Georgia Press

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  There is no remedy for love but to love more.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Love, Life, Break Up

  Henry David Thoreau, Jeffrey S. Cramer (2007). “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”, p.12, Yale University Press

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• Another important historical factor is the fact that this already very simple religion was further simplified and purified by the early philosophers of ancient China. Our first great philosopher was a founder of naturalism; and our second great philosopher was an agnostic.

  Hu Shih

  Simple, Historical, Religion

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• The great philosophers and the great works are standards for the selection of what is essential. Everything that we do in studying the history of philosophy ultimately serves their better understanding.

  Karl Jaspers

  Philosophy, Understanding, Essentials

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• A great philosopher has stated that the worst evil of poverty is, that it makes folks ridiculous; by which, I hope, he only means that, as in the above case, it places them in incongruous positions.

  James Payn

  Mean, Evil, Poverty

  James Payn (1882). “Sammlung”

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• What great philosophers do for us is not to hand out such an all-purpose system. It is to light up and clarify some special aspect of life, to supply conceptual tools which will do a certain necessary kind of work. Wide though that area of work may be, it is never the whole, and all ideas lose their proper power when they are used out of their appropriate context. That is why one great philosopher does not necessarily displace another, why there is room for all of them and a great many more whom we do not have yet.

  Mary Midgley

  Light, Hands, Ideas

  Mary Midgley (2011). “The Myths We Live By”, p.223, Taylor & Francis

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• The complexities of adult life get in the way of the truth. The great philosophers have always been able to clear away the complexities and see simple distinctions - simple once they are stated, vastly difficult before. If we are to follow them we too must be childishly simple in our questions - and maturely wise in our replies.

  Mortimer Adler

  Wise, Simple, Adults

  Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren (2014). “How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading”, p.265, Simon and Schuster

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• I read all the great philosophers but most people just hear what they want to hear and it makes it easy for them to brand us devil worshippers.

  Marilyn Manson

  People, Devil, Want

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• That great philosopher anonymous once said, never argue with a fool. People might not know the difference.

  Tucker Carlson

  Differences, People, Might

  "The Situation" with Tucker Carlson, www.nbcnews.com. December 15, 2005.

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• Was it not the great philosopher and mathematician Leibnitz who said that the more knowledge advances the more it becomes possible to condense it into little books?

  J. Arthur Thomson

  Book, Knowledge, Science

  J. Arthur Thomson (2008). “The Outline of Science, First Volume”, p.3, Wildside Press LLC

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• Great philosophers become immortal - they make undeniable impacts on culture.

  Criss Jami

  Impact, Culture, Philosopher

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.65, Criss Jami

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• The student who would build his knowledge on solid foundations, and proceed by just degrees to the pinnacles of truth, is directed by the great philosopher of France to begin by doubting of his own existence. In like manner, whoever would complete any arduous and intricate enterprise, should, as soon as his imagination can cool after the first blaze of hope, place before his own eyes every possible embarrassment that may retard or defeat him. He should first question the probability of success, and then endeavour to remove the objections that he has raised.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Imagination, Doubt

  Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.77

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• A great philosopher in the wrong is like a beacon on the reefs which says to seamen: steer clear of me.

  Jacques Maritain

  Philosopher, Beacons, Clear

  Jacques Maritain (2015). “On the Use of Philosophy: Three Essays”, p.5, Princeton University Press

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• Antiquity was often delighted to cast a halo of mythical glory around its illustrious names. The immortal works of this great philosopher seemed to entitle him to more than mortal honors. A legend into the authenticity of which we will abstain from inquiring, asserted that his mother, Perictione, a pure virgin, suffered an immaculate conception through the influence of Apollo. The god declared to Ariston, to whom she was about to be married, the parentage of the child.

  John William Draper

  Mother, Children, Names

  John William Draper (1876). “History of the Intellectual Development of Europe”, p.151

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• As the great philosopher George Santayana would have said, 'those who cannot remember the past . . . should simply read Jan Van Meter's Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.' Van Meter's greatest hits collection of slogans is the catchiest ever retelling of American history. It's like the greatest minds of Madison Avenue sat down to write a history book. They don't make sound bites like they used to!

  Mo Rocca

  Book, Writing, Past

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• The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism.

  C. S. Lewis

  Plato, Book, Greatness

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “God in the Dock”, p.217, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• A hundred years ago, Auguste Compte, ... a great philosopher, said that humans will never be able to visit the stars, that we will never know what stars are made out of, that that's the one thing that science will never ever understand, because they're so far away. And then, just a few years later, scientists took starlight, ran it through a prism, looked at the rainbow coming from the starlight, and said: "Hydrogen!" Just a few years after this very rational, very reasonable, very scientific prediction was made, that we'll never know what stars are made of.

  Michio Kaku

  Stars, Science, Years

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• The great philosophers are poets who believe in the reality of their poems.

  Antonio Machado

  Believe, Reality, Philosopher

  Antonio Machado (1963). “Juan de Mairena”, Univ of California Press

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• The great philosophers of the past who wrote so beautifully - Rousseau, John Stuart Mill - had to write beautifully because they had to sell their work to journals. They had to sell books to the general public because they could not hold positions in universities. Mill was an atheist, and, therefore, could not hold a position in a university.

  Martha C. Nussbaum

  Atheist, Book, Writing

  Source: www.neh.gov

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• Early morning, the orange sun is slowly rising, shining forth in empty luminous clarity. The mind and the sky are one, the sun is rising in the vast space of primordial awareness, and there is just this. Yasutani Roshi once said, speaking of satori, that it was the most precious realization in the world, because all the great philosophers had tried to understand ultimate reality but had failed to do so, yet with satori or awakening all of your deepest questions are finally answered: it's just this.

  Ken Wilber

  Morning, Reality, Sky

  Ken Wilber (2000). “One Taste”, p.105, Shambhala Publications

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• The only way to truly conquer something, as every great philosopher and geneticist will tell you, is to love it.

  Christopher McDougall

  Way, Philosopher, Conquer

  Christopher McDougall (2010). “Born to Run: The hidden tribe, the ultra-runners, and the greatest race the world has never seen”, p.125, Profile Books

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• Future generations may or may not judge Wittgenstein to be one of the great philosophers. Even if they do not, however, he is sure always to count as one of the great personalities of philosophy. From our perspective it is easy to mistake one for the other; which he is time will tell.

  A.C. Grayling

  Philosophy, Mistake, Perspective

  A. C. Grayling (1988). “Wittgenstein”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• The French have never produced a great philosopher. Great wine maybe, but no great philosophers.

  Michael O'Leary

  Wine, Philosopher, Great Wine

  "The Saturday interview: Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary" by Stuart Jeffries, www.theguardian.com. November 18, 2011.

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• They say - "they" being the great philosophers, or possibly the cast of Seinfeld - that breaking up is like pushing over a Coke machine. You can't just do it, you have to set the thing in motion, rock it back and forth a few times.

  Jennifer Weiner

  Rocks, Machines, Coke

  Jennifer Weiner (2001). “Good in Bed: A Novel”, Atria Books

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• A great scholar is seldom a great philosopher.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Philosopher, Scholar

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1889). “Early and miscellaneous letters”

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