Philosophy Quotes - Page 32

• Man is the cruelest animal. At tragedies, bullfights, and crucifixions he has so far felt best on earth; and when he invented hell for himself, behold, that was his very heaven.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Art, Men, Animal

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• I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you, and that the most interesting and important thing about you is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds.

  William James

  Interesting, Perspective, Gentleman

  William James (1987). “Writings, 1902-1910”, p.487, Library of America

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• The principle itself of dogmatic religion, dogmatic morality, dogmatic philosophy, is what requires to be rooted out; not any particular manifestation of that principle. The very corner-stone of an education intended to form great minds, must be the recognition of the principle, that the object is to call forth the greatest possible quantity of intellectual power, and to inspire the intensest love of truth.

  John Stuart Mill

  Inspire, Intellectual, Mind

  John Stuart Mill (2009). “Dissertations and Discussions”, p.201, Cosimo, Inc.

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• One can delineate the domain of philosophy however one likes, but in its search for truth, philosophy is always concerned with human existence.  Authentic philosophizing refuses to remain at the stage of knowledge […].  Care for human existence and its truth makes philosophy a 'practical science' in the deepest sense, and it also leads philosophy—and this is the crucial point—into the concrete distress of human existence.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Care, Likes, Stage

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• If mass communications blend together harmoniously, and often unnoticeably, art, politics, religion, and philosophy with commercials, they bring these realms of culture to their common denominator -- the commodity form. The music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth value, counts.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Art, Communication, Soul

  Herbert Marcuse (2012). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.57, Beacon Press

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• Get it into your head once and for all, my simple and very fainthearted fellow, that what fools call humanness is nothing but a weakness born of fear and egoism; that this chimerical virtue, enslaving only weak men, is unknown to those whose character is formed by stoicism, courage, and philosophy.

  Marquis de Sade

  Character, Simple, Men

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• Poets are being pursued by the philosophers today, out of the poverty of philosophy. God damn it, you might think a man had no business to be writing, to be a poet unless some philosophic stinker gave him permission.

  William Carlos Williams

  Writing, Men, Thinking

  William Carlos Williams, John C. Thirlwall (1957). “The Selected Letters of William Carlos Williams”, p.219, New Directions Publishing

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• When we begin to look around us, to observe individuals and societies, and to study philosophies and religions, we realize that our loneliness is shared. Our solitude is plural, and our singularity is the similarity between us.

  Tariq Ramadan

  Loneliness, Solitude, Looks

  Tariq Ramadan (2010). “The Quest for Meaning: Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism”, p.54, Penguin UK

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• When you go to a church and you see the pastor of that church with a philosophy and a program that's designed to bring black people together and elevate black people, join that church. Join that church. If you see where the NAACP is preaching and practicing that which is designed to make black nationalism materialize, join the NAACP. Join any kind of organization, civic, religious, fraternal, political, or otherwise that's based on lifting the black man up and making him master of his own community.

  Malcolm X

  Religious, Past, Men

  "The Ballot or The Bullet (Detroit Version)". Malcolm X's speech at a meeting sponsored by the Congress for Racial Equality in Detroit, Michigan, April 12, 1964.

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• I have been informed repeatedly that in lieu of records, I would be expected to testify about my service in the White House to demonstrate my experience and judicial philosophy.

  Harriet Miers

  White, House, Would Be

  "Miers Withdraws Nomination". www.foxnews.com. October 27, 2005.

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• I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.

  Arlen Specter

  Political, Lines, Republican

  Sen. Arlen Specter, Charles Robbins (2012). “Life Among the Cannibals: A Political Career, a Tea Party Uprising, and the End of Governing As We Know It”, p.240, Macmillan

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• You do not write your life with words...You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.

  Patrick Ness

  Writing, Thinking, Important

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• The philosophy of praxis does not aim at the peaceful resolution of existing contradictions in history and society, but is the very theory of these contradictions. It is not the instrument of government of the dominant groups in order to gain the consent and exercise hegemony over the subaltern classes. It is the expression of subaltern classes who want to educate themselves in the art of government and who have an interest in knowing all truths, even the unpleasant ones, and in avoiding the impossible deceptions of the upper class, and even more their own.

  Antonio Gramsci

  Art, Exercise, Expression

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• Why multiply instances? It is written, the Heavens and the Earth shall fade away like a Vesture; which indeed they are: the Time-vesture of the Eternal. Whatsoever sensibly exists, whatsoever represents Spirit to Spirit, is properly a Clothing, a suit of Raiment, put on for a season, and to be laid off. Thus in this one pregnant subject of CLOTHES, rightly understood, is included all that men have thought, dreamed, done, and been: the whole External Universe and what it holds is but Clothing; and the essence of all Science lies in the PHILOSOPHY OF CLOTHES.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Lying, Men, Essence

  Thomas Carlyle, Henry Duff Traill (2010). “The Works of Thomas Carlyle”, p.58, Cambridge University Press

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• All philosophers should end their days at Pythia's feet. There is only one philosophy, that of unique moments.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Unique, Feet, Philosopher

  "The Book of Delusions". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1936.

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• Luxurious food and drinks, in no way protect you from harm. Wealth beyond what is natural, is no more use than an overflowing container. Real value is not generated by theaters, and baths, perfumes or ointments, but by philosophy.

  Epicurus

  Real, Use, Way

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• Philosophy is the microscope of thought. Everything desires to flee from it, but nothing escapes it.

  Victor Hugo

  Desire, Microscopes

  Victor Hugo (2015). “Les Misérables”, p.1064, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• Every man has two vocations: his own and philosophy.

  Edward Abbey

  Men, Two, Vocation

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.10, RosettaBooks

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• Those that study particular sciences, and neglect philosophy, are like Penelope's wooers, that make love to the waiting women.

  Aristippus

  Science, Waiting, Making Love

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• I am so stupid that I cannot understand philosophy; the antithesis of this is that philosophy is so clever that it cannot comprehend my stupidity. These antitheses are mediated in a higher unity; in our common stupidity.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Clever, Stupid, Unity

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• Philosophical argument, trying to get someone to believe something whether he wants to believe it or not, is not, I have held, a nice way to behave towards someone; also it does not fit the original motivation for studying or entering philosophy. That motivation is puzzlement, curiousity, a desire to understand, not a desire to produce uniformity of belief. Most people do not want to become thought-police. The philosophical goal of explanation rather than proof not only is morally better, it is more in accord with one's philosophical motivation.

  Robert Nozick

  Motivation, Nice, Philosophical

  Robert Nozick (1981). “Philosophical Explanations”, p.13, Harvard University Press

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• I've not got a first in philosophy without being able to muddy things pretty satisfactory.

  John Banham

  Communication, Able, Firsts

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• O philosophy, you leader of life.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Leadership, Leader

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• I shall no doubt be blamed by certain scientists, and, I am afraid, by some philosophers, for having taken serious account of the alleged facts which are investigated by Psychical Researchers. I am wholly impenitent about this. The scientists in question seem to me to confuse the Author of Nature with the Editor of Nature; or at any rate to suppose that there can be no productions of the former which would not be accepted for publication by the latter. And I see no reason to believe this.

  C. D. Broad

  Philosophical, Taken, Believe

  "The Mind and Its Place in Nature".

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• Philosophy becomes poetry, and science imagination, in the enthusiasm of genius.

  Isaac D'Israeli

  Science, Imagination, Poetry

  "The Literary Character, Illustrated by the History of Men of Genius". Book by Isaac D'Israeli, chapter XII, 1795-1822.

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