Famous Quotes & Sayings

Barbara Jordan

We must exchange the philosophy of excuse - what I am is beyond my control for the philosophy of responsibility.

Barbara Kingsolver

So one time when I was working in this motel one of the toilets leaked and I had to replace the flapper ball. Here's what it said on the package; I kept it till I knew it by heart: 'Please Note. Parts are included for all installations, but no installation requires all of the parts.' That's kind of my philosophy about men. I don't think there's an installation out there that could use all my parts.

Baruch Spinoza

Philosophy has no end in view save truth; faith looks for nothing but obedience and piety.

Baruch Spinoza

I do not presume that I have found the best philosophy, I know that I understand the true philosophy.

Augustine Birrell

History is a pageant and not a philosophy.

Ayelet Waldman

Those of us whose parenting style can be described as "a series of reflexes, instincts, and minute-by-minute adjustments," as Julie of A Little Pregnant puts it, rather than as a philosophy, are less invested in our own practices. What we do is often less a matter of conviction than one of convenience. What we need to remember is that there is no need to apologize for that, even in the face of the most red-faced outrage.

Ayn Rand

The men who are not interested in philosophy need it most urgently; they are most helplessly in its power.

Ayn Rand

Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.

Ayn Rand

Rationality is the recognition of the fact that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it.

Baruch Spinoza

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.

Baruch Spinoza

I can control my passions and emotions if I can understand their nature

Jane Smiley

'Ape House' is an ambitious novel in several ways, for which it is to be admired, and it is certainly an easy read, but because Gruen is not quite prepared for the philosophical implications of her subject, it is not as deeply involving emotionally or as interesting thematically as it could be.

Blaise Pascal

Vanity is so anchored in the heart of man that a soldier, a soldier's servant, a cook, a porter brags and wishes to have his admirers. Even philosophers wish for them. Those who write against vanity want to have the glory of having written well; and those who read it desire the glory of having read it. I who write this have perhaps this desire, and perhaps those who will read it.

Denis Diderot

The philosopher forms his principles on an infinity of particular observations...He does not confuse truth with plausibility...he takes for truth what is true, for false what is false, for doubtful what is doubtful, and probable what is probable...The philosophical spirit is thus a spirit of observation and accuracy.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination.

Arthur Schopenhauer

There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.

Arthur Schopenhauer

The longer a man's fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming.

Juvenal

Indignation leads to the making of poetry. [Lat., Facit indignatio versum.]

Carl Sandburg

Poetry is a packsack of invisible keepsakes.

Denis Diderot

Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.

Edward Young

There is something about poetry beyond prose logic, there is mystery in it, not to be explained but admired.

Elbert Hubbard

A person born with an instinct for poverty.

E. Hicks

We've hadour wisdom wrungfrom emotion's spongeand yet it still drips

Anna Jameson

Out of the attempt to harmonize our actual life with our aspirations, our experience with our faith, we make poetry, - or, it may be, religion.

E. B. White

A poet dares to be just so clear and no clearer; he approaches lucid ground warily, like a mariner who is determined not to scrape his bottom on anything solid. A poet's pleasure is to withhold a little of his meaning, to intensify by mystification. He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it. A poet utterly clear is a trifle glaring.

Allen Tate

Poets are mysterious, but a poet when all is said is not much more mysterious than a banker.