Famous Quotes & Sayings

William Shakespeare

Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile

William Shakespeare

'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed

Camille Paglia

Homeric mind is ingenuity, practical intelligence. There is no Rodin-like deep thinking, no mathematical or philosophical speculation. Odysseus thinks with his hands.

Carl Jung

I hold the view that the alchemist’s hope of conjuring out of matter the philosophical gold, or the panacea, or the wonderful stone, was only in part an illusion, an effect of projection; for the rest it corresponded to certain psychic facts that are of great importance in the psychology of the unconscious. As is shown by the texts and their symbolism, the alchemist projected what I have called the process of individuation into the phenomena of chemical change.

Carl Jung

I know that previously I would not have dared to express myself so explicitly about so uncertain a matter. I can take this risk because I am now in my eighth decade, and the changing opinions of men scarcely impress me any more; the thoughts of the old masters are of greater value to me than the philosophical prejudices of the Western mind.

Carl Jung

Thanks to the acuteness of his mind, he saw through the poverty of philosophical and Gnostic knowledge, and contemptuously rejected it.

Bertrand Russell

Every philosophical problem, when it is subjected to the necessary analysis and justification, is found either to be not really philosophical at all, or else to be, in the sense in which we are using the word, logical.

Bill McKibben

Global warming is no longer a philosophical threat, no longer a future threat, no longer a threat at all. It's our reality.

Science asks no questions about the ontological pedigree or a priori character of a theory, but is content to judge it by its performance; and it is thus that a knowledge of nature, having all the certainty which the senses are competent to inspire, has been attained--a knowledge which maintains a strict neutrality toward all philosophical systems and concerns itself not with the genesis or a priori grounds of ideas.

Al Gore

Earlier in this century, the Heisenberg Principle established that the very act of observing a natural phenomenon can change what is being observed. Although the initial theory was limited in practice to special cases in subatomic physics, the philosophical implications were and are staggering.

Alanis Morissette

I know that I'm deeply, spiritually, profoundly philosophical and I also know that I'm about the flakiest person you're gonna meet.

Blaise Pascal

No religion except ours has taught that man is born in sin; none of the philosophical sects has admitted it; none therefore has spoken the truth

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.

Elie Wiesel

Still I believe that Hanna Arendt, she was wrong when she tried to say that we are all actually capable of this, it's not true. I think it's not true. There are certain things human beings are not capable of. I mean people, even normal human beings. You have to do certain things in order to become what the enemy was and I didn't accept her philosophical outlook on that.

Baruch Spinoza

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

Baruch Spinoza

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.

Baruch Spinoza

Self-complacency is pleasure accompanied by the idea of oneself as cause.

Baruch Spinoza

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

Baruch Spinoza

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.

Baruch Spinoza

Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself.

Baruch Spinoza

God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things.

Baruch Spinoza

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

Baruch Spinoza

Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived.

Baruch Spinoza

Ambition is the immoderate desire for power.

Baruch Spinoza

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

Baruch Spinoza

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.

Bruce Schneier

Given the credible estimate that we've spent $1 trillion on anti-terrorism security

Anton Chekhov

Fine. Since the tea is not forthcoming, let's have a philosophical conversation.

Austin Farrer

It is commonly said that if rational argument is so seldom the cause of conviction, philosophical apologists must largely be wasting their shot. The premise is true, but the conclusion does not follow. For though argument does not create conviction, the lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced; but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish.

Asa Gray

We have really, that I know of, no philosophical basis for high and low. Moreover, the vegetable kingdom does not culminate, as the animal kingdom does. It is not a kingdom, but a common-wealth; a democracy, and therefore puzzling and unaccountable from the former point of view.

Bob Dylan

You swore you'd never compromise With the mystery tramp, but now you realise He's not selling any alibis As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes And say, do you want to make a deal How does it feel

Brendan Myers

The philosophical spirit is not satisfied to simply accept what it is told, no matter how much prestige the teller seems to have. This is true even if the teller is a god.

Arthur Schopenhauer

It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them.