Famous Quotes & Sayings

Louis Pasteur

Posterity will one day laugh at the sublime foolishness of the modern materialistic philosophy. The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator. I pray while I am engaged at my work in the laboratory.

John Churton Collins

Truth is the object of philosophy, but not always of philosophers.

John Cheever

People look for morals in fiction because there has always been a confusion between fiction and philosophy.

John Bolton

Maybe it's my libertarian philosophy: but being in government is hard.

John Bolton

My philosophy is not a bean-counting, accounting 'look at this.' It is a philosophy that smaller government is better government, and government that is closer to the people is best of all.

John Archibald Wheeler

I like to think that someone will trace how the deepest thinking of India made its way to Greece and from there to the philosophy of our times

The things a man believes most profoundly are rarely on the surface of his mind or tongue. Newly acquired notions, decisions based on expediency, the fashionable ideas of the moment are right on top of the pile, ready to be displayed in bright after dinner conversation. But the ideas that make up a man's philosophy of life are somewhere way down below.

Eric Hoffer

The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas.

Napoleon Hill

You will attract to yourself people who harmonize with your own philosophy of life, whether you wish it or not.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

Norman Thomas

The very existence of armaments and great armies psychologically accustoms us to accept the philosophy of militarism. They inevitably increase fear and hate in the world.

Norman Mailer

Somerset Maugham ... wrote somewhere that "Nobody is any better than he ought to be."... I carried it along with me as a working philosophy, but I suppose that finally I would have to take exception to the thought ... or else the universe is just an elaborate clock.

Norman McLaren

And so my militant philosophy is this: to make with a brush on canvas is a simple direct delight-to make with the movie is the same.

Orlando Bloom

The philosophies behind meditation are very current today and are a way of finding some sort of peace.

Orlando Bloom

The philosophy that I've embraced isn't about sitting under a tree and studying my navel

Orhan Pamuk

I don't want to be a tree; I want to be its meaning.

Oliver Sacks

Sign language is the equal of speech, lending itself equally to the rigorous and the poetic, to philosophical analysis or to making love.

O. Henry

There is a saying that no man has tasted the full flavour of life until he has known poverty, love and war. The justness of this reflection commends it to the lover of condensed philosophy. The three conditions embrace about all there is in life worth knowing. A surface thinker might deem that wealth should be added to the list. Not so. When a poor man finds a long-hidden quarter-dollar that has slipped through a rip into his vest lining, he sounds the pleasure of life with a deeper plummet than any millionaire can hope to cast.

Nursultan Nazarbayev

We must strive to encourage East and West not only to move towards each other but also to encourage them to find a new philosophy, a philosophy which will serve as a tool determining the future of Planet Earth - our common and only shelter.

Novalis

Doing philosophy is only a threefold or double kind of waking--being awake--consciousness.

Novalis

Morality must be the heart of our existence, if it is to be what it wants to be for us. ... The highest form of philosophy is ethics. Thus all philosophy begins with "I am." The highest statement of cognition must be an expression of that fact which is the means and ground for all cognition, namely, the goal of the I.

Novalis

Philosophy is really nostalgia, the desire to be at home.

Novalis

When one begins to reflect on philosophy—then philosophy seems to us to be everything, like God, and love. It is a mystical, highly potent, penetrating idea—which ceaselessly drives us inward in all directions. The decision to do philosophy—to seek philosophy is the act of self-liberation—the thrust toward ourselves.

Novalis

Philosophy can bake no bread; but she can procure for us God , Freedom , Immortality. Which, then, is more practical, Philosophy or Economy ?

Novalis

Only the most perfect human being can design the most perfect philosophy.

Novalis

Philosophy is properly home-sickness; the wish to be everywhere at home.

Novalis

Philosophy ... bears witness to the deepest love of reflection, to absolute delight in wisdom.

Novalis

The poem of the understanding is philosophy.

Norton Juster

Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.

Emile M. Cioran

Philosophy: Impersonal anxiety; refuge among anemic ideas.

Emile M. Cioran

It is enough for me to hear someone talk sincerely about ideals, about the future, about philosophy, to hear him say “we" with a certain inflection of assurance, to hear him invoke "others" and regard himself as their interpreter - for me to consider him my enemy.

Emile M. Cioran

I saw that philosophy had no power to make my life more bearable. Thus I lost my belief in philosophy.

Emile M. Cioran

As long as one believes in philosophy, one is healthy; sickness begins when one starts to think.