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PHILOSOPHICAL QUOTES

Philosophical quotes offer condensed insights into humanity’s deepest questions. They invite reflection on how we think, live, and relate to the world around us. The following collection serves as a doorway to contemplation, curiosity, and quiet intellectual challenge.   ◀ Back
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The inner fire is the most important thing mankind possesses.
- Edith Södergran
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To love is good, too: love being difficult. For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation...Love is a high inducement to the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world for himself for another's sake, it is a great exacting claim upon him, something that chooses him out and calls him to vast things.
- Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet
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One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion.
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I'm not frightened. I'm not frightened of anything. The more I suffer, the more I love. Danger will only increase my love. It will sharpen it, forgive its vice. I will be the only angel you need. You will leave life even more beautiful than you entered it. Heaven will take you back and look at you and say: Only one thing can make a soul complete and that thing is love.
- Bernhard Schlink
The Reader
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If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
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Inevitably it follows that anyone with an independent mind must become 'one who resists or opposes an authority or established convention': a rebel. ...And if enough people come to agree with—and follow—the REBEL, we now have a DEVIL. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, we have ... GREATNESS.
- Nicholas Tharcher
Rebels & Devils; A Tribute to Christopher S. Hyatt
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Believe me there is no such thing as great suffering, great regret, great memory....everything is forgotten, even a great love. That's what's sad about life, and also what's wonderful about it. There is only a way of looking at things, a way that comes to you every once in a while. That's why it's good to have had love in your life after all, to have had an unhappy passion- it gives you an alibi for the vague despairs we all suffer from.
- Albert Camus
A Happy Death
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Knowledge subverts love: in proportion as we penetrate our secrets, we come to loathe our kind, precisely because they resemble us.
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Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.
- Catherynne M. Valente
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
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God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.
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Philosophy ... is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Parerga and Paralipomena
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If an angelic being fell from the sky and tried to live in this world of ours I think even they would commit many wrongs.
- Sui Ishida
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Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.
- Eric Hoffer
The Temper of Our Time
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The point of modernity is to live a life without illusions while not becoming disillusioned
- Antonio Gramsci
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A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince
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Faith in faith' he answered himself. 'It isn't necessary to have something to believe in. It's only necessary to believe that somewhere there's something worthy of belief.
- Alfred Bester
The Stars My Destination
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Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.
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Just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read. If one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost.
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I take no pride in hopeless longing; I wouldn't hold a stillborn aspiration. I'd want to have it, to make it, to live it.
- Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged
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I've often thought that there isn't any "I" at all; that we are simply the means of expression of something else; that when we think we are ourselves, we are simply the victims of a delusion.
- Aleister Crowley
Diary of a Drug Fiend
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The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it.
- Frank Herbert
God Emperor of Dune
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I only know that I know nothing
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I think that the task of philosophy is not to provide answers, but to show how the way we perceive a problem can be itself part of a problem.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.
- Phaedrus
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The inner fire is the most important thing mankind possesses.
- Edith Södergran
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To love is good, too: love being difficult. For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation...Love is a high inducement to the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world for himself for another's sake, it is a great exacting claim upon him, something that chooses him out and calls him to vast things.
- Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I'm not frightened. I'm not frightened of anything. The more I suffer, the more I love. Danger will only increase my love. It will sharpen it, forgive its vice. I will be the only angel you need. You will leave life even more beautiful than you entered it. Heaven will take you back and look at you and say: Only one thing can make a soul complete and that thing is love.
- Bernhard Schlink
The Reader
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Inevitably it follows that anyone with an independent mind must become 'one who resists or opposes an authority or established convention': a rebel. ...And if enough people come to agree with—and follow—the REBEL, we now have a DEVIL. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, we have ... GREATNESS.
- Nicholas Tharcher
Rebels & Devils; A Tribute to Christopher S. Hyatt
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Believe me there is no such thing as great suffering, great regret, great memory....everything is forgotten, even a great love. That's what's sad about life, and also what's wonderful about it. There is only a way of looking at things, a way that comes to you every once in a while. That's why it's good to have had love in your life after all, to have had an unhappy passion- it gives you an alibi for the vague despairs we all suffer from.
- Albert Camus
A Happy Death
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Knowledge subverts love: in proportion as we penetrate our secrets, we come to loathe our kind, precisely because they resemble us.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.
- Catherynne M. Valente
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Philosophy ... is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Parerga and Paralipomena
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If an angelic being fell from the sky and tried to live in this world of ours I think even they would commit many wrongs.
- Sui Ishida
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.
- Eric Hoffer
The Temper of Our Time
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The point of modernity is to live a life without illusions while not becoming disillusioned
- Antonio Gramsci
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Faith in faith' he answered himself. 'It isn't necessary to have something to believe in. It's only necessary to believe that somewhere there's something worthy of belief.
- Alfred Bester
The Stars My Destination
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read. If one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I take no pride in hopeless longing; I wouldn't hold a stillborn aspiration. I'd want to have it, to make it, to live it.
- Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I've often thought that there isn't any "I" at all; that we are simply the means of expression of something else; that when we think we are ourselves, we are simply the victims of a delusion.
- Aleister Crowley
Diary of a Drug Fiend
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it.
- Frank Herbert
God Emperor of Dune
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I only know that I know nothing
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I think that the task of philosophy is not to provide answers, but to show how the way we perceive a problem can be itself part of a problem.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.
- Phaedrus
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The inner fire is the most important thing mankind possesses.
- Edith Södergran
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
To love is good, too: love being difficult. For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation...Love is a high inducement to the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world for himself for another's sake, it is a great exacting claim upon him, something that chooses him out and calls him to vast things.
- Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I'm not frightened. I'm not frightened of anything. The more I suffer, the more I love. Danger will only increase my love. It will sharpen it, forgive its vice. I will be the only angel you need. You will leave life even more beautiful than you entered it. Heaven will take you back and look at you and say: Only one thing can make a soul complete and that thing is love.
- Bernhard Schlink
The Reader
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Inevitably it follows that anyone with an independent mind must become 'one who resists or opposes an authority or established convention': a rebel. ...And if enough people come to agree with—and follow—the REBEL, we now have a DEVIL. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, we have ... GREATNESS.
- Nicholas Tharcher
Rebels & Devils; A Tribute to Christopher S. Hyatt
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Believe me there is no such thing as great suffering, great regret, great memory....everything is forgotten, even a great love. That's what's sad about life, and also what's wonderful about it. There is only a way of looking at things, a way that comes to you every once in a while. That's why it's good to have had love in your life after all, to have had an unhappy passion- it gives you an alibi for the vague despairs we all suffer from.
- Albert Camus
A Happy Death
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Knowledge subverts love: in proportion as we penetrate our secrets, we come to loathe our kind, precisely because they resemble us.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.
- Catherynne M. Valente
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Philosophy ... is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Parerga and Paralipomena
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If an angelic being fell from the sky and tried to live in this world of ours I think even they would commit many wrongs.
- Sui Ishida
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.
- Eric Hoffer
The Temper of Our Time
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The point of modernity is to live a life without illusions while not becoming disillusioned
- Antonio Gramsci
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Faith in faith' he answered himself. 'It isn't necessary to have something to believe in. It's only necessary to believe that somewhere there's something worthy of belief.
- Alfred Bester
The Stars My Destination
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Just as one spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read. If one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read does not take root, but is for the most part lost.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I take no pride in hopeless longing; I wouldn't hold a stillborn aspiration. I'd want to have it, to make it, to live it.
- Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I've often thought that there isn't any "I" at all; that we are simply the means of expression of something else; that when we think we are ourselves, we are simply the victims of a delusion.
- Aleister Crowley
Diary of a Drug Fiend
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it.
- Frank Herbert
God Emperor of Dune
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I only know that I know nothing
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I think that the task of philosophy is not to provide answers, but to show how the way we perceive a problem can be itself part of a problem.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.
- Phaedrus
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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14
15
16
17
 		...