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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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There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery
- Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
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Topic: Philosophical
I am one thing, my writings are another.
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Topic: Philosophical
Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
I imagine that the intelligent people are the ones so intelligent that they don't even need or want to look 'intelligent' anymore.
- Criss Jami
Killosophy
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Topic: Philosophical
A philosopher knows that in reality he knows very little. That is why he constantly strives to achieve true insight. Socrates was one of these rare people. He knew that he knew nothing about life and about the world. And now comes the important part: it troubled him that he knew so little.
- Jostein Gaarder
Sophie’s World
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Topic: Philosophical
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone one who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
- Anonymous
The New Testament
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Topic: Philosophical
Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing for the known way is an impasse.
- Heraclitus
Fragments
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Topic: Philosophical
Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.
- Rebecca Solnit
A Field Guide to Getting Lost
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Topic: Philosophical
For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.
- Plato
Theaetetus
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Topic: Philosophical
Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.
- Thomas Aquinas
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Topic: Philosophical
If a man has character, he has also his typical experience, which always recurs.
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Topic: Philosophical
...reality is always plural and mutable.
- Robert Anton Wilson
Cosmic Trigger - Volume I: Final Secret of the Illuminati
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Topic: Philosophical
To be evenminded
is the greatest virtue.
Wisdom is to speak
the truth and act
in keeping with its nature.
- Heraclitus
Fragments
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Topic: Philosophical
O how incomprehensible everything was, and actually sad, although it was also beautiful. One knew nothing. One lived and ran about the earth and rode through forests, and certain things looked so challenging and promising and nostalgic: a star in the evening, a blue harebell, a reed-green pond, the eye of a person or a cow. And sometimes it seemed that something never seen yet long desired was about to happen, that a veil would drop from it all, but then it passed, nothing happened, the riddle remained unsolved, the secret spell unbroken, and in the end one grew old and looked cunning . . . or wise . . . and still one knew nothing perhaps, was still waiting and listening.
- Herman Hesse
Narcissus and Goldmund
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Topic: Philosophical
Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realise the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.
- Marcus Aurelius
Meditations
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Topic: Philosophical
It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost.
- Murray N. Rothbard
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Topic: Philosophical
Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.
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Topic: Philosophical
Philosophizing is simply one way of being afraid, a cowardly pretense that doesn't get you anywhere.
- Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Journey to the End of the Night
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Topic: Philosophical
When I was very young and in the cave of Trophonius I forgot to laugh. Then, when I got older, when I opened my eyes and saw the real world, I began to laugh and I haven’t stopped since. I saw that the meaning of life was to get a livelihood, that the goal of life was to be a High Court judge, that the bright joy of love was to marry a well-off girl, that the blessing of friendship was to help each other out of a financial tight spot, that wisdom was what the majority said it was, that passion was to give a speech, that courage was to risk being fined 10 rix-dollars, that cordiality was to say ‘You’re welcome’ after a meal, and that the fear of God was to go to communion once a year. That’s what I saw. And I laughed.
- Søren Kierkegaard
Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
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Topic: Philosophical
What one generation finds ridiculous, the next accepts; and the third shudders when it looks back on what the first did.
- Peter Singer
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Topic: Philosophical
Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
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Topic: Philosophical
Which came first, the mind or the idea of the mind? Have you never wondered? They arrived together. The mind is an idea.
- Bernard Beckett
Genesis
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Topic: Philosophical
In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.
- John Stuart Mill
On Liberty
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Topic: Philosophical
Sometimes with the most intense pain a paralysis of sensibility occurs. The soul disintegrates--hence the deadly frost--the free power of the mind--the shattering, ceaseless wit of this kind of despair. There is no inclination for anything any more--the person is alone, like a baleful power--as he has no connection with the rest of the world he consumes himself gradually--and in accordance with his own principle he is--misanthropic and misotheos.
- Novalis
Philosophical Writings
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Topic: Philosophical
There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery
- Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
I am one thing, my writings are another.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
I imagine that the intelligent people are the ones so intelligent that they don't even need or want to look 'intelligent' anymore.
- Criss Jami
Killosophy
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
A philosopher knows that in reality he knows very little. That is why he constantly strives to achieve true insight. Socrates was one of these rare people. He knew that he knew nothing about life and about the world. And now comes the important part: it troubled him that he knew so little.
- Jostein Gaarder
Sophie’s World
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone one who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
- Anonymous
The New Testament
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing for the known way is an impasse.
- Heraclitus
Fragments
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.
- Rebecca Solnit
A Field Guide to Getting Lost
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.
- Plato
Theaetetus
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.
- Thomas Aquinas
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
If a man has character, he has also his typical experience, which always recurs.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
...reality is always plural and mutable.
- Robert Anton Wilson
Cosmic Trigger - Volume I: Final Secret of the Illuminati
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
To be evenminded
is the greatest virtue.
Wisdom is to speak
the truth and act
in keeping with its nature.
- Heraclitus
Fragments
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
O how incomprehensible everything was, and actually sad, although it was also beautiful. One knew nothing. One lived and ran about the earth and rode through forests, and certain things looked so challenging and promising and nostalgic: a star in the evening, a blue harebell, a reed-green pond, the eye of a person or a cow. And sometimes it seemed that something never seen yet long desired was about to happen, that a veil would drop from it all, but then it passed, nothing happened, the riddle remained unsolved, the secret spell unbroken, and in the end one grew old and looked cunning . . . or wise . . . and still one knew nothing perhaps, was still waiting and listening.
- Herman Hesse
Narcissus and Goldmund
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realise the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.
- Marcus Aurelius
Meditations
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost.
- Murray N. Rothbard
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Philosophizing is simply one way of being afraid, a cowardly pretense that doesn't get you anywhere.
- Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Journey to the End of the Night
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
When I was very young and in the cave of Trophonius I forgot to laugh. Then, when I got older, when I opened my eyes and saw the real world, I began to laugh and I haven’t stopped since. I saw that the meaning of life was to get a livelihood, that the goal of life was to be a High Court judge, that the bright joy of love was to marry a well-off girl, that the blessing of friendship was to help each other out of a financial tight spot, that wisdom was what the majority said it was, that passion was to give a speech, that courage was to risk being fined 10 rix-dollars, that cordiality was to say ‘You’re welcome’ after a meal, and that the fear of God was to go to communion once a year. That’s what I saw. And I laughed.
- Søren Kierkegaard
Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
What one generation finds ridiculous, the next accepts; and the third shudders when it looks back on what the first did.
- Peter Singer
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Which came first, the mind or the idea of the mind? Have you never wondered? They arrived together. The mind is an idea.
- Bernard Beckett
Genesis
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.
- John Stuart Mill
On Liberty
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Sometimes with the most intense pain a paralysis of sensibility occurs. The soul disintegrates--hence the deadly frost--the free power of the mind--the shattering, ceaseless wit of this kind of despair. There is no inclination for anything any more--the person is alone, like a baleful power--as he has no connection with the rest of the world he consumes himself gradually--and in accordance with his own principle he is--misanthropic and misotheos.
- Novalis
Philosophical Writings
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery
- Dante Alighieri
The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
I am one thing, my writings are another.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
I imagine that the intelligent people are the ones so intelligent that they don't even need or want to look 'intelligent' anymore.
- Criss Jami
Killosophy
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
A philosopher knows that in reality he knows very little. That is why he constantly strives to achieve true insight. Socrates was one of these rare people. He knew that he knew nothing about life and about the world. And now comes the important part: it troubled him that he knew so little.
- Jostein Gaarder
Sophie’s World
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone one who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
- Anonymous
The New Testament
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing for the known way is an impasse.
- Heraclitus
Fragments
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.
- Rebecca Solnit
A Field Guide to Getting Lost
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.
- Plato
Theaetetus
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.
- Thomas Aquinas
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
If a man has character, he has also his typical experience, which always recurs.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
...reality is always plural and mutable.
- Robert Anton Wilson
Cosmic Trigger - Volume I: Final Secret of the Illuminati
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
To be evenminded
is the greatest virtue.
Wisdom is to speak
the truth and act
in keeping with its nature.
- Heraclitus
Fragments
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
O how incomprehensible everything was, and actually sad, although it was also beautiful. One knew nothing. One lived and ran about the earth and rode through forests, and certain things looked so challenging and promising and nostalgic: a star in the evening, a blue harebell, a reed-green pond, the eye of a person or a cow. And sometimes it seemed that something never seen yet long desired was about to happen, that a veil would drop from it all, but then it passed, nothing happened, the riddle remained unsolved, the secret spell unbroken, and in the end one grew old and looked cunning . . . or wise . . . and still one knew nothing perhaps, was still waiting and listening.
- Herman Hesse
Narcissus and Goldmund
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Think of your many years of procrastination; how the gods have repeatedly granted you further periods of grace, of which you have taken no advantage. It is time now to realise the nature of the universe to which you belong, and of that controlling Power whose offspring you are; and to understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.
- Marcus Aurelius
Meditations
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost.
- Murray N. Rothbard
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Philosophizing is simply one way of being afraid, a cowardly pretense that doesn't get you anywhere.
- Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Journey to the End of the Night
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
When I was very young and in the cave of Trophonius I forgot to laugh. Then, when I got older, when I opened my eyes and saw the real world, I began to laugh and I haven’t stopped since. I saw that the meaning of life was to get a livelihood, that the goal of life was to be a High Court judge, that the bright joy of love was to marry a well-off girl, that the blessing of friendship was to help each other out of a financial tight spot, that wisdom was what the majority said it was, that passion was to give a speech, that courage was to risk being fined 10 rix-dollars, that cordiality was to say ‘You’re welcome’ after a meal, and that the fear of God was to go to communion once a year. That’s what I saw. And I laughed.
- Søren Kierkegaard
Either/Or: A Fragment of Life
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
What one generation finds ridiculous, the next accepts; and the third shudders when it looks back on what the first did.
- Peter Singer
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Which came first, the mind or the idea of the mind? Have you never wondered? They arrived together. The mind is an idea.
- Bernard Beckett
Genesis
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.
- John Stuart Mill
On Liberty
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
Sometimes with the most intense pain a paralysis of sensibility occurs. The soul disintegrates--hence the deadly frost--the free power of the mind--the shattering, ceaseless wit of this kind of despair. There is no inclination for anything any more--the person is alone, like a baleful power--as he has no connection with the rest of the world he consumes himself gradually--and in accordance with his own principle he is--misanthropic and misotheos.
- Novalis
Philosophical Writings
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Topic: Philosophical
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