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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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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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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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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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I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it’s like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there.
- Elon Musk
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It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin.
- Alexander McCall Smith
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
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Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.
- Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451
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The greatest untold story is the evolution of God.
- G.I. Gurdjieff
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Encheremos o mundo de coisas preciosas. Serão tantas que os homens passarão por elas julgando-as banais.
- Afonso Cruz
Para Onde Vão Os Guarda-Chuvas
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The only safe thing is to take a chance.
- Elaine May
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The search for something permanent is one of the deepest of the instincts leading men to philosophy.
- Bertrand Russell
A History of Western Philosophy
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There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point… The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.
- R. Dawkins
The Blind Watchmaker
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The zipper displaces the button and a man lacks just that much time to think while dressing at dawn, a philosophical hour, and thus a melancholy hour.
- Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451
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The Copenhagen Interpretation is sometimes called "model agnosticism" and holds that any grid we use to organize our experience of the world is a model of the world and should not be confused with the world itself. Alfred Korzybski, the semanticist, tried to popularize this outside physics with the slogan, "The map is not the territory." Alan Watts, a talented exegete of Oriental philosophy, restated it more vividly as "The menu is not the meal."
- Robert Anton Wilson
Cosmic Trigger: Die letzten Geheimnisse der Illuminaten oder An den Grenzen des erweiterten Bewusstseins
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Everyone is trying to impress everyone else. Trying to make themselves out to be smarter or more confident than they actually are.
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No Gods Or Kings. Only Man. -Andrew Ryan
- John Shirley
BioShock: Rapture
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The intellectual attainments of a man who thinks for himself resemble a fine painting, where the light and shade are correct, the tone sustained, the colour perfectly harmonised; it is true to life. On the other hand, the intellectual attainments of the mere man of learning are like a large palette, full of all sorts of colours, which at most are systematically arranged, but devoid of harmony, connection and meaning.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Parerga and Paralipomena
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A nation is a detour of nature to arrive at five or six great men- yes, and then to get around them.
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The first and most important field of philosophy is the application of principles such as “Do not lie.” Next come the proofs, such as why we should not lie. The third field supports and articulates the proofs, by asking, for example, “How does this prove it? What exactly is a proof, what is logical inference, what is contradiction, what is truth, what is falsehood?” Thus, the third field is necessary because of the second, and the second because of the first. The most important, though, the one that should occupy most of our time, is the first. But we do just the opposite. We are preoccupied with the third field and give that all our attention, passing the first by altogether. The result is that we lie – but have no difficulty proving why we shouldn’t.
- Epictetus
The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness and Effectiveness
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The cinema is truth 24 frames-per-second
- Jean Luc Godard
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The one great art is that of making a complete human being of oneself.
- G.I. Gurdjieff
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There are 10,000 books in my library, and it will keep growing until I die. This has exasperated my daughters, amused my friends and baffled my accountant. If I had not picked up this habit in the library long ago, I would have more money in the bank today; I would not be richer.
- Pete Hamill
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I’ve always hated the “Who are you?" question. This is a philosophical inquiry. Answering that question is why we’re on earth. You can’t answer it in thirty seconds or in an elevator.
- Sandy Nathan
Numenon
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In the battle that is philosophy all the techniques of war, including looting and camouflage, are permissible.
- Louis Althusser
Philosophy and the Spontaneous Philosophy of the Scientists: And Other Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
My view is that if your philosophy is not unsettled daily then you are blind to all the universe has to offer.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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
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
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
I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it’s like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there.
- Elon Musk
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin.
- Alexander McCall Smith
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.
- Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The greatest untold story is the evolution of God.
- G.I. Gurdjieff
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Encheremos o mundo de coisas preciosas. Serão tantas que os homens passarão por elas julgando-as banais.
- Afonso Cruz
Para Onde Vão Os Guarda-Chuvas
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The only safe thing is to take a chance.
- Elaine May
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The search for something permanent is one of the deepest of the instincts leading men to philosophy.
- Bertrand Russell
A History of Western Philosophy
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point… The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.
- R. Dawkins
The Blind Watchmaker
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The zipper displaces the button and a man lacks just that much time to think while dressing at dawn, a philosophical hour, and thus a melancholy hour.
- Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The Copenhagen Interpretation is sometimes called "model agnosticism" and holds that any grid we use to organize our experience of the world is a model of the world and should not be confused with the world itself. Alfred Korzybski, the semanticist, tried to popularize this outside physics with the slogan, "The map is not the territory." Alan Watts, a talented exegete of Oriental philosophy, restated it more vividly as "The menu is not the meal."
- Robert Anton Wilson
Cosmic Trigger: Die letzten Geheimnisse der Illuminaten oder An den Grenzen des erweiterten Bewusstseins
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Everyone is trying to impress everyone else. Trying to make themselves out to be smarter or more confident than they actually are.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
No Gods Or Kings. Only Man. -Andrew Ryan
- John Shirley
BioShock: Rapture
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The intellectual attainments of a man who thinks for himself resemble a fine painting, where the light and shade are correct, the tone sustained, the colour perfectly harmonised; it is true to life. On the other hand, the intellectual attainments of the mere man of learning are like a large palette, full of all sorts of colours, which at most are systematically arranged, but devoid of harmony, connection and meaning.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Parerga and Paralipomena
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A nation is a detour of nature to arrive at five or six great men- yes, and then to get around them.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The first and most important field of philosophy is the application of principles such as “Do not lie.” Next come the proofs, such as why we should not lie. The third field supports and articulates the proofs, by asking, for example, “How does this prove it? What exactly is a proof, what is logical inference, what is contradiction, what is truth, what is falsehood?” Thus, the third field is necessary because of the second, and the second because of the first. The most important, though, the one that should occupy most of our time, is the first. But we do just the opposite. We are preoccupied with the third field and give that all our attention, passing the first by altogether. The result is that we lie – but have no difficulty proving why we shouldn’t.
- Epictetus
The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness and Effectiveness
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The cinema is truth 24 frames-per-second
- Jean Luc Godard
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The one great art is that of making a complete human being of oneself.
- G.I. Gurdjieff
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There are 10,000 books in my library, and it will keep growing until I die. This has exasperated my daughters, amused my friends and baffled my accountant. If I had not picked up this habit in the library long ago, I would have more money in the bank today; I would not be richer.
- Pete Hamill
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I’ve always hated the “Who are you?" question. This is a philosophical inquiry. Answering that question is why we’re on earth. You can’t answer it in thirty seconds or in an elevator.
- Sandy Nathan
Numenon
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In the battle that is philosophy all the techniques of war, including looting and camouflage, are permissible.
- Louis Althusser
Philosophy and the Spontaneous Philosophy of the Scientists: And Other Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
My view is that if your philosophy is not unsettled daily then you are blind to all the universe has to offer.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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
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
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
I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it’s like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there.
- Elon Musk
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin.
- Alexander McCall Smith
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.
- Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The greatest untold story is the evolution of God.
- G.I. Gurdjieff
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Encheremos o mundo de coisas preciosas. Serão tantas que os homens passarão por elas julgando-as banais.
- Afonso Cruz
Para Onde Vão Os Guarda-Chuvas
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The only safe thing is to take a chance.
- Elaine May
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The search for something permanent is one of the deepest of the instincts leading men to philosophy.
- Bertrand Russell
A History of Western Philosophy
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point… The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.
- R. Dawkins
The Blind Watchmaker
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The zipper displaces the button and a man lacks just that much time to think while dressing at dawn, a philosophical hour, and thus a melancholy hour.
- Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The Copenhagen Interpretation is sometimes called "model agnosticism" and holds that any grid we use to organize our experience of the world is a model of the world and should not be confused with the world itself. Alfred Korzybski, the semanticist, tried to popularize this outside physics with the slogan, "The map is not the territory." Alan Watts, a talented exegete of Oriental philosophy, restated it more vividly as "The menu is not the meal."
- Robert Anton Wilson
Cosmic Trigger: Die letzten Geheimnisse der Illuminaten oder An den Grenzen des erweiterten Bewusstseins
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Everyone is trying to impress everyone else. Trying to make themselves out to be smarter or more confident than they actually are.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
No Gods Or Kings. Only Man. -Andrew Ryan
- John Shirley
BioShock: Rapture
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The intellectual attainments of a man who thinks for himself resemble a fine painting, where the light and shade are correct, the tone sustained, the colour perfectly harmonised; it is true to life. On the other hand, the intellectual attainments of the mere man of learning are like a large palette, full of all sorts of colours, which at most are systematically arranged, but devoid of harmony, connection and meaning.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Parerga and Paralipomena
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A nation is a detour of nature to arrive at five or six great men- yes, and then to get around them.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The first and most important field of philosophy is the application of principles such as “Do not lie.” Next come the proofs, such as why we should not lie. The third field supports and articulates the proofs, by asking, for example, “How does this prove it? What exactly is a proof, what is logical inference, what is contradiction, what is truth, what is falsehood?” Thus, the third field is necessary because of the second, and the second because of the first. The most important, though, the one that should occupy most of our time, is the first. But we do just the opposite. We are preoccupied with the third field and give that all our attention, passing the first by altogether. The result is that we lie – but have no difficulty proving why we shouldn’t.
- Epictetus
The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness and Effectiveness
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The cinema is truth 24 frames-per-second
- Jean Luc Godard
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The one great art is that of making a complete human being of oneself.
- G.I. Gurdjieff
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There are 10,000 books in my library, and it will keep growing until I die. This has exasperated my daughters, amused my friends and baffled my accountant. If I had not picked up this habit in the library long ago, I would have more money in the bank today; I would not be richer.
- Pete Hamill
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I’ve always hated the “Who are you?" question. This is a philosophical inquiry. Answering that question is why we’re on earth. You can’t answer it in thirty seconds or in an elevator.
- Sandy Nathan
Numenon
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In the battle that is philosophy all the techniques of war, including looting and camouflage, are permissible.
- Louis Althusser
Philosophy and the Spontaneous Philosophy of the Scientists: And Other Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
My view is that if your philosophy is not unsettled daily then you are blind to all the universe has to offer.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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4
5
6
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