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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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Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!
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The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
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An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. "I despise intelligence" really means: "I cannot bear my doubts.
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Music is ... A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy
- Ludwig van Beethoven
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I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always ... so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.
- Yann Martel
Life of Pi
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The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.

[These words are also inscribed upon his grave]
- Karl Marx
Eleven Theses on Feuerbach
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One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.
- Simone de Beauvoir
The Second Sex
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I was never aware of any other option but to question everything.
- Noam Chomsky
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Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
- Stephen Hawking
A Brief History of Time
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If it turns out that there is a God...the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever.
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The menu is not the meal.
- Alan Watts
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A cult is a religion with no political power.
- Tom Wolfe
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Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We've been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Letters from a Stoic
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In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill... we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still.
- David Foster Wallace
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
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The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.
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I consider it an extremely dangerous doctrine, because the more likely we are to assume that the solution comes from the outside, the less likely we are to solve our problems ourselves.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Do you know what punishments I've endured for my crimes, my sins? None. I am proof of the absurdity of men's most treasured abstractions. A just universe wouldn't tolerate my existence.
- Brent Weeks
The Way of Shadows
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When you realize there is something you don't understand, then you're generally on the right path to understanding all kinds of things.
- Jostein Gaarder
The Solitaire Mystery
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Stop longing. You poison today’s ease, reaching always for tomorrow.
- Robin Hobb
Fool's Errand
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As long as we are children, we have the ability to experience things around us--but then we grow used to the world. To grow up is to get drunk on sensory experience.
- Jostein Gaarder
The Solitaire Mystery
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive.
- Simone de Beauvoir
The Ethics of Ambiguity
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The essence of independence has been to think and act according to standards from within, not without: to follow one's own path, not that of the crowd.
- Nicholas Tharcher
Rebels & Devils; A Tribute to Christopher S. Hyatt
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We do not escape into philosophy, psychology, and art--we go there to restore our shattered selves into whole ones.
- Anaïs Nin
In Favor of the Sensitive Man and Other Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. "I despise intelligence" really means: "I cannot bear my doubts.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Music is ... A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy
- Ludwig van Beethoven
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always ... so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.
- Yann Martel
Life of Pi
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.

[These words are also inscribed upon his grave]
- Karl Marx
Eleven Theses on Feuerbach
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.
- Simone de Beauvoir
The Second Sex
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I was never aware of any other option but to question everything.
- Noam Chomsky
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
- Stephen Hawking
A Brief History of Time
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If it turns out that there is a God...the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The menu is not the meal.
- Alan Watts
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A cult is a religion with no political power.
- Tom Wolfe
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We've been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Letters from a Stoic
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill... we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still.
- David Foster Wallace
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I consider it an extremely dangerous doctrine, because the more likely we are to assume that the solution comes from the outside, the less likely we are to solve our problems ourselves.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Do you know what punishments I've endured for my crimes, my sins? None. I am proof of the absurdity of men's most treasured abstractions. A just universe wouldn't tolerate my existence.
- Brent Weeks
The Way of Shadows
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When you realize there is something you don't understand, then you're generally on the right path to understanding all kinds of things.
- Jostein Gaarder
The Solitaire Mystery
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Stop longing. You poison today’s ease, reaching always for tomorrow.
- Robin Hobb
Fool's Errand
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
As long as we are children, we have the ability to experience things around us--but then we grow used to the world. To grow up is to get drunk on sensory experience.
- Jostein Gaarder
The Solitaire Mystery
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive.
- Simone de Beauvoir
The Ethics of Ambiguity
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The essence of independence has been to think and act according to standards from within, not without: to follow one's own path, not that of the crowd.
- Nicholas Tharcher
Rebels & Devils; A Tribute to Christopher S. Hyatt
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We do not escape into philosophy, psychology, and art--we go there to restore our shattered selves into whole ones.
- Anaïs Nin
In Favor of the Sensitive Man and Other Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. "I despise intelligence" really means: "I cannot bear my doubts.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Music is ... A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy
- Ludwig van Beethoven
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease. It begins in your mind, always ... so you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.
- Yann Martel
Life of Pi
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.

[These words are also inscribed upon his grave]
- Karl Marx
Eleven Theses on Feuerbach
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.
- Simone de Beauvoir
The Second Sex
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I was never aware of any other option but to question everything.
- Noam Chomsky
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?
- Stephen Hawking
A Brief History of Time
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If it turns out that there is a God...the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The menu is not the meal.
- Alan Watts
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
A cult is a religion with no political power.
- Tom Wolfe
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We've been using them not because we needed them but because we had them.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Letters from a Stoic
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill... we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still.
- David Foster Wallace
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I consider it an extremely dangerous doctrine, because the more likely we are to assume that the solution comes from the outside, the less likely we are to solve our problems ourselves.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Do you know what punishments I've endured for my crimes, my sins? None. I am proof of the absurdity of men's most treasured abstractions. A just universe wouldn't tolerate my existence.
- Brent Weeks
The Way of Shadows
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
When you realize there is something you don't understand, then you're generally on the right path to understanding all kinds of things.
- Jostein Gaarder
The Solitaire Mystery
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Stop longing. You poison today’s ease, reaching always for tomorrow.
- Robin Hobb
Fool's Errand
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
As long as we are children, we have the ability to experience things around us--but then we grow used to the world. To grow up is to get drunk on sensory experience.
- Jostein Gaarder
The Solitaire Mystery
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive.
- Simone de Beauvoir
The Ethics of Ambiguity
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The essence of independence has been to think and act according to standards from within, not without: to follow one's own path, not that of the crowd.
- Nicholas Tharcher
Rebels & Devils; A Tribute to Christopher S. Hyatt
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
We do not escape into philosophy, psychology, and art--we go there to restore our shattered selves into whole ones.
- Anaïs Nin
In Favor of the Sensitive Man and Other Essays
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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61
62
63
64
65
 		...