Philosophical Quotes Dissected


Philosophical Quotes 

The Philosopher's Quote selects our favorite bits, as it were, hacked like fossils from the rocky face of the Philosophical mountain. For philosopher's are great aphorists, lovers of the newly minted phrase or dictum: "I think , therefore I am", or "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law ", for example. Yet at once it can be seen that out of all the Philosophical Quotes, only some of the quotes are intriguing, only some (rather less) are fun. Quite a few of the rest are inconsequential and proof only of the poverty of later philosophy. However, in amongst the millions of words, are assuredly a few gleaming fragments. It is our aim here to find them.

Suggestions for new quotes can be made to the Quotes Editor, Ahmed El-Deeb via his Philosophy of Living website.


"The State of Character Results from the repetition of Similar Activities" 
~ From the Nicomachean Ethics

"Thoughts Without Content Are Empty, Intuitions Without Concepts Are Blind"
~ From The Critique of Pure Reason

"I stick my finger into existence - it smells of nothing. Where am I? What is this thing called the world? Who is it that has lured me into the thing, and now leaves me here? Who am I? How did I come into the world? Why was I not consulted?" 
~ From Repetition

"God is pure being: matter is a compound of being and nothingness" 
~ From Dialogues on the Psychology of Mysticism

"I am first affrighted and confounded with that forlorn solitude in which I am placed in my philosophy, and fancy myself some strange uncouth monster, who, not being able to mingle and unite in society, has been expelled all human commerce, and left utterly abandoned and disconsolate." 
~From Treatise on Human Nature

"The bomb offers a prospect of the end, the destruction, of an evil, - our disgusting soapy water science... "
~From Culture and Value

"It follows from the supreme perfection of God, that in creating the universe he has chosen the best possible plan in producing the universe"  
From Principles of Nature and Grace, Based on Reason 

"The world is my idea is a truth valid for every living creature" 
From The World as Will and Idea

"The Superior Man tries to create harmony in the human heart by rediscovery of human nature, and tries to promote music as a mean to the perfection of human culture... When such music prevails and the people's minds are led towards the right ideals and aspirations, we may see the appearance of a great nation."   
From The Analects - as attributed to Confucius

"[Utilitarianism] means in its nakedness that in order to achieve the supposed good of fifty-one percent, the interest of the forty-nine percept may be, or rather, should be, sacrificed. It is a heartless doctrine and has done harm to humanity"

From The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi

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