A photograph shouldn’t be just a picture, it should be a philosophy.
Philosophy cannot be taught; it is the application of the sciences to truth.
Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.
If a man has character, he has also his typical experience, which always recurs.
Adrian blew his whistle and shouted, “Attack and put too death all those who oppose the fatherland!
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.
What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing of the origin and destiny of cats?
The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.
Whoever will be free must make himself free. Freedom is no fairy gift to fall into a man’s lap. What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one’s self.
To live entirely without a goal! I have glimpsed this state, and have often attained it, without managing to remain there: I am too weak for such happiness.
Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings?
Some people insist that ‘mediocre’ is better than ‘best.’ They delight in clipping wings because they themselves can’t fly. They despise brains because they have none.
For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.
If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one’s own self-deception and ignorance.
Those who know that they are profound strive for clarity. Those who would like to seem profound to the crowd strive for obscurity. For the crowd believes that if it cannot see to the bottom of something it must be profound. It is so timid and dislikes going into the water.
If there were a party of those who aren’t sure they’re right, I’d belong to it. (as quoted by Tony Judt)
The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.
I bargained with Life for a penny, and Life would pay no more, However I begged at eveningWhen I counted my scanty store;Life is a just employer. He gives you what you ask,But once you have set the wages,Why, you must bear the task.I worked for a menial’s hire,Only to learn, dismayed,That any wage I had asked of Life,Life would have willingly paid
Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.
There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.
Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.
If you’ve got the truth you can demonstrate it. Talking doesn’t prove it.
All paths are present, always… and we can but choose among them.
No one should need to be big enough to destroy others and all of us must have to be powerful and resourceful enough to protect ourselves.
If you’re gonna burn a bridge behind you, make sure you’ve crossed it first.
We do not escape into philosophy, psychology, and art–we go there to restore our shattered selves into whole ones.
I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.
There is no justice in the laws of nature, no term for fairness in the equations of motion. The Universe is neither evil, nor good, it simply does not care. The stars don’t care, or the Sun, or the sky. But they don’t have to! WE care! There IS light in the world, and it is US!
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.
The meaning of earthly existence lies not, as we have grown used to thinking, in prospering but in the development of the soul.
The secret of Buddhism is to remove all ideas, all concepts, in order for the truth to have a chance to penetrate, to reveal itself.
Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.
Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.
If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a wild ferment, a power that twisting in dark passions produced everything great or inconsequential; if an unfathomable, insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?
All is mystery; but he is a slave who will not struggle to penetrate the dark veil.
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.
Maybe sometimes we don’t do the right thing because the wrong thing looks more dangerous, and we don’t want to look scared, so we go and do the wrong thing just because it’s dangerous. We’re more concerned with not looking scared than with judging right.
…an optimistic mind-set finds dozens of possible solutions for every problem that the pessimist regards as incurable.
When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don’t take are snuffed out like candles, as if they’d never existed.
If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
Joy is the goal of existence, and joy is not to be stumbled upon, but to be achieved, and the act of treason is to let its vision drown in the swamp of the moment’s torture.
Dance like it hurts. Love like you need money. Work when people are watching. — Dogbert’s Motto
All great things must first wear terrifying and monstrous masks in order to inscribe themselves on the hearts of humanity.
Life is not about living the safer option. Life is about living a life worth living.
Until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,-Wait and hope.