Philosophical Quotes

If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.

Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly.

Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 153

Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.

It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own.

Whatever you do, do with all your might.

Take the time to smell the roses. Sooner or later, you'll inhale a bee and die.

Music can be soothing or invigorating ennobling or vulgarizing, philosophical or orgiastic. It has powers of evil as well as for good.

In masks outrageous and austere The years go by in single file; But none has merited my fear, And none has quite escaped my smile.

Maybe I'm being philosophical and spiritual, but I believe that if you put negative energy out there that that is what will come back.

Alice came to a fork in the road. 'Which road do I take?' she asked. 'Where do you want to go?' responded the Cheshire Cat. 'I don't know,' Alice answered. 'Then,' said the Cat, 'it doesn't matter.

We feel and know that we are eternal.

The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.

Love is like death, it must come to us all, but to each his own unique way and time, sometimes it will be avoided, but never can it be cheated, and never will it be forgotten.

The deepest wounds aren't the ones we get from other people hurting us. They are the wounds we give ourselves when we hurt other people.

We turn from the light to see.

Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form.

Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?

I am more than less, but less than worthy. Worthy to be heard, but heard in silence

God is a philosophical black hole-the point where reason breaks down.

Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish.

How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?

You just listen to your own heart. That is your only teacher.

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.

Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.

Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest.

One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.

An unexamined life is a life of no account.

Don't you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

When the act of reflection takes place in the mind, when we look at ourselves in the light of thought, we discover that our life is embosomed in beauty.

The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.

Global warming is no longer a philosophical threat, no longer a future threat, no longer a threat at all. It's our reality.

The discipline of desire is the background of character.

In everything, there is a share of everything

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss.

The chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness.

People are divided into two parts: some of them look for and cannot find anything, others find but are not satisfied.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist.

I don't sing because I'm happy; I'm happy because I sing.

We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are - that is the fact.

Sometimes my poetry is an attempt to keep off existential terror; sometimes it is a grappling with philosophical problems; sometimes just fun.

For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him.

"Things have a life of their own," the gypsy proclaimed with a harsh accent. "It's simply a matter of waking up their souls."

I have loved to the point of madness; That which is called madness, That which to me, Is the only sensible way to love.

Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract that which is concrete.

A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.