Philosophical Quotes

There must always remain something that is antagonistic to good.

Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do.

We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.

Good apprentices know that they are in the process of becoming masters and that as responsible artisans they must seek to improve upon the knowledge entrusted to them and go further.

Life has always been a matter of putting one's feet down carefully

All literature, all philosophical treatises, all the voices of antiquity are full of examples for imitation, which would all lie unseen in darkness without the light of literature.

In reality, the past is preserved by itself automatically.

It is in the treatment of trifles that a person shows what they are.

A specter is haunting Europe - the specter of communism.

Tardiness often robs us opportunity, and the dispatch of our forces.

The Antichrist, Section 7

Ambition is the immoderate desire for honor.

The common behavior of mankind is the system of reference by means of which we interpret an unknown language.

Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.

Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent.

In a disordered mind, as in a disordered body, soundness of health is impossible.

If you think a thing is impossible,you'll only make it impossible.

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane In proving foresight may be vain The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain For promis'd joy!

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

The uninitiated are those who believe in nothing except what they can grasp in their hands, and who deny the existence of all that is invisible.

A great mind becomes a great fortune.

I abhor vivisection with my whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence.

Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.

Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.

Be content to seem what you really are.

All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.

A myth is far truer than a history, for a history only gives a story of the shadows, whereas a myth gives a story of the substances that cast the shadows.

The mere passage of time makes us all exiles.

A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.

For Emily Dickinson every philosophical idea was a potential lover. Metaphysics is the realm of eternal seduction of the spirit by ideas.

The most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any known tongue ....perhaps the deepest and loftiest thing the world has to show.

And right action is freedom From past and future also.

The now wherein God made the world is as near this time as the now I am speaking in this moment, and the last day is as near this now as was yesterday.

Whatever deceives men seems to produce a magical enchantment.

There will be no end to the troubles of states,Or of humanity itself,Till philosophers become kings in this world,Or till those we now call kings and rulers really And truly become philosophers

Real sign of intelligence isn't knoweldge, it's imagination

Any religious, philosophical or political idea that doesn't lead one towards love ought to be forsaken

What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call 'thought'.

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.

We tell lies, yet it is easy to show that lying is immoral.

Before beginning, plan carefully.

I have no need for good souls: an accomplice is what I wanted.

What orators lack in depth they make up for in length.

The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.

Go forth a conqueror and win great victories.

We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.

The silkworm spins out his life, and, wrapping himself in his labor, dies.

We cannot pass our guardian angel's bounds, resigned or sullen, he will hear our sighs.

he who thinks great thoughts often makes great errors

None but himself can be his parallel.