Philosophical Quotations
We
are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation.
~Francois De La Rochefoucauld
A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure. ~Lee Segall
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop. ~Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. ~Andre Gide
Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. ~Aesop
Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying. ~Baba Ram Dass
I am a part of all that I have met. ~Alfred Lord Tennyson
There's more to the truth than just the facts. ~Author Unknown
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. ~Edward R. Murrow
Even a clock that does not work is right twice a day. ~Polish Proverb
Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth. ~Ludwig Börne
If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he lucky? ~Stanislaw J. Lec
We are all but recent leaves on the same old tree of life and if this life has adapted itself to new functions and conditions, it uses the same old basic principles over and over again. There is no real difference between the grass and the man who mows it. ~Albert Szent-Györgyi
Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly. ~Edward Albee
When the student is ready, the master appears. ~Buddhist Proverb
A gun gives you the body, not the bird. ~Henry David Thoreau
Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. ~Zen Buddhist Proverb
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~Henry David Thoreau
Wars and elections are both too big and too small to matter in the long run. The daily work - that goes on, it adds up. ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
I tell you everything that is really nothing, and nothing of what is everything, do not be fooled by what I am saying. Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am not saying. ~Charles C. Finn
Oh, Heaven, it is mysterious, it is awful to consider that we not only carry a future Ghost within us; but are, in very deed, Ghosts! ~Thomas Carlyle
Knock on the sky and listen to the sound. ~Zen Saying
The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him? ~Chuang Tzu
By daily dying I have come to be. ~Theodore Roethke
There are some remedies worse than the disease. ~Publilius Syrus
You never know what is enough, until you know what is more than enough. ~William Blake, Proverbs of Hell
It requires a great deal of faith for a man to be cured by his own placebos. ~John L. McClenahan
What you see, yet can not see over, is as good as infinite. ~Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, Book II, chapter 1
Philosophy is life's dry-nurse, who can take care of us - but not suckle us. ~Soren Kierkegaard
Men are probably nearer the central truth in their superstitions than in their science. ~Henry David Thoreau
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. ~Henri Louis Bergson
If you think you're free, there's no escape possible. ~Ram Dass
The fly that doesn't want to be swatted is most secure when it lights on the fly-swatter. ~G.C. Lichtenberg
Don't miss the donut by looking through the hole. ~Author Unknown
You can't wake a person who is pretending to be asleep. ~Navajo Proverb
Life has the name of life, but in reality it is death. ~Heraclitus, Eustathius ad Iliad
To learn something new, take the path that you took yesterday. ~John Burroughs
Whatever I take, I take too much or too little; I do not take the exact amount. The exact amount is no use to me. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
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."
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Each forward step we take we leave some phantom of ourselves behind. ~John Lancaster Spalding
The map is not the territory. ~Alfred Korzybski
No matter where you go or what you do, you live your entire life within the confines of your head. ~Terry Josephson
Would there be this eternal seeking if the found existed? ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
I was once a skeptic but was converted by the two missionaries on either side of my nose. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
He who has seen present things has seen all, both everything which has taken place from all eternity and everything which will be for time without end; for all things are of one kin and of one form. ~Marcus Aurelius
If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one. ~Russian Proverb
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. ~Bertrand Russell
Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet. ~Roger Miller
The obstacle is the path. ~Zen Proverb
A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure. ~Lee Segall
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop. ~Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. ~Andre Gide
Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. ~Aesop
Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying. ~Baba Ram Dass
I am a part of all that I have met. ~Alfred Lord Tennyson
There's more to the truth than just the facts. ~Author Unknown
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. ~Edward R. Murrow
Even a clock that does not work is right twice a day. ~Polish Proverb
Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth. ~Ludwig Börne
If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he lucky? ~Stanislaw J. Lec
We are all but recent leaves on the same old tree of life and if this life has adapted itself to new functions and conditions, it uses the same old basic principles over and over again. There is no real difference between the grass and the man who mows it. ~Albert Szent-Györgyi
Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly. ~Edward Albee
When the student is ready, the master appears. ~Buddhist Proverb
A gun gives you the body, not the bird. ~Henry David Thoreau
Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. ~Zen Buddhist Proverb
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~Henry David Thoreau
Wars and elections are both too big and too small to matter in the long run. The daily work - that goes on, it adds up. ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
I tell you everything that is really nothing, and nothing of what is everything, do not be fooled by what I am saying. Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am not saying. ~Charles C. Finn
Oh, Heaven, it is mysterious, it is awful to consider that we not only carry a future Ghost within us; but are, in very deed, Ghosts! ~Thomas Carlyle
Knock on the sky and listen to the sound. ~Zen Saying
The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you've gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him? ~Chuang Tzu
By daily dying I have come to be. ~Theodore Roethke
There are some remedies worse than the disease. ~Publilius Syrus
You never know what is enough, until you know what is more than enough. ~William Blake, Proverbs of Hell
It requires a great deal of faith for a man to be cured by his own placebos. ~John L. McClenahan
What you see, yet can not see over, is as good as infinite. ~Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, Book II, chapter 1
Philosophy is life's dry-nurse, who can take care of us - but not suckle us. ~Soren Kierkegaard
Men are probably nearer the central truth in their superstitions than in their science. ~Henry David Thoreau
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. ~Henri Louis Bergson
If you think you're free, there's no escape possible. ~Ram Dass
The fly that doesn't want to be swatted is most secure when it lights on the fly-swatter. ~G.C. Lichtenberg
Don't miss the donut by looking through the hole. ~Author Unknown
You can't wake a person who is pretending to be asleep. ~Navajo Proverb
Life has the name of life, but in reality it is death. ~Heraclitus, Eustathius ad Iliad
To learn something new, take the path that you took yesterday. ~John Burroughs
Whatever I take, I take too much or too little; I do not take the exact amount. The exact amount is no use to me. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
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."
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Each forward step we take we leave some phantom of ourselves behind. ~John Lancaster Spalding
The map is not the territory. ~Alfred Korzybski
No matter where you go or what you do, you live your entire life within the confines of your head. ~Terry Josephson
Would there be this eternal seeking if the found existed? ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
I was once a skeptic but was converted by the two missionaries on either side of my nose. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
He who has seen present things has seen all, both everything which has taken place from all eternity and everything which will be for time without end; for all things are of one kin and of one form. ~Marcus Aurelius
If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one. ~Russian Proverb
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. ~Bertrand Russell
Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet. ~Roger Miller
The obstacle is the path. ~Zen Proverb
It
is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. ~James
Thurber
It is easy to stand a pain, but difficult to stand an itch. ~Chang Ch'ao
You cannot step into the same river twice. ~Heraclitus, in Diogenes Laertius, Lives
You are fastened to them and cannot understand how, because they are not fastened to you. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Only in the early morning light of day, and of life, can we see the world without its shadows. Truth requires new beginnings. ~Jeb Dickerson, www.howtomatter.com
One day, someone showed me a glass of water that was half full. And he said, "Is it half full or half empty?" So I drank the water. No more problem. ~Alexander Jodorowsky
Among creatures born into chaos, a majority will imagine an order, a minority will question the order, and the rest will be pronounced insane. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
What deep wounds ever closed without a scar? ~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Child Harold's Pilgrimage
Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases. ~Hippocrates, Aphorisms
Seeking is not always the way to find. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
It takes all the running you can do just to keep in the same place. ~Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, 1872
We waste a lot of time running after people we could have caught by just standing still. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into. ~Author Unknown
I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning. ~Aleister Crowley, Book of Lies
Tomorrow always comes, and today is never yesterday. ~S.A. Sachs
Weak eyes are fondest of glittering objects. ~Thomas Carlyle
You can see a lot by just looking. ~Yogi Berra, also often quoted as "You can observe a lot by just looking." (original wording as yet unverified)
Proverbs often contradict one another, as any reader soon discovers. The sagacity that advises us to look before we leap promptly warns us that if we hesitate we are lost; that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but out of sight, out of mind. ~Leo Rosten
The unreal is more powerful than the real.... Because it's only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die. ~Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
Reason and faith are both banks of the same river. ~Doménico Cieri Estrada
Man is the only animal who enjoys the consolation of believing in a next life; all other animals enjoy the consolation of not worrying about it. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple. ~Dr Seuss
Who depends on another man's table often dines late. ~John Ray
[T]hings are entirely what they appear to be and behind them... there is nothing. ~Jean Paul Sartre, Nausea
You become responsible forever for what you've tamed. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943, translated from French by Richard Howard
When the pain is great enough, we will let anyone be doctor. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
A thousand men can't undress a naked man. ~Greek Proverb
May your passion be the kernel of corn stuck between your molars, always reminding you there's something to tend to. ~Jeb Dickerson, www.howtomatter.com
I stop wanting what I am looking for, looking for it. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
There's no fun in playing safe or by the rules, but it's not fun being hit by a semi-truck either. ~Daniel, @blindedpoet
We often repent the good we have done as well as the ill. ~William Hazlitt, Characteristics, 1823
When I die, I will not see myself die, for the first time. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
The human mind is inspired enough when it comes to inventing horrors; it is when it tries to invent a Heaven that it shows itself cloddish. ~Evelyn Waugh
It's very strange when the life you never had flashes before your eyes. ~Terri Minsky, Sex and the City, "The Baby Shower
The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground. ~Buddha
We become aware of the void as we fill it. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
If I make the lashes dark
And the eyes more bright
And the lips more scarlet,
Or ask if all be right
From mirror after mirror,
No vanity's displayed:
I'm looking for the face I had
Before the world was made.
~W.B. Yeats
Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it. ~Santayana, Essays
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. ~Niels Bohr
How often one sees people looking far and wide for what they are holding in their hands? Why! I am doing it myself at this very moment. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there. ~Eric Hoffer, Passionate State of Mind, 1955
Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? ~Maurice Freehill
I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced. ~Henry David Thoreau, "Solitude," Walden, 1854
Because they know the name of what I am looking for, they think they know what I am looking for! ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
There are things I have wanted so long that I would only consent to have them if I could keep wanting them. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Eggs cannot be unscrambled. ~American Proverb
Just as there is no loss of basic energy in the universe, so no thought or action is without its effects, present or ultimate, seen or unseen, felt or unfelt. ~Norman Cousins
A thing, until it is everything, is noise, and once it is everything it is silence. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
The road was new to me, as roads always are going back. ~Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country Road of Pointed Firs, 1896
Admiration and familiarity are strangers. ~George Sand
I am not certain of the hereafter. Frankly, I'm not all that certain of the here. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two. We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about "and." ~Arthur Stanley Eddington
To know the hight [sic] of a mountain, one must climb it. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place. ~Zen
The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing. ~Eric Berne
Nearly all men die of their remedies, and not of their illnesses. ~Jean Baptiste Molière, Le Malade Imaginaire
The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different. ~Aldous Huxley
Will localizes us; thought universalizes us. ~Henri Frederic Amiel
I've observed that there are more lines formed than things worth waiting for. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights. ~Georg Hegel
When I break any of the chains that bind me I feel that I make myself smaller. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
We are spirits clad in veils. ~Christopher P. Cranch
If I am not pleased with myself, but should wish to be other than I am, why should I think highly of the influences which have made me what I am? ~John Lancaster Spalding
Before I travelled my road I was my road. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. ~Francis Bacon
To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting. ~Stanislaus I of Poland
The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth - that the error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cured on one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one. ~H.L. Mencken
The future influences the present just as much as the past. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
When a watch goes ill, it is not enough to move the hands; you must set the regulator. When a man does ill, it is not enough to alter his handiwork, you must regulate his heart. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. ~John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra, 1911
One does what one is; one becomes what one does. ~Robert von Musil, Kleine Prosa
In this, the late afternoon of my life, I wonder: am I casting a longer shadow or is my shadow casting a shorter me? ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
You can't fall off the floor. ~Author Unknown
A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top. ~Author Unknown
In a mist the heights can for the most part see each other; but the valleys cannot. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
In general people experience their present naively, as it were, without being able to form an estimate of its contents; they have first to put themselves at a distance from it - the present, that is to say, must have become the past - before it can yield points of vantage from which to judge the future. ~Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion
The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there. ~Robert M. Pirsig
A stumble may prevent a fall. ~English Proverb
When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you. ~Friedrich Nietzche
What you discover in a democracy is that it is difficult to build a house when each nail has an opinion. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. ~Matsuo Basho
It is easy to stand a pain, but difficult to stand an itch. ~Chang Ch'ao
You cannot step into the same river twice. ~Heraclitus, in Diogenes Laertius, Lives
You are fastened to them and cannot understand how, because they are not fastened to you. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
Only in the early morning light of day, and of life, can we see the world without its shadows. Truth requires new beginnings. ~Jeb Dickerson, www.howtomatter.com
One day, someone showed me a glass of water that was half full. And he said, "Is it half full or half empty?" So I drank the water. No more problem. ~Alexander Jodorowsky
Among creatures born into chaos, a majority will imagine an order, a minority will question the order, and the rest will be pronounced insane. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
What deep wounds ever closed without a scar? ~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Child Harold's Pilgrimage
Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases. ~Hippocrates, Aphorisms
Seeking is not always the way to find. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
It takes all the running you can do just to keep in the same place. ~Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, 1872
We waste a lot of time running after people we could have caught by just standing still. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into. ~Author Unknown
I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning. ~Aleister Crowley, Book of Lies
Tomorrow always comes, and today is never yesterday. ~S.A. Sachs
Weak eyes are fondest of glittering objects. ~Thomas Carlyle
You can see a lot by just looking. ~Yogi Berra, also often quoted as "You can observe a lot by just looking." (original wording as yet unverified)
Proverbs often contradict one another, as any reader soon discovers. The sagacity that advises us to look before we leap promptly warns us that if we hesitate we are lost; that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but out of sight, out of mind. ~Leo Rosten
The unreal is more powerful than the real.... Because it's only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die. ~Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
Reason and faith are both banks of the same river. ~Doménico Cieri Estrada
Man is the only animal who enjoys the consolation of believing in a next life; all other animals enjoy the consolation of not worrying about it. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple. ~Dr Seuss
Who depends on another man's table often dines late. ~John Ray
[T]hings are entirely what they appear to be and behind them... there is nothing. ~Jean Paul Sartre, Nausea
You become responsible forever for what you've tamed. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943, translated from French by Richard Howard
When the pain is great enough, we will let anyone be doctor. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
A thousand men can't undress a naked man. ~Greek Proverb
May your passion be the kernel of corn stuck between your molars, always reminding you there's something to tend to. ~Jeb Dickerson, www.howtomatter.com
I stop wanting what I am looking for, looking for it. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
There's no fun in playing safe or by the rules, but it's not fun being hit by a semi-truck either. ~Daniel, @blindedpoet
We often repent the good we have done as well as the ill. ~William Hazlitt, Characteristics, 1823
When I die, I will not see myself die, for the first time. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
The human mind is inspired enough when it comes to inventing horrors; it is when it tries to invent a Heaven that it shows itself cloddish. ~Evelyn Waugh
It's very strange when the life you never had flashes before your eyes. ~Terri Minsky, Sex and the City, "The Baby Shower
The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground. ~Buddha
We become aware of the void as we fill it. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
If I make the lashes dark
And the eyes more bright
And the lips more scarlet,
Or ask if all be right
From mirror after mirror,
No vanity's displayed:
I'm looking for the face I had
Before the world was made.
~W.B. Yeats
Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it. ~Santayana, Essays
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. ~Niels Bohr
How often one sees people looking far and wide for what they are holding in their hands? Why! I am doing it myself at this very moment. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there. ~Eric Hoffer, Passionate State of Mind, 1955
Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light? ~Maurice Freehill
I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced. ~Henry David Thoreau, "Solitude," Walden, 1854
Because they know the name of what I am looking for, they think they know what I am looking for! ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
There are things I have wanted so long that I would only consent to have them if I could keep wanting them. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Eggs cannot be unscrambled. ~American Proverb
Just as there is no loss of basic energy in the universe, so no thought or action is without its effects, present or ultimate, seen or unseen, felt or unfelt. ~Norman Cousins
A thing, until it is everything, is noise, and once it is everything it is silence. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
The road was new to me, as roads always are going back. ~Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country Road of Pointed Firs, 1896
Admiration and familiarity are strangers. ~George Sand
I am not certain of the hereafter. Frankly, I'm not all that certain of the here. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two. We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about "and." ~Arthur Stanley Eddington
To know the hight [sic] of a mountain, one must climb it. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place. ~Zen
The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing. ~Eric Berne
Nearly all men die of their remedies, and not of their illnesses. ~Jean Baptiste Molière, Le Malade Imaginaire
The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different. ~Aldous Huxley
Will localizes us; thought universalizes us. ~Henri Frederic Amiel
I've observed that there are more lines formed than things worth waiting for. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights. ~Georg Hegel
When I break any of the chains that bind me I feel that I make myself smaller. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
We are spirits clad in veils. ~Christopher P. Cranch
If I am not pleased with myself, but should wish to be other than I am, why should I think highly of the influences which have made me what I am? ~John Lancaster Spalding
Before I travelled my road I was my road. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. ~Francis Bacon
To believe with certainty we must begin with doubting. ~Stanislaus I of Poland
The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth - that the error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cured on one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one. ~H.L. Mencken
The future influences the present just as much as the past. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
When a watch goes ill, it is not enough to move the hands; you must set the regulator. When a man does ill, it is not enough to alter his handiwork, you must regulate his heart. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. ~John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra, 1911
One does what one is; one becomes what one does. ~Robert von Musil, Kleine Prosa
In this, the late afternoon of my life, I wonder: am I casting a longer shadow or is my shadow casting a shorter me? ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
You can't fall off the floor. ~Author Unknown
A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can from a mountain top. ~Author Unknown
In a mist the heights can for the most part see each other; but the valleys cannot. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
In general people experience their present naively, as it were, without being able to form an estimate of its contents; they have first to put themselves at a distance from it - the present, that is to say, must have become the past - before it can yield points of vantage from which to judge the future. ~Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion
The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there. ~Robert M. Pirsig
A stumble may prevent a fall. ~English Proverb
When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you. ~Friedrich Nietzche
What you discover in a democracy is that it is difficult to build a house when each nail has an opinion. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. ~Matsuo Basho
Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai - India will be on Soon!
1. “The unexamined
life is not worth living” – Socrates (470-399 BCE)
Socrates’ [wiki]
belief that we must reflect upon the life we live was partly inspired by the
famous phrase inscribed at the shrine of the oracle at Delphi, “Know thyself.”
The key to finding value in the prophecies of the oracle was self-knowledge,
not a decoder ring.
Socrates felt so passionately about the value of
self-examination that he closely examined not only his own beliefs and values
but those of others as well. More precisely, through his relentless
questioning, he forced people to examine their own beliefs. He saw the citizens
of his beloved Athens sleepwalking through life, living only for money, power,
and fame, so he became famous trying to help them.
2. “Entities should
not be multiplied unnecessarily” – William of Ockham (1285 – 1349?)
Commonly
known as Ockham’s razor, the idea here is that in judging among competing
philosophical or scientific theories, all other things being equal, we should
prefer the simplest theory. Scientists currently speak of four forces in the
universe: gravity, the electromagnetic force, the strong nuclear force, and the
weak nuclear force. Ockham [wiki]
would certainly nod approvingly at the ongoing attempt to formulate a grand
unified theory, a single force that encompasses all four.
The ultimate irony of Ockham’s razor may be that some have
used it to prove God is unnecessary to the explanation of the universe, an idea
Ockham the Franciscan priest would reject.
3. “The life of man
[is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” – Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)
Referring
to the original state of nature, a hypothetical past before civilization, Hobbes [wiki]
saw no reason to be nostalgic.
Whereas Rousseau said, “Man is born free, and he is everywhere
in chains,” Hobbes believed we find ourselves living a savage, impossible life
without education and the protection of the state. Human nature is bad: we’ll
prey on one another in the most vicious ways. No doubt the state imposes on our
liberty in an overwhelming way. Yet Hobbes’ claim was that these very chains
were absolutely crucial in protecting us from one another.
4. “I think
therefore I am” – René Descartes (1596 – 1650)
Descartes [wiki]
began his philosophy by doubting everything in order to figure out what he
could know with absolute certainty. Although he could be wrong about what
he was thinking, that he was thinking was undeniable. Upon the
recognition that “I think,” Descartes concluded that “I am.”
On the heels of believing in himself, Descartes asked, What am
I? His answer: a thinking thing (res cogitans) as opposed to a physical
thing extended in three-dimensional space (res extensa). So, based on
this line, Descartes knew he existed, though he wasn’t sure if he had a body.
It’s a philosophical cliff-hanger; you’ll have to read Meditations to find out
how it ends.
5. “To be is to be
perceived (Esse est percipi).” Or, “If a tree falls in the forest and no
one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” – Bishop George Berkeley (1685
– 1753)
As an
idealist, Berkeley [wiki]
believed that nothing is real but minds and their ideas. Ideas do not exist
independently of minds. Through a complicated and flawed line of reasoning he
concluded that “to be is to be perceived.” Something exists only if someone has
the idea of it.
Though he never put the question in the exact words of the
famous quotation, Berkeley would say that if a tree fell in the forest and
there was no one (not even a squirrel) there to hear it, not only would it not
make a sound, but there would be no tree.
The good news is, according to Berkeley, that the mind of God
always perceives everything. So the tree will always make a sound, and there’s
no need to worry about blipping out of existence if you fall asleep in a room
by yourself.
6. “We live in the
best of all possible worlds.” – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 – 1716)
Voltaire’s
famous novel Candide satirizes this optimistic view. And looking around
you right now you may wonder how anyone could actually believe it. But Leibniz [wiki]
believed that before creation God contemplated every possible way the universe
could be and chose to create the one in which we live because it’s the best.
The principle of sufficient reason holds that for everything,
there must be sufficient reason why it exists. And according to Leibniz the
only sufficient reason for the world we live in is that God created it as the
best possible universe. God could have created a universe in which no one ever
did wrong, in which there was no human evil, but that would require humans to
be deprived of the gift of free wills and thus would not be the best possible
world.
7. “The owl of
Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.” G.W.F. Hegel
(1770 – 1831)
Similar
to “vision is 20/20 in hindsight,” Hegel’s
[wiki] poetic insight says that philosophers are impotent. Only after the end
of an age can philosophers realize what it was about. And by then it’s too late
to change things. It wasn’t until the time of Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) that
the true nature of the Enlightenment was understood, and Kant did nothing to
change the Enlightenment; he just consciously perpetuated it.
Marx (1818 – 1883) found Hegel’s apt description to be
indicative of the problem with philosophy and responded, “the philosophers have
only interpreted the world differently, what matters is to change
it.”
8. “Who is also
aware of the tremendous risk involved in faith – when he nevertheless makes the
leap of faith – this [is] subjectivity … at its height.” – Søren Kierkegaard
(1813 – 1855)
In a
memorable scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indy deduced
that the final step across his treacherous path was a leap of faith. And so it
is in Kierkegaard’s
[wiki] theory of stages of life.
The final stage, the religious stage, requires passionate,
subjective belief rather than objective proof, in the paradoxical and the
absurd. So, what’s the absurd? That which Christianity asks us to accept as
true, that God became man born of a virgin, suffered, died and was resurrected.
Abraham was the ultimate “knight of faith” according to
Kierkegaard. Without doubt there is no faith, and so in a state of “fear and
trembling” Abraham was willing to break the universal moral law against murder
by agreeing to kill his own son, Isaac. God rewarded Abraham’s faith by
providing a ram in place of Isaac for the sacrifice. Faith has its rewards, but
it isn’t rational. It’s beyond reason. As Blaise Pascal said, “The heart has
its reason which reason does not know.”
9. “God is dead.” –
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900)
Well,
you might not hear this one in a graduation speech, but you’ll probably hear it
in college. Actually, Nietzsche [wiki]
never issued this famous proclamation in his own voice but rather put the words
in the mouth of a character he called the madman and later in the mouth of
another character, Zarathustra.
Nevertheless, Nietzsche endorsed the words. “God is dead” is
often mistaken as a statement of atheism. It is not, though Nietzsche himself
was an atheist. “Dead” is metaphorical in this context, meaning belief in the
God of Christianity is worn out, past its prime, and on the decline. God is
lost as the center of life and the source of values. Nietzsche’s madman noted
that himself came too soon. No doubt Nietzsche, too, thought he was ahead of
his time in heralding this news.
10. “There is but
one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” – Albert Camus
(1913 – 1960)
Camus’ [wiki]
solution to the philosophical problem was to recognize and embrace
life’s absurdity. Suicide, though, remains an option if the absurdity becomes
too much. Indeed Camus’ own death in a car crash was ambiguous. Was it an
accident or suicide?
For Camus, the absurd hero is Sisyphus, a man from Greek
mythology who is condemned by the gods for eternity to roll up a stone up a
hill only to have it fall back again as it reaches the top. For Camus, Sisyphus
typified all human beings: we must find a meaning in a world that is unresponsive
or even hostile to us. Sisyphus, Camus believed, affirms life, choosing to go
back down the hill and push the rock again each time. Camus wrote: “The
struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s
heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
11. “One cannot
step twice in the same river.” – Heraclitus (ca. 540 – ca. 480 BCE)
Heraclitus
definitely isn’t alone here. His message was that reality is constantly
changing it’s an ongoing process rather than a fixed and stable product.
Buddhism shares a similar metaphysical view with the idea of annica, the
claim that all reality is fleeting and impermanent.
In modern times Henri Bergson (1859 – 1941) described time as
a process that is experienced. An hour waiting in line is different from an hour
at play. Today contemporary physics lends credence to process philosophy with
the realization that even apparently stable objects, like marble statues, are
actually buzzing bunches of electrons and other subatomic particles deep down.
Bonus: Fake Your Way
Through a Conversation (with Correct Pronunciation!)
If you fumble with a philosopher’s name, nothing you say
afterward will sound credible. So, learn to pronounce these names correctly,
then start worrying about their ideas.
(George) Berkeley is properly pronounced
like Charles Barkley (bark-lee). This name is commonly mispronounced “burk-lee”
like Berkeley, California, which, ironically, is named after George Berkeley.
(Friedrich) Nietzsche is commonly mispronounced
as “nee-chee.” The correct pronunciation is “nee-ch-ya” and rhymes with
“pleased ta meetchya.” “Pleased ta meetchya, Neechya.” Say it!
Lao-tzu (born ca. 604 BCE) is spelled several
different ways in English transliteration from the Chinese. But no matter how
you spell it, the proper way to pronounce it is “lau” (sounds like
“ouch”)-“dsuh”. The stress goes on the first syllable.
(Charles Sanders) Pierce Peirce (1839 –
1914) is commonly mispronounced as “peer-s.” The correct pronunciation is
“purse,” which is somewhat funny because Pierce Peirce rarely had a penny in
his purse. Oddly, Pierce Peirce
took his middle name, Sanders, as an anglicized form of Santiago, or “St.
James,” in honor of a fellow pragmatist, William James (1842 – 1910), who
helped him out financially.
(Ludwig) Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951) is a name
that demands authentic German pronunciation, and there are plenty of ways to
slaughter it. Here’s one that embodies all of them, “wit-jen-steen.” The
correct pronunciation is “vit” (rhymes with bit)-“ghen” (rhymes with
ken)-“shtine.” The first name is pronounced “lude-vig.” If you think it’s hard
to pronounce his name, try reading his Tractatus.
___________
From mental_floss’ book Condensed
Knowledge: A deliciously Irreverent Guide to Feeling Smart Again,
published in Neatorama with permission.
[Update 3/15/07: Original article written by William Irwin,
associate professor of philosophy at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, PA.]
