Philosophy Quotes
@quotables.bsky.social
Holding up a mirror to the world of philosophy. From the sublime to the ridiculous. Not a safe space.
When truth threatens hope it is truth we usually sacrifice, often along with those who search for it. -- Roger Scruton
August 26, 2025 at 10:15 AM
When truth threatens hope it is truth we usually sacrifice, often along with those who search for it. -- Roger Scruton
He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
August 25, 2025 at 11:15 PM
He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
I thought Lenin a narrow-minded bigot... He made my blood run cold. -- Bertrand Russell
August 25, 2025 at 9:15 PM
I thought Lenin a narrow-minded bigot... He made my blood run cold. -- Bertrand Russell
There is no great genius without some touch of madness. -- Seneca
August 25, 2025 at 5:15 PM
There is no great genius without some touch of madness. -- Seneca
Time heals what reason cannot. -- Seneca
August 25, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Time heals what reason cannot. -- Seneca
I won't talk to my colleagues about philosophy... They are too stupid. -- Colin McGinn
August 25, 2025 at 1:15 PM
I won't talk to my colleagues about philosophy... They are too stupid. -- Colin McGinn
Let anyone try, I will not say to arrest, but to notice or attend to, the present moment of time. One of the most baffling experiences occurs. Where is it, this present? It has melted in our grasp, fled ere we could touch it, gone in the instant of becoming. -- William James
August 25, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Let anyone try, I will not say to arrest, but to notice or attend to, the present moment of time. One of the most baffling experiences occurs. Where is it, this present? It has melted in our grasp, fled ere we could touch it, gone in the instant of becoming. -- William James
There will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers. -- Plato
August 24, 2025 at 11:15 PM
There will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers. -- Plato
The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution. -- Hannah Arendt
August 24, 2025 at 9:15 PM
The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution. -- Hannah Arendt
[A] clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach does the business quite as well... -- Jerome K. Jerome
August 24, 2025 at 5:15 PM
[A] clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach does the business quite as well... -- Jerome K. Jerome
Anyone who has had a glimpse of the range and subtlety of the thought of Plato or of a Hegel will long ago have despaired of becoming a philosopher. -- Michael Oakeshott
August 24, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Anyone who has had a glimpse of the range and subtlety of the thought of Plato or of a Hegel will long ago have despaired of becoming a philosopher. -- Michael Oakeshott
The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity - designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny of man. -- Ernest Becker
August 24, 2025 at 1:15 PM
The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity - designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny of man. -- Ernest Becker
Persons who find themselves disenchanted with the whole system of situational obligations in society may seek out those places where reverie is likely to be tolerated. -- Erving Goffman
August 24, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Persons who find themselves disenchanted with the whole system of situational obligations in society may seek out those places where reverie is likely to be tolerated. -- Erving Goffman
Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. -- H. L. Mencken
August 23, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. -- H. L. Mencken
It is fatuous to apologise for the bad behaviour of our ancestors. In fact, it is impossible. -- Mary Warnock
August 23, 2025 at 9:15 PM
It is fatuous to apologise for the bad behaviour of our ancestors. In fact, it is impossible. -- Mary Warnock
It is...easy to be certain. One has only to be sufficiently vague. -- C.S. Peirce
August 23, 2025 at 5:15 PM
It is...easy to be certain. One has only to be sufficiently vague. -- C.S. Peirce
'Tis one thing to know virtue, and another to conform the will to it. -- David Hume
August 23, 2025 at 3:15 PM
'Tis one thing to know virtue, and another to conform the will to it. -- David Hume
There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as 'moral indignation', which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue. -- Erich Fromm
August 23, 2025 at 1:15 PM
There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as 'moral indignation', which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue. -- Erich Fromm
The word 'revolution' is a word for which you kill, for which you die, for which you send the labouring masses to their death, but which does not possess any content. -- Simone Weil
August 23, 2025 at 10:15 AM
The word 'revolution' is a word for which you kill, for which you die, for which you send the labouring masses to their death, but which does not possess any content. -- Simone Weil
Everything is good when it leaves the hands of the Creator; everything degenerates in the hands of man. -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
August 22, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Everything is good when it leaves the hands of the Creator; everything degenerates in the hands of man. -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
A man has to be careful when he visits powerful cities as a foreigner, and induces their most promising young men to forsake the company of others, relatives or acquaintances, older or younger, and consort with him on the grounds that his conversation will improve them. -- Plato
August 22, 2025 at 9:15 PM
A man has to be careful when he visits powerful cities as a foreigner, and induces their most promising young men to forsake the company of others, relatives or acquaintances, older or younger, and consort with him on the grounds that his conversation will improve them. -- Plato
Behaviourism is dead. Even fancy, sophisticated philosophical behaviourism really is dead. And the kind of behaviourism that seeks to impose epistemic constraints on the ontology of psychological theories is especially dead. -- Jerry Fodor
August 22, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Behaviourism is dead. Even fancy, sophisticated philosophical behaviourism really is dead. And the kind of behaviourism that seeks to impose epistemic constraints on the ontology of psychological theories is especially dead. -- Jerry Fodor
You do pay a price for stating it simply, namely it's easier for the professionals to misunderstand it. -- John Searle
August 22, 2025 at 3:15 PM
You do pay a price for stating it simply, namely it's easier for the professionals to misunderstand it. -- John Searle
Part of the wish to die may be the wish not to become a burdon to our families... I just want that motive to be recognised as a respectable motive. -- Mary Warnock
August 22, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Part of the wish to die may be the wish not to become a burdon to our families... I just want that motive to be recognised as a respectable motive. -- Mary Warnock
If you're doing philosophy at all, if you're engaged in the way that ideas work, then it's a male peculiarity to wish to go right up in the air and go round in circles without relating them to anything else. -- Mary Midgley
August 22, 2025 at 10:15 AM
If you're doing philosophy at all, if you're engaged in the way that ideas work, then it's a male peculiarity to wish to go right up in the air and go round in circles without relating them to anything else. -- Mary Midgley