Philosophy quotes
5.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside philosophy — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Nature does not teach. A true philosophy may sometimes validate an experience of nature; an experience of nature cannot validate a philosophy. Nature will not verify any theological or metaphysical proposition (or not in the manner we are now considering); she will help to show what it means."
"It is profound philosophy to sound the depths of feeling and distinguish traits of character. Men must be studied as deeply as books."
"Words are just rules and regulations to me."
"I took my brains out and stretched them on the rack, now I'm not too sure I'm gonna get them back."
"Bend like the willow, winds gonna blow you hard and cold tonight. Life as it happens, nobody warns you, willow hold on tight."
"Live a little be a gypsy, get around. Get your feet up off the ground, live a little, get around."
"All at once we see things in our skies, and we both realize it together. Well you know they were wrong, get on the right thing."
"If this ever changing world in which we live in makes you give in and cry, say live and let die."
"Every now and then, President Obama sorta drops his veil. He's less coy about his philosophy, he sort of reveals his true governing philosophy, what he really believes."
"I reject her [Ayn Rand's] philosophy. It's an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person's view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas. Don't give me Ayn Rand."
"The role of the educator is one of tranquil possession of certitude in regard to the teaching of not only contents but also of 'correct thinking.'"
"My experience with forgiveness is that it sort of comes spontaneously at a certain point and to try to force it it's not really forgiveness. It's Buddhist philosophy or something spiritual jargon that you're trying to live up to but you're just using it against yourself as a reason why you're not okay."
"I am not much of a hand at love songs, you see I mingle metaphysics with even this, but perhaps in this age of Philosophy that may be excused."
"It is vain philosophy that supposes more causes than are exactly adequate to explain the phenomena of things."
"The emptiness and folly of retaliation are apparent from every example which can be brought forward. Not only Jesus Christ, but the most eminent professors of every sect of philosophy, have reasoned against this futile superstition."
"I am an example of a person who got zeroed into a philosophy early."
"..there is need for a person to be generally educated. Otherwise you shrivel up much too soon. Whether this means reading the bible (I read the New Testament every few years) or reading the great 19th century novelists (the greatest and shrewdest judge of people and of society who ever lived), or classical philosophy (which I cannot read-it puts me to sleep immediately), or history (which is secondary). What matters is that the knowledge worker, by the time he or she reaches middle age, has developed and nourished a human being rather than a tax accountant or a hydraulic engineer."
"Philosophy is an act of living."
"Those who practice philosophy in the right way are in training for dying and they fear death least of all men."
"Other people are likely not to be aware that those who pursue philosophy aright study nothing but dying and being dead. Now if this is true, it would be absurd to be eager for nothing but this all their lives, and then to be troubled when that came for which they had all along been eagerly practicing."
