Philosophical literature

Explore 632 quotes from the following genre: Philosophical literature

That action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.

Francis Hutcheson

An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue

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Topic

Utilitarianism Moral theory Morality

Author

Francis Hutcheson

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Precepts and axioms

Language

English

Time

1725 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hutcheson, Francis. An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue. London: J. Darby, 1726, treatise 2, sect. 3, subsect. 8.

Current Citation

Hutcheson, Francis. An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, edited by Wolfgang Leidhold. Liberty Fund, 2008.

The end cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced.

Aldous Huxley

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Topic

End justifies the means Moral theory Morality

Author

Aldous Huxley

Source

Ends and Means

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1937 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Huxley, Aldous. Ends and Means (an Enquiry Into the Nature of Ideals and Into the Methods Employed for Their Realization). Chatto & Windus, 1937, ch. 1.

An advocate, by the sacred duty which he owes his client, knows, in the discharge of that office, but one person in the world, that client and none other. To save that client... Is the highest and most unquestioned of his duties; And he must not regard the alarm, the suffering, the torment, the destruction which he may bring upon any other. Nay... He must go on reckless of the consequences, if his fate, it should unhappily be, to involve his country in confusion for his client's protection.

Henry Peter Brougham

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Topic

Lawyers Legal theory

Speaker

Henry Peter Brougham

Medium

Courtroom speech Speech

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1820 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Brougham, Henry Peter. Argument at trial of Queen Caroline for adultery. House of Lords meeting. c. 1820, Palace of Westminster, London, England, UK.

Killing them, therefore, cannot be equated with killing normal human beings, or any other self-conscious beings...No infant-disabled or not-has as strong a claim to life as beings capable of seeing themselves as distinct entities, existing over time.

Peter Singer

Practical Ethics

On killing infants.

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Topic

Human rights

Author

Peter Singer

Source

Practical Ethics

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Singer, Peter. Practical Ethics. Cambridge University Press, 1979, ch. 7.

All genuine political theories presuppose man to be evil, i. E., by no means an unproblematic but a dangerous and dynamic being.

Carl Schmitt

The Concept of the Political

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Topic

Political theory

Author

Carl Schmitt

Source

The Concept of the Political

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1932 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Schmitt, Carl. Der Begriff des Politischen [The Concept of the Political]. Duncker & Humblot, 1932, sect. 7.

Current Citation

Schmitt, Carl. The Concept of the Political, translated by George Schwab. University of Chicago Press, 2007, sect. 7.

Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire cat.

Julian Huxley

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Topic

God of the gaps Science and religion Existence of God Nature of God God

Author

Julian Huxley

Source

Religion without Revelation

Genre

Philosophical literature Religious literature

Language

English

Time

1927 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Huxley, Julian. Religion without Revelation. New American Library, 1957, ch. 3. Originally published by Harper & Brothers, 1927, ch. 3.

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new ones rise.

Carl Sagan

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Topic

Con artists and charlatans

Author

Carl Sagan

Source

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Genre

Scientific literature Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Random House, 1995, ch. 13.

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

Eric Hoffer

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Topic

Gratitude

Author

Eric Hoffer

Source

Reflections on the Human Condition

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hoffer, Eric. Reflections on the Human Condition. Harper & Row, 1973, no. 172.

I do nothing, granted. But I see the hours pass-which is better than trying to fill them.

Emil Cioran

The Trouble With Being Born

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Topic

Passage of time Nihilism

Author

Emil Cioran

Source

The Trouble With Being Born

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Cioran, Emil. De I’inconvenient d’etre ne [The Trouble with Being Born]. Arcade Publishing, 1973, ch. 1.

Every man is fully satisfied that there is such a thing as truth, or he would not ask any question.

Charles Sanders Peirce

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Topic

Truth

Author

Charles Sanders Peirce

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Peirce, Charles Sanders. "Three Cotary Propositions of Pragmatism." 14 May 1903, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Current Citation

Peirce, Charles Sanders. "Lecture Seven: Three Cotary Propositions of Pragmatism." Pragmatism as a Principle and Method of Right Thinking: The 1903 Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism. State University of New York Press, 1997.

Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work does what he wants to do.

R.G. Collingwood

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Topic

Freedom Dream job Vocation Work

Author

R.G. Collingwood

Source

Speculum Mentis

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1924 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Collingwood, Robin George. Speculum Mentis; or The Map of Knowledge. Clarendon Press, 1924, prologue.

Neither the truth nor the character of history depend, in any way, upon its having some lesson to teach us. And if ever we persuade ourselves that the past has taught us something, we may be certain that it is not the historical past which has been our teacher.

Michael Oakeshott

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Topic

Learning from the past

Author

Michael Oakeshott

Source

Experience and Its Modes

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Oakeshott, Michael. Experience and Its Modes. Cambridge University Press, 1933, ch. 3, sect. 4.

Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul.

Ernest Dimnet

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Topic

Architecture

Author

Ernest Dimnet

Source

What We Live By

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1932 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Dimnet, Ernest. What We Live By. Simon & Schuster, 1932, pt. 2, ch. 12.

The significance of man is that he is that part of the universe that asks the question, What is the significance of Man? He alone can stand apart imaginatively and, regarding himself and the universe in their eternal aspects, pronounce a judgement. The significance of man is that he is insignificant and is aware of it.

Carl Becker

More information about this quote

Topic

Man and nature Man The human condition

Author

Carl Becker

Source

Progress and Power

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1936 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Becker, Carl. Progress and Power. A. A. Knopf, 1936.

A gentleman is ashamed to let his words outrun his deeds.

Confucius

Quoted in Analects

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Topic

Words vs. actions

Speaker

Confucius

Source

Analects

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Chinese

Time

221 BC 220s BC 3rd century BC

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Confucius. čŦ–芞 [The Analects]. c. 479 BCE.

Current Citation

Confucius. The Analects, edited and translated by Annping Chin. Penguin Classics, 2014.

There are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is most excellent, the second is good, the third is useless.

Niccolo Machiavelli

The Prince

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Topic

Intelligence

Author

Niccolo Machiavelli

Source

The Prince

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

Italian

Time

1532 1530s 16th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Machiavelli, NiccolÃē. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

Current Citation

Machiavelli, NicolÃē. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live; that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin that his preservation.

Niccolo Machiavelli

The Prince

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Topic

Realism vs. idealism Government Political theory

Author

Niccolo Machiavelli

Source

The Prince

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

Italian

Time

1532 1530s 16th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Machiavelli, NiccolÃē. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

Current Citation

Machiavelli, NicolÃē. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.

The absurd... The fact that with God everything is possible. The absurd does not belong to the distinctions that lie within the proper compass of the understanding. It is not identical with the improbable, the unexpected, the unforeseen.

Soren Kierkegaard

Fear and Trembling

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Topic

The absurd

Author

Soren Kierkegaard

Source

Fear and Trembling

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Danish

Time

1843 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Kierkegaard, Soren [published as Johannes de silentio]. Frygt og BÃĶven [Fear and Trembling]. Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzel, 1843.

Current Citation

Kierkegaard, Soren. Fear and Trembling, translated by Alastair Hannay. Penguin Classics, 1986.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Emile; or, On Education

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Topic

Talking too much

Author

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Source

Emile; or, On Education

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1762 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Emile, ou De l'education [Emile, or On Education]. A la Haye: Jean Neaulme, 1762, bk. 4.

For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live.

Theodor Adorno

Minima Moralia

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Topic

Exile Writing

Author

Theodor Adorno

Source

Minima Moralia

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Adorno, Theodor. Minima Moralia: Reflexionen aus dem beschÃĪdigten Leben [Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life]. Suhrkamp Verlag, 1951.

Current Citation

Adorno, Theodor. Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life, translated by E. F. N. Jephcott. Verso, 2020.