Philosopher

Explore 1213 quotes by Philosophers

Love you will find only where you may show yourself weak without provoking strength.

Theodor Adorno

Minima Moralia

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Topic

Vulnerability Love

Author

Theodor Adorno

Source

Minima Moralia

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

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.

The time will come when this universe and nature herself will be no more. And just as of very great human kingdoms and empires and of their marvelous exploits, which were so very famous in other ages, there remains no sign of fame whatsoever, so too of the entire world, and of the infinite vicissitudes and calamities of all created things, no single trace will remain, but a naked silence and a most profound quiet will fill the immensity of space. Thus, this stupendous and frightening mystery of universal existence, before it can be declared or understood, will vanish and be lost.

Giacomo Leopardi

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Topic

Death of the universe The universe

Author

Giacomo Leopardi

Source

The Song of the Wild Rooster Operette Morali

Language

Italian

Time

1835 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Leopardi, Giacomo. "Cantico del gallo silvestre [Song of the Wild Rooster]." Operette morali [Small Moral Works]. Naples: Presso Saverio Starita, 1835.

Current Citation

Leopardi, Giacomo. "Song of the Great Wild Rooster." Operette Morali: Essays and Dialogues. University of California Press, 1983.

There was really only one Christian, and he died on the cross.

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Antichrist

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Topic

Jesus Christianity

Author

Friedrich Nietzsche

Source

The Antichrist

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1895 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Der Antichrist [The Antichrist]. 1895, no. 39.

Current Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. "The Anti-Christ." The Twilight of the Idols and Anti-Christ, translated by R. J. Hollingdale. Penguin Classics, 1990, no. 39.

In revenge and in love woman is more barbarous than man.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Beyond Good and Evil

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Topic

Nature of women Men and women

Author

Friedrich Nietzsche

Source

Beyond Good and Evil

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1886 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Jenseits von Gut und BÃķse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft [Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future]. Leipzig: C. G. Naumann, 1886, ch. 4, no. 134.

Current Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil, translated by R. J. Hollingdale. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 4, no. 134.

Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Beyond Good and Evil

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Topic

Forgetfulness

Author

Friedrich Nietzsche

Source

Beyond Good and Evil

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1886 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Jenseits von Gut und BÃķse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft [Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future]. Leipzig: C. G. Naumann, 1886, ch. 7, no. 217.

Current Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil, translated by R. J. Hollingdale. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 7, no. 217.

Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman-a rope over an abyss.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

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Topic

Nature of man The human condition

Author

Friedrich Nietzsche

Source

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1883 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch fÞr Alle und Keinen [Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None]. Chemnitz: Ernst Schmeitzner, 1883, pt. 1.

Current Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, edited by Robert Pippin, translated by Adrian Del Caro. Cambridge University Press, 2006, pt. 1.

The body politic, like the human body, begins to die from its birth, and bears in itself the cause of its destruction.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Social Contract

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Topic

Political community Things get worse

Author

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Source

The Social Contract

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1762 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique [On the Social Contract or Principles of Political Law]. Amsterdam: Marc Michel Rey, 1762, bk. 3, ch. 11.

Current Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Of the Social Contract." Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings, translated by Quintin Hoare. Penguin Classics, 2012, bk. 3, ch. 11.

The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.

Thomas Paine

Common Sense

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Topic

America

Author

Thomas Paine

Source

Common Sense

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1776 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Paine, Thomas [published anonymously]. Common Sense. Philadelphia: R. Bell, 1776.

Current Citation

Paine, Thomas. "Common Sense." Rights of Man, Common Sense, and Other Political Writings, edited by Mark Philp. Oxford University Press, 2009, introduction.

If ye would go up high, then use your own legs! Do not get yourselves carried aloft; do not seat yourselves on other people's backs and heads!

Friedrich Nietzsche

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

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Topic

Charting one's own path

Author

Friedrich Nietzsche

Source

Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Advice

Language

German

Time

1883 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch fÞr Alle und Keinen [Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None]. Chemnitz: Ernst Schmeitzner, 1885, pt. 4.

Current Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, edited by Robert Pippin, translated by Adrian Del Caro. Cambridge University Press, 2006, pt. 4.

The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom.

G.W.F. Hegel

Philosophy of History

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Topic

Intellectual progress Nature of history

Author

G.W.F. Hegel

Source

Philosophy of History

Genre

Philosophical literature Historical literature

Language

German

Time

1832 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Hegel, G. W. F. Vorlesungen Þber die Philosophie der Weltgeschichte [Lectures on the Philosophy of World History]. c. 1830, University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany.

Current Citation

Hegel, G. W. F. Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, translated by H. B. Nisbet. Cambridge University Press, 1981.

Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.

Karl Marx

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

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Topic

Free will Decisions and choices Effects of the past

Author

Karl Marx

Source

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

Medium

Essay

Genre

Historical literature Political literature

Language

German

Time

1852 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Marx, Karl. "Der 18te Brumaire des Louis Napoleon [The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon]." Die Revolution [The Revolution], 1852.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl. "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon." The Political Writings, edited by David Fernbach. Verso, 2019.

I will devote myself sincerely and without reservation to the general demolition of my opinions.

RenÃĐ Descartes

Meditations on First Philosophy

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Topic

Questioning one's beliefs

Author

RenÃĐ Descartes

Source

Meditations on First Philosophy

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Latin

Time

1641 1640s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Descartes, RenÃĐ. Meditationes de Prima Philosophia, in qua Dei existentia et animÃĶ immortalitas demonstratur [Meditations on First Philosophy, in which the existence of God and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated]. Paris, 1641, first meditation.

Current Citation

Descarte, RenÃĐ. "Meditations on First Philosophy." Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, translated by Donald A. Cress. Hackett Publishing, 1999, first meditation.

Human existence is girt round with mystery: the narrow region of our experience is a small island in the midst of a boundless sea.

John Stuart Mill

The Utility of Religion

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Topic

The mysterious Mysteriousness of the universe The human condition

Author

John Stuart Mill

Source

The Utility of Religion

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1873 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mill, John Stuart. "The Utility of Religion." Nature, the Utility of Religion, and Theism. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1874.

Current Citation

Mill, John Stuart. "The Contest in America." Essays on Ethics, Religion and Society. Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, edited by John M. Robson. Vol. 10, Routledge, 2014.

Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Discourses on Livy

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Topic

Political theory Government Human nature

Author

Niccolo Machiavelli

Source

Discourses on Livy

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

Italian

Time

1531 1530s 16th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Machiavelli, NiccolÃē. Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio [Discourses on the First Ten of Titus Livy]. Papal Privilege, 1531, bk. 1, ch. 3

Current Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolo. Discourses on Livy, translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 1, ch. 3.

Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain.

Friedrich Schiller

The Maid of Orleans

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Topic

Stupidity

Speaker

Talbot

Author

Friedrich Schiller

Source

The Maid of Orleans

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play) Tragedy

Language

German

Time

1801 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Schiller, Friedrich. Die Jungfrau von Orleans [The Maid of Orleans]. 11 Sept 1801, Leipzig, Germany, act 3, sc. 6.

A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers.

Albert Camus

The Fall

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Topic

Modern life

Author

Albert Camus

Source

The Fall

Medium

Novel

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1956 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Camus, Albert. La Chute [The Fall]. Editions Gallimard, 1956.

The metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed by man.

Jose Ortega y Gasset

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Topic

Language

Author

Jose Ortega y Gasset

Medium

Essay

Language

Spanish

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Ortega y Gasset, Jose. La deshumanizaciÃģn del Arte e Ideas sobre la novela [The Dehumanization of Art and Ideas about the Novel]. Revista de Occidente, 1925.

Current Citation

Ortega y Gasset, Jose. "The Dehumanization of Art." The Dehumanization of Art, and Other Essays on Art, Culture, and Literature, translated by Helene Weyl. Princeton University Press, 2019.

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

Baruch Spinoza

Tractatus Politicus

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Topic

Peace

Author

Baruch Spinoza

Source

Tractatus Politicus

Statement Type

Definition

Language

Latin

Time

1677 1670s 17th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Spinoza, Baruch. Tractatus Politicus [Political Treatise]. 1677, ch. 5, sect. 4.

Knowing that certain nights whose sweetness lingers will keep returning to the earth and sea after we are gone, yes, this helps us die.

Albert Camus

The Sea Close By

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Topic

Acceptance of death Death The human condition

Author

Albert Camus

Source

The Sea Close By

Medium

Essay

Language

French

Time

1953 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Camus, Albert. "The Sea Close By." Lyrical and Critical Essays. Vintage Books, 1970. Originally published in L'EtÃĐ [Summer]. Gallimard, 1954.

The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said, "This is mine," and found people naÃŊve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Discourse on Inequality

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Topic

Civil society Property rights

Author

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Source

Discourse on Inequality

Genre

Political literature

Language

French

Time

1755 1750s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discours sur l'origine et les fondemonts de l'inegalite parmi les hommes [Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men]. Amsterdam: Marc-Michel Rey, 1755, pt. 2.

Current Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, translated by Donald A. Cress. Hackett, 1992, pt. 2.