Philosophy

Explore 28 quotes about Philosophy

Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

Socrates

Quoted in Theaetetus, by Plato

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Topic

Curiosity Wonder Philosophy

Speaker

Socrates

Author

Plato

Source

Theaetetus

Medium

Philosophical dialogue

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

400 BC 400s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Θεαίτητος [Theaetetus], written by Plato. c. 369 BC.

Current Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Theaetetus, written by Plato, translated by John McDowell. Oxford University Press, 2014.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Socrates

Quoted in Apology, by Plato

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Topic

Philosophy Introspection Self-criticism Self-knowledge Wisdom

Speaker

Socrates

Author

Plato

Source

Apology

Medium

Courtroom speech Speech

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

399 BC 390s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Plato. Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους [Apology of Socrates]. Speech of legal self-defence which Socrates spoke at his trial for impiety and corruption. 399 BC, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Plato. "Apology." Plato: Euthyphro; Apology; Crito; Phaedo, translated by Christopher Emlyn-Jones and William Preddy. Harvard University Press, 2017.

What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?

Tertullian

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Topic

Athens and Jerusalem Athens Jerusalem Philosophy Religion

Author

Tertullian

Source

On the Prescription of Heretics

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Religious literature

Statement Type

Question

Language

Latin

Time

220 220s 3rd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Tertullian. De Praescriptione Haereticorum [On the Prescription of Heretics]. c. 1892, ch. 7.

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.

Albert Camus

The Myth of Sisyphus

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Topic

Suicide Purpose of life Philosophy

Author

Albert Camus

Source

The Myth of Sisyphus

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1942 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Camus, Albert. Le Mythe de Sisyphe [The Myth of Sisyphus]. Éditions Gallimard, 1942.

What is your aim in philosophy?-To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Philosophical Investigations

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Topic

Purpose of philosophy Philosophy

Author

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Source

Philosophical Investigations

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1953 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophische Untersuchungen [Philosophical Investigations]. Suhrkamp, 1953, pt. 1.

Current Citation

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations, translated by G. E. M. Anscombe, et. al., edited by P. M. S. Hacker and Joachim Schulte. Wiley Blackwell, 2009, pt. 1.

Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love.

Karl Marx

The German Ideology

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Topic

Philosophy Changing the world

Author

Karl Marx

Source

The German Ideology

Genre

Historical literature

Language

German

Time

1883 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. Die deutsche Ideologie [The German Ideology]. Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute, 1932.

Current Citation

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. The German Ideology. Prometheus, 1998.

Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings.

John Keats

Lamia

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Topic

Disenchanted world Philosophy

Author

John Keats

Source

Lamia

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1820 1820s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Keats, John. "Lamia." Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St Agnes and Other Poems. London: Taylor and Hessey, 1820, pt. 2, I. 234.

Current Citation

Keats, John. "Lamia." John Keats: The Major Works, edited by Elizabeth Cook. Oxford University Press, 2009, pt. 2, I. 234.

A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.

Francis Bacon

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Topic

Atheism Philosophy Faith

Author

Francis Bacon

Source

Of Atheism Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1625 1620s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Bacon, Francis. "Of Atheism." Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall. London: John Haviland, 1625.

Current Citation

Bacon, Francis. "Essays, or Counsels, Civil and Moral (1625): Of Atheism." Francis Bacon: The Major Works, edited by Brian Vickers. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Philosophy may in no way interfere with the actual use of language; it can in the end only describe it... It leaves everything as it is.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Philosophical Investigations

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Topic

Philosophy

Author

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Source

Philosophical Investigations

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

German

Time

1953 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophische Untersuchungen [Philosophical Investigations]. Suhrkamp, 1953, pt. 1.

Current Citation

Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Philosophical Investigations, translated by G. E. M. Anscombe, et. al., edited by P. M. S. Hacker and Joachim Schulte. Wiley Blackwell, 2009, pt. 1.

Wonder... And not any expectation of advantage from its discoveries, is the first principle which prompts mankind to the study of Philosophy, of that science which pretends to lay open the concealed connections that unite the various appearances of nature.

Adam Smith

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Topic

Wonder Curiosity Philosophy

Author

Adam Smith

Source

The History of Astronomy Essays on Philosophical Subjects

Medium

Essay

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1790 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Smith, Adam. "The History of Astronomy." Essays on Philosophical Subjects. London: T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies/Edinburgh: W. Creech, 1795, sect. 3, para. 3.

Current Citation

Smith, Adam. "The History of Astronomy." Essays on Philosophical Subjects, edited by W. P. D. Wightman. Liberty Fund, 1982, sect. 3, para. 3.

Truth is the object of philosophy, but not always of philosophers.

John Churton Collins

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Topic

Truth Philosophy Philosophers

Author

John Churton Collins

Source

Some Maxims and Reflections The English Review

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1900 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Collins, Churton. "Some Maxims and Reflections." The English Review, c. 1914.

The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his deliberate reason.

Bertrand Russell

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Topic

Questioning one's beliefs Critical thinking Philosophy

Author

Bertrand Russell

Source

The Problems of Philosophy

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1912 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Russell, Bertrand. The Problems of Philosophy. Henry Holt and Company/Williams and Norgate, 1912, ch. 15.

The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.

More information about this quote

Topic

Western philosophy Philosophy Plato

Speaker

Alfred North Whitehead

Source

Process and Reality

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1928 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. "Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology." Gifford Lecture. 1927–1928, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Current Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality. Simon and Schuster, 2010, pt. 2, ch. 1, sec. 1.

It is not the attainment of the goal that matters, it is the things that are met with by the way.

Havelock Ellis

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Topic

Philosophy Journey vs. destination

Author

Havelock Ellis

Source

The Dance of Life

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Ellis, Havelock. The Dance of Life. Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1923, ch. 3.

If you were prepared to let me go on those terms, I should reply to you as follows: "I have the greatest fondness and affection for you, fellow Athenians, but I will obey my god rather than you."

Socrates

Quoted in Apology, by Plato

On his unwillingness to give up practicing philosophy.

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More information about this quote

Topic

Philosophy

Speaker

Socrates

Author

Plato

Source

Apology

Medium

Courtroom speech Speech

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

399 BC 390s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Plato. Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους [Apology of Socrates]. Speech of legal self-defence which Socrates spoke at his trial for impiety and corruption. 399 BC, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Plato. "Apology." Plato: Euthyphro; Apology; Crito; Phaedo, translated by Christopher Emlyn-Jones and William Preddy. Harvard University Press, 2017.

Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them.

Voltaire

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Topic

Superstition Power of philosophy Philosophy

Author

Voltaire

Source

Philosophical Dictionary

Language

French

Time

1764 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Voltaire. "Superstition." Dictionnaire Philosophique. Vol. 8, Paris: Chez l'éditeur.

Current Citation

Voltaire. "Superstition." Philosophical Dictionary, translated by Theodore Besterman. Penguin Classics, 1984.

Well, my art of midwifery is in most respects like theirs; but differs, in that I attend men and not women, and I look after their souls when they are in labor, and not after their bodies: and the triumph of my art is in thoroughly examining whether the thought which the mind of the young man brings forth is a false idol or a noble and true birth.

Socrates

Quoted in Theaetetus, by Plato

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Topic

Nature of philosophy Philosophy

Speaker

Socrates

Author

Plato

Source

Theaetetus

Medium

Philosophical dialogue Dialogue

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Greek

Time

369 BC 360s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Θεαίτητος [Theaetetus], written by Plato. c. 369 BC.

Current Citation

Socrates. Quoted in Theaetetus, written by Plato, translated by John McDowell. Oxford University Press, 2014.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, not even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live accordingly to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.

Henry David Thoreau

Walden

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Topic

Philosophy

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Source

Economy Walden

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Economy." Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854.

Current Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Economy." Walden and Civil Disobedience. Signet, 2012.

Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.

David Hume

A Treatise of Human Nature

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Topic

Religion Philosophy

Author

David Hume

Source

A Treatise of Human Nature

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1739 1730s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hume, David, [published anonymously]. A Treatise of Human Nature. London: John Noon, 1739, bk. 1, pt. 4, sec. 7.

Current Citation

Hume, David. "A Treatise of Human Nature." The Clarendon Edition of the Works of David Hume, edited by David Fate Norton and Mary J. Norton. Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2007, bk. 1, pt. 4, sect. 7.

Opposing one species of superstition to another, set them a quarrelling; while we ourselves, during their fury and contention, happily make our escape, into the calm, tho' obscure, regions of philosophy.

David Hume

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Topic

Philosophy Reason

Author

David Hume

Source

The Natural History of Religion Four Dissertations

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1757 1750s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hume, David. "The Natural History of Religion." Four Dissertations. London: A. Millar, 1757, sect. 15.

Current Citation

David Hume. "The Natural History of Religion." A Dissertation on the Passions; The Natural History of Religion, edited by Tom Beauchamp. Clarendon, 2009, bk. 1, pt. 3, sect. 10.