Philosophers Quotes

Another important historical factor is the fact that this already very simple religion was further simplified and purified by the early philosophers of ancient China. Our first great philosopher was a founder of naturalism; and our second great philosopher was an agnostic.

I think philosophers can do things akin to theoretical scientists, in that, having read about empirical data, they too can think of what hypotheses and theories might account for that data. So there's a continuity between philosophy and science in that way.

Art is an invention of aesthetics, which in turn is an invention of philosophers... What we call art is a game.

The theories of the major philosophers of the 18th century secular enlightenment were biblical and theological in spite of themselves.

God created man in His own image, says the Bible; philosophers reverse the process: they create God in theirs.

Any two philosophers can tell each other all they know in two hours.

It is, I think, particularly in periods of acknowledged crisis that scientists have turned to philosophical analysis as a device for unlocking the riddles of their field. Scientists have not generally needed or wanted to be philosophers.

Perhaps it is of more value to infuriate philosophers than to go along with them.

The basic drive behind real philosophy is curiosity about the world, not interest in the writings of philosophers.

I discovered that the study of past philosophers is of little use unless our own reality enters into it. Our reality alone allows the thinker's questions to become comprehensible.

It will sometimes strike a scientific man that the philosophers have been less intent on finding out what the facts are, than on inquiring what belief is most in harmony with their system.

Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.

It is not impossible to think that the minds of philosophers sometimes act like those of other mortals, and that, having once been determined by diverse circumstances to adopt certain views, they then look for and naturally find reasons to justify these views.

The profoundest thoughts of the philosophers have something trickle about them. A lot disappears in order for something to suddenly appear in the palm of the hand.

Philosophers are very severe towards other philosophers because they expect too much.

Philosophers, as things now stand, are all too fond of offering criticism from on high instead of studying and understanding things from within.

Poets are the sense, philosophers the intelligence of humanity.

A particularly fine head on a man usually means that he is stupid; particularly deep philosophers are usually shallow thinkers; in literature, talents not much above the average are usually regarded by their contemporaries as geniuses.

You philosophers are lucky men. You write on paper and paper is patient. Unfortunate Empress that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings.

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.

The worth of a civilization or a culture is not valued in the terms of its material wealth or military power, but by the quality and achievements of its representative individuals - its philosophers, its poets and its artists.

St. Paul would say to the philosophers that God created man so that he would seek the Divine, try to attain the Divine. That is why all pre-Christian philosophy is theological at its summit.

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!

Intuition does not in itself amount to knowledge, yet cannot be disregarded by philosophers and psychologists.

All this is applicable to the intellectual faculties of man. There is a considerable difference between one person and another as regards these faculties, as is well known to philosophers.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

If we do discover a complete theory, it should be in time understandable in broad principle by everyone. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people be able to take part in the discussion of why we and the universe exist.

No matter what Aristotle and the Philosophers say, nothing is equal to tobacco; it's the passion of the well-bred, and he who lives without tobacco lives a life not worth living.

These critics organize and practice in my case a sort of obsessive personality cult which philosophers should know how to question and above all, to moderate.

Women do not often fall in love with philosophers.