Famous Quotes & Sayings

Bertrand Russell

I remain convinced that obstinate addiction to ordinary language in our private thoughts is one of the main obstacles to progress in philosophy.

Bertrand Russell

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

Bertrand Russell

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.

Bertrand Russell

If the ordinary wage-earner worked four hours a day, there would be enough for everybody and no unemployment -- assuming a certain very moderate amount of sensible organization. This idea shocks the well-to-do, because they are convinced that the poor would not know how to use so much leisure. In America men often work long hours even when they are well off; such men, naturally, are indignant at the idea of leisure for wage-earners, except as the grim punishment of unemployment; in fact, they dislike leisure even for their sons.

Bertrand Russell

When you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only: what are the facts, and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted by what you wish to believe, but look only and surely at what are the facts.

Bertrand Russell

Philosophy, from the earliest times, has made greater claims, and achieved fewer results, than any other branch of learning.

Benjamin Cardozo

There is in each of us a stream of tendency, whether you choose to call it philosophy or not, which gives coherence and direction to thought and action. Judges cannot escape that current any more than other mortals.

Benjamin Disraeli

Moderation is the center wherein all philosophies, both human and divine, meet.

Benjamin Disraeli

My objection to Liberalism is this that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind namely, politics of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.

Benjamin Disraeli

In the hands of a genius, engineering turns to magic, philosophy becomes poetry, and science pure imagination.

Benjamin Disraeli

All is mystery; but he is a slave who will not struggle to penetrate the dark veil.

Carl von Clausewitz

[...] to introduce into the philosophy of war itself a principle of moderation would be an absurdity

C. S. Lewis

To be ignorant and simple now-not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground-would be to throw down our weapons and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.

C. S. Lewis

Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.

Bryant H. McGill

You may find many contradictory statements and philosophies within my writings. However, to this I will say such is life, for life is full of contradictions.

Carson McCullers

The mind is like a richly woven tapestry in which the colors are distilled from the experiences of the senses, and the design drawn from the convolutions of the intellect.

Carl von Clausewitz

It is paltry philosophy if in the old-fashioned way one lays down rules and principles in total disregard of moral values . As soon as these appear one regards them as exceptions, which gives them a certain scientific status, and thus makes them into rules. Or again one may appeal to genius , which is above all rules; which amounts to admitting that rules are not only made for idiots , but are idiotic in themselves.

Alan Lightman

With a background in science I am extremely interested in the meeting ground of science, theology, and philosophy, especially the ethical questions at the border of science and theology.

Alain Badiou

In my view, only those who have had the courage to work through Lacan's anti-philosophy without faltering deserve to be called 'contemporary philosophers'.

Alain de Botton

It's clear to me that there is no good reason for many philosophy books to sound as complicated as they do.

Alain de Botton

Philosophy had supplied Socrates with convictions in which he had been able to have rational, as opposed to hysterical, confidence when faced with disapproval.

Alain de Botton

The arrogance that says analysing the relationship between reasons and causes is more important than writing a philosophy of shyness or sadness or friendship drives me nuts. I can't accept that.

Al Goldstein

Philosophy is an attempt by man to find cause and effect. Religion has the same goal

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

When lions paint pictures men will not always be represented as conquerors. When women translate laws, constitutions, bibles and philosophies, man will not always be the declared heard of the church, the state, and the home.

Deepak Chopra

Yoga began as a philosophy rather than as a physical discipline.

Deepak Chopra

Many scientists think that philosophy has no place, so for me it's a sad time because the role of reflection, contemplation, meditation, self inquiry, insight, intuition, imagination, creativity, free will, is in a way not given any importance, which is the domain of philosophers.

David Bowie

I'm drawn between the light and dark.

Darryl Worley

I can't save them by myself, oh but God forbid that I just turn my head and walk on by. Don't let me be a stranger to those less fortunate than I.

Edward Zwick

However much I may like to talk about or be interested in a more philosophical or moral agenda, [film] is, ultimately, about narrative. And it's about telling stories that are engaging and dramatic.

Abdul Kalam

Science has revealed that the human body is made up of millions and millions of atoms... For example, I am made up of 5.8x10^27 atoms.

Abraham Lincoln

There are no accidents in my philosophy. Every effect must have its cause. The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future. All these are links in the endless chain stretching from the finite to the infinite.

She sees the same qualities in me that she saw in young Phil Crane. Phil Crane today isn't the Phil Crane of 35 years ago.

Edward Norton

Any questions I had about whether a redneck from Oklahoma could become a Brown Classical Philosophy professor ended when I met Tim [Blake Nelson].