Famous Quotes & Sayings

Oscar Wilde

All thought is immoral. Its very essence is destruction. If you think of anything, you kill it. Nothing survives being thought of.

Michel de Montaigne

Philosophical discussions habitually make men happy and joyful not frowning and sad.

Michael Ruse

Being a philosophical naturalist does not mean that one thinks that science can provide all of the answers. That is scientism and that is wrong. I don't think a billion buckets of science could speak to the problems raised by the Tea Party. Being a philosophical naturalist does not mean that one thinks that the only truths are those of science. I think the claim just made in the last sentence is true but I don't think it is a claim of science. It means that you use science where you can and you respect and try to emulate its standards.

Mason Cooley

Modern thought does not offer consolations, but upsets.

Karl Marx

The history of all previous societies has been the history of class struggles.

Karl Marx

Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the laborer, unless under compulsion from society.

Karl Marx

For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him.

Karl Marx

While the miser is merely a capitalist gone mad, the capitalist is a rational miser.

Karl Marx

A specter is haunting Europe - the specter of communism.

Karl Marx

Landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed.

Karl Marx

The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.

Karl Marx

The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.

Karl Marx

Men's ideas are the most direct emanations of their material state.

Karl Marx

Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form.

Moliere

No matter what everybody says, ultimately these things can harm us only by the way we react to them.

Greta Scacchi

I feel lucky, happy and philosophical about it all.

Henry David Thoreau

If you are a seer, whenever you meet a man you will see all that he owns, ay, and much that he pretends to disown, behind him.

Henry David Thoreau

Beside some philosophers of larger vision, Carlyle stands like an honest, half-despairing boy, grasping at some details only of their world systems.

Henry David Thoreau

As our domestic fowls are said to have their original in the wild pheasant of India, so our domestic thoughts have their prototypes in the thoughts of her philosophers.

Henry David Thoreau

When we want culture more than potatoes, and illumination more than sugar-plums, then the great resources of a world are taxed anddrawn out, and the result, or staple production, is, not slaves, nor operatives, but men,--those rare fruits called heroes, saints, poets, philosophers, and redeemers.

Henry David Thoreau

I have just been through the process of killing a cistudo for the sake of science; but I cannot excuse myself for this murder, and see that such actions are inconsistent with the poetic perception, however they may serve science, and will affect the quality of my observations. I pray that I may walk more innocently and serenely through nature. No reasoning whatever reconciles me to this act. It affects my day injuriously. I have lost some self-respect. I have a murderer's experience to a degree.

Henry David Thoreau

I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice ... While I am looking at him, I am thinking what he is thinking of me. He is a different sort of man, that's all.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I have always said and felt that true enjoyment can not be described.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

How many famous and high-spirited heroes have lived a day too long?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.

Ferdinand de Saussure

The first of these phases is that of grammar, invented by the Greeks and carried on unchanged by the French. It never had any philosophical view of a language as such.

Francis Bacon

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

George Santayana

In unphilosophical minds any rare or unexpected thing excites wonder, while in philosophical minds the familiar excites wonder also.