Philosopher

Explore 1213 quotes by Philosophers

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

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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.

Consciousness... Is the phenomenon whereby the universe's very existence is made known.

Roger Penrose

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Topic

Consciousness

Author

Roger Penrose

Source

The Emperor's New Mind

Genre

Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Penrose, Roger. The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds and The Laws of Physics. Oxford University Press, 1989, ch. 10.

The God whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.

William James

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Read Conclusions at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Nature of God

Author

William James

Source

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1902 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "Conclusions." Gifford Lecture. c. 1902, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "Conclusions." The Varieties of Religious Experience, edited by Martin E. Marty. Penguin Classics, 1982.

Beauty for some provides escape,
Who gain a happiness in eyeing
The gorgeous buttocks of the ape
Or autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.

Aldous Huxley

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Topic

Beauty

Author

Aldous Huxley

Source

Sententious Song Jonah

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1917 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Huxley, Aldous. "Sententious Song." Jonah. Holywell Press, 1917.

Fetters of gold are still fetters, and the softest lining can never make them so easy as liberty.

Mary Astell

An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex

Read An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Wealth as burden Downsides of wealth Wealth

Author

Mary Astell

Source

An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex

Medium

Essay

Genre

Feminist literature

Language

English

Time

1696 1690s 17th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Drake, Judith [published as written by a lady]. An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex. London: A. Roper and E. Wilkinson, 1696.

That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions and, were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.

George Santayana

The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress

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Topic

Meaning of life Absurdity of life Life

Author

George Santayana

Source

The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1905 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Santayana, George. The Life of Reason: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense, edited by Marianne S. Wokeck and Martin A. Coleman. Vol. 7, The MIT Press, 2011, bk. 1, ch. 10. Originally published by Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905.

There are two sorts of laws, those of absolute equity and universality, and the bizarre ones which owe their autonomy only to blindness or to the force of circumstance. The latter merely cover the man who is breaking them with a passing disgrace, which time then transfers to the judges and the nations, on whom it remains forever.

Denis Diderot

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Topic

Natural law Custom and convention Law

Author

Denis Diderot

Source

Rameau's Nephew

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1805 1800s 19th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Diderot, Denis. Le Neveu de Rameau, ou La Satire seconde [The Nephew of Rameau, or the Second Satire]. 1805 (German); 1891 (original French manuscript).

Current Citation

Diderot, Denis. "Rameau's Nephew." Rameau's Nephew and Other Works, translated by Jacques Barzun and Ralph H. Bowen. Hackett Publishing Company, 2001.

I have often thought that the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it came upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: "This is the real me!"

William James

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Topic

Character The self Personality

Author

William James

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1878 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. Letter to Alice Gibbons James. 1878.

The law touches us but here and there, and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.

Edmund Burke

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Topic

Custom and convention Law

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Two Letters to a Member of the Present Parliament, on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France

Medium

Open letter Letter

Language

English

Time

1796 1790s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. Two Letters to a Member of the Present Parliament, on the Proposals for Peace with the Regicide Directory of France. London: F. and C. Rivington, 1796, letter 1.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. Letters on a Regicide Peace." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009, letter 1.

There is but one law for all, namely, that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity, — the Law of Nature and of Nations.

Edmund Burke

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Topic

Natural law Law Moral universalism Moral theory Morality

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Speech in General Reply; First Day: Wednesday May 28, 1794.

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1794 1790s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Speech in General Reply; First Day: Wednesday, May 28, 1794." Speeches in the Impeachment of Warren Hastings, Esquire. 28 May 1794, Westminster Hall, Westminster, London, UK.

I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences.

William James

Pragmatism

More information about this quote

Topic

Existence of God

Author

William James

Source

Pragmatism

Genre

Philosophical speech

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

James, William. "Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered." Nov. 1906, Lowell Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Lecture.

Current Citation

James, William. "Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered." Pragmatism. Dover Publications, 2018.

That action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.

Francis Hutcheson

An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue

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Topic

Utilitarianism Moral theory Morality

Author

Francis Hutcheson

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Precepts and axioms

Language

English

Time

1725 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hutcheson, Francis. An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue. London: J. Darby, 1726, treatise 2, sect. 3, subsect. 8.

Current Citation

Hutcheson, Francis. An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, edited by Wolfgang Leidhold. Liberty Fund, 2008.

They that deny a God destroy a man's nobility, for certainly man is of a kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature.

Francis Bacon

Buy Francis Bacon's Major Works at Amazon Buy Francis Bacon's Major Works at Amazon
Read Of Atheism at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

God and man Man and animals Human nature

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.

The end cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced.

Aldous Huxley

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Topic

End justifies the means Moral theory Morality

Author

Aldous Huxley

Source

Ends and Means

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1937 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Huxley, Aldous. Ends and Means (an Enquiry Into the Nature of Ideals and Into the Methods Employed for Their Realization). Chatto & Windus, 1937, ch. 1.

Suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place... The inference, we think, is inevitable; that the watch must have had a maker, that there must have existed, at some time and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers, who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction, and designed its use.

William Paley

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Topic

Argument from design Origin of life

Author

William Paley

Source

Natural Theology

Genre

Religious literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1802 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Paley, William. Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity, Collected from the Appearances of Nature. London: R. Faulder/Philadelphia: John Morgan, 1802, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Paley, WIlliam. Natural Theology, edited by Matthew D. Eddy and David Knight. Oxford University Press, 2008, ch. 1.

The basic anxiety, the anxiety of a finite being about the threat of non-being, cannot be eliminated. It belongs to existence itself.

Paul Tillich

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Topic

Facing death The human condition

Speaker

Paul Tillich

Source

The Courage to Be

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1951 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Tillich, Paul. "The Courage to Be." 1950-1951, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. Lecture.

Current Citation

Tillich, Paul. The Courage to Be. Yale University Press, 2014.

The religious vision, and its history of persistent expansion, is our one ground for optimism. Apart from it, human life is a flash of occasional enjoyments lighting up a mass of pain and misery, a bagatelle of transient experience.

Alfred North Whitehead

Religion and Science

More information about this quote

Topic

Religion

Speaker

Alfred North Whitehead

Source

Religion and Science

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. "Religion and Science." Lowell lecture. Feb. 1925, Phillips Brooks House, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

In the deep windings of the grove, no more
The hag obscene, and the grisly phantom dwell;
Nor in the fall of mountain-stream, or roar
Of winds is heard the angry spirit's yell.

James Beattie

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Topic

Disenchanted world Modern life

Author

James Beattie

Source

The Minstrel

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1774 1770s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Beattie, James. The Minstrel; Or, The Progress of Genius. A Poem. London: E. & C. Dilly, 1774, bk. 2, st. 47.

In political activity, then, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea; there is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place nor appointed destination. The enterprise is to keep afloat on an even keel; the sea is both friend and enemy; and the seamanship consists in using the resources of a traditional manner of behavior in order to make a friend of every hostile occasion.

Michael Oakeshott

Political Education

More information about this quote

Topic

Political theory Politics

Author

Michael Oakeshott

Source

Political Education

Medium

Essay

Genre

Political literature

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1962 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Oakeshott, Michael. "Political Education." Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays. Methuen, 1962.

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

Eric Hoffer

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Topic

Conformity Man as social animal

Author

Eric Hoffer

Source

The Passionate State of Mind, and Other Aphorisms

Language

English

Time

1955 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hoffer, Eric. The Passionate State of Mind, and Other Aphorisms. Harper & Row, 1955, no. 33.