Philosopher

Explore 1213 quotes by Philosophers

Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century.

Marshall McLuhan

Advertising Age

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Topic

Advertising and marketing Art

Author

Marshall McLuhan

Source

Advertising Age

Medium

Magazine

Language

English

Time

1976 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

McLuhan, Marshall. Advertising Aid. 3 Sept. 1976.

A man is literally what he thinks.

James Allen

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Topic

Nature of man

Author

James Allen

Source

As a Man Thinketh

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1903 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Allen, James. As a Man Thinketh. 1903.

Current Citation

Allen, James. As a Man Thinketh: The Complete Original Edition. St. Martin's Essential, 2019.

All the choir of heaven and furniture of the earth-in a word, all those bodies which compose the mighty frame of the world-have not any subsistence without a mind... Their being is to be perceived or known.

George Berkeley

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

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Topic

The mind

Author

George Berkeley

Source

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1710 1710s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Berkeley, George. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. Dublin: Jeremy Pepat, 1710, sect. 6.

Current Citation

Berkeley, George. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, edited by Kenneth P. Winkler. Hackett Publishing Company, 1982, sect. 6.

Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation.

William James

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Read Mysticism at Project Gutenberg

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Topic

Consciousness

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. "Mysticism." Gifford Lecture. c. 1902, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Lecture.

Current Citation

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

Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

William James

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Topic

Human potential

Author

William James

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. Letter to W. Lutoslawski. 6 May 1906.

Civilized people must get off their high horse and learn with humble lucidity that they too are an indigenous variety.

Alain Finkielkraut

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Topic

Ethnocentrism Anthropology

Author

Alain Finkielkraut

Source

The Undoing of Thought

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1988 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Finkielkraut, Alain. La défaite de la pensée [The Undoing of Thought]. Gallimard, 1987.

I am certain, however, that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice.

Friedrich Hayek

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Topic

Threats to freedom

Author

Friedrich Hayek

Source

Economic Freedom and Representative Government

Medium

Lecture

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Von Hayek, Friedrich August. "Economic Freedom and Representative Government." Fourth Wincott Memorial Lecture. 31 Oct. 1973, The Royal Society of Arts, London, England, UK.

The part of our moral theory... That covers how we affect future generations... Is the most important part of our moral theory, since the next few centuries will be the most important in human history.

Derek Parfit

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Topic

Moral theory Moral progress The future

Author

Derek Parfit

Source

Reasons and Persons

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1984 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Parfit, Derek. Reasons and Persons. Oxford University Press, 1984.

Every man, when he comes to be sensible of his natural rights, and to feel his own importance, will consider himself as fully equal to any other person whatever.

Joseph Priestley

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Topic

Natural law Human rights Equality

Author

Joseph Priestley

Source

An Essay on the First Principles of Government

Medium

Essay

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1768 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Priestley, Joseph. An Essay on the First Principles of Government. London: J. Dodsley, 1768.

Current Citation

Priestley, Joseph. "An Essay on the First Principles of Government." Priestley: Political Writings. Cambridge University Press, 1993.

The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess success. That-with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word success-is our national disease.

William James

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Topic

Success Love of money

Author

William James

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1906 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

James, William. Letter to H. G. Wells. 11 Sept. 1906.

The name of this infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being is God.

Paul Tillich

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Topic

Nature of God God

Speaker

Paul Tillich

Source

The Shaking of the Foundations

Medium

Sermon

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Tillich, Paul. "The Depth of Existence." Sunday services sermon. c. 1965, Union Theological Seminary Chapel, New York, NY, USA.

We must have religion for religion's sake, morality for morality's sake, as with art for art's sake... The beautiful cannot be the way to what is useful, or to what is good, or to what is holy; it leads only to itself.

Victor Cousin

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Topic

Purpose of art Art

Speaker

Victor Cousin

Source

On the True, the Beautiful and the Good

Medium

Lecture

Language

French

Time

1818 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Cousin, Victor. "Du Vrai, du beau, et du bien." Cours de philosophie. École Normale Supérieure, 1818, Paris, France.

The clock, not the steam-engine, is the key-machine of the modern industrial age.

Lewis Mumford

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Topic

Modern economy Time

Author

Lewis Mumford

Source

Technics and Civilization

Genre

Historical literature

Language

English

Time

1934 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mumford, Lewis. Technics and Civilization. Harcourt, Brace and Company/Routledge, 1934, ch. 1, sect. 2.

Those who have ever valued liberty for its own sake believed that to be free to choose, and not to be chosen for, is an inalienable ingredient in what makes human beings human.

Isaiah Berlin

Four Essays on Liberty

More information about this quote

Topic

Freedom Decisions and choices

Author

Isaiah Berlin

Source

Four Essays on Liberty

Medium

Essay

Genre

Philosophical literature Political literature

Language

English

Time

1969 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Berlin, Isaiah. Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford University Press, 1969, introduction.

Man's nature, his passions and anxieties, are a cultural product; as a matter of fact, man himself is the most important creation and achievement of the continuous human effort, the record of which we call history.

Erich Fromm

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More information about this quote

Topic

Human nature

Author

Erich Fromm

Source

Escape from Freedom

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

English

Time

1941 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fromm, Erich. Escape from Freedom. Farrar & Rinehart, 1941, ch. 1.

Life can be wonderful as well as terrible, and we shall increasingly have the power to make life good. Since human history may be only just beginning, we can expect that future humans, or supra-humans, may achieve some great goods that we cannot now even imagine. In Nietzsche’s words, there has never been such a new dawn and clear horizon, and such an open sea.

Derek Parfit

More information about this quote

Topic

Moral progress Nature of life Progress

Author

Derek Parfit

Source

On What Matters

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

2017 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Parfit, Derek. On What Matters. Vol. 3, Oxford University Press, 2017.

My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests.

George Santayana

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Topic

Atheism Man and the universe

Author

George Santayana

Source

On My Friendly Critics Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1922 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Santayana, George. "On My Friendly Critics." Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies. Charles Scribner's Sons/Constable and Co., 1922.

It is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true…But of course a true proposition is more apt to be interesting than a false one.

Alfred North Whitehead

Adventures of Ideas

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Topic

Ideas

Author

Alfred North Whitehead

Source

Adventures of Ideas

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

English

Time

1933 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Whitehead, Alfred North. Adventures of Ideas. The Macmillan Company/Simon and Schuster, 1933, ch. 16, sec. 3.

The love of our country, as the term has usually been understood, has too often been found to be one of those specious illusions which are employed by impostors for the purpose of rendering the multitude the blind instruments of their crooked designs.

William Godwin

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Read An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice at libertyfund.org

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Topic

Abuses of patriotism Patriotism

Author

William Godwin

Source

An Enquiry Concerning Politicsl Justice

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1793 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Godwin, William. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Political Justice and Its Influence on Modern Morals and Happiness. London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1793, bk. 5, ch. 16.

Current Citation

Godwin, William. An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice. Oxford University Press, 2013, bk. 5, ch. 16.

Man, biologically considered, and whatever else he may be in the bargain, is simply the most formidable of all the beasts of prey, and, indeed, the only one that preys systematically on its own species.

William James

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Topic

Man's cruelty to man Man and animals Nature of man

Author

William James

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1904 1900s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

James, William. "Remarks At The Peace Banquet." Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1904. Originally remarks at the world peace banquet. 7 Oct. 1904, Boston, MA, USA.