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Be his
My special thanks, whose even-balanced soul,
From first youth tested up to extreme old age,
Business could not make dull, nor Passion wild:
Who saw life steadily and saw it whole.—MATTHEW ARNOLD, To A Friend
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Though they [philosophers] write contemptu gloriae, yet as Hieron observes, they will put their names to their books.—ROBERT BURTON, Anatomy of Melancholy
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Cheer'd up himself with ends of verse
And sayings of philosophers.—SAMUEL BUTLER, Hudibras
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The Philosopher is he to whom the Highest has descended, and the Lowest has mounted up; who is the equal and kindly brother of all.—CARLYLE, Sartor Resartus
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Not for Philosophy does this rose give a damn.—E. E. CUMMINGS
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Asked what he gained from philosophy, he [Aristotle] answered, "To do without being commanded what others do from fear of the laws."—DIOGENES LAERTIUS,
Aristotle
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The race of men is a race of partisans feeding their pigeon-holes with contradictory reports of life, and when a fellow comes and lays a summary on the desk, they look at him askance; but the future pays attention, for the impartial is all that it has time for.—GALSWORTHY
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Philosophy is the microscope of thought.—VICTOR HUGO, Les Miserables
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Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.—LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Maxims
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Stated in the simplest terms, science is but a sense of curiosity about life, religion is a sense of reverence for life, literature is a sense of wonder at life, art is a taste for life, while philosophy is an attitude toward life, based on a greater or lesser, but always limited, comprehension of the universe as far as we happen to know it.—LIN YUTANG, I Believe
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So soon as I hear that such or such a man gives himself out for a philosopher, I conclude that, like the dyspeptic old woman, he must have "broken his digester."—HERMAN MELVILLE, Moby Dick
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How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets
Where no crude surfeit reigns.—MILTON, Comus
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Philosophers, who need most quiet for their meditations, are the greatest proof that man, when sane, vigorous, and in full possession of his faculties, needs to be in a crowd in order to be happy. They always live in cities.—LIAM O'FLAHERTY, Two Years
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Philosophy is toleration, and it is only one step from toleration to forgiveness.—PINERO, The Second Mrs. Tangueray
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Many talk like philosophers, and live like fools.—Proverb
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Tis not the beard that makes the philosopher.—Proverb
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If you sit down a mere philosopher, you will rise almost an atheist.—Proverb
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Fools and philosophers were made out of the same metal.—Proverb
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It is a great advantage for a system of philosophy to be substantially true.—SANTAYANA, The Unknowable
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Philosophy is nothing but discretion.—JOHN SELDEN, Table Talk
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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.—SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet
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For there was never yet philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently.—SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado About Nothing
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Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy.—SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet
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The greater philosopher a man is, the more difficult it is for him to answer the questions of common people.—SIENKIEWICZ, Quo Vadis
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The upper classes pay the philosopher, in order that he may discover only such truths as are expedient in their eyes.
And suppose uncomfortable truths should be discovered?
They are called lies, and the philosopher gets no pay.—AUGUST STRINDBERG,
A Catechism for Workers
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Philosophers must deal with ideas, but the trouble with most nineteenth-century poets is too much philosophy; they are nearer to being philosophers than poets, without being in the true sense either.—ALLEN TATE, Reactionary Essays
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I make the most of all that comes,
And the least of all that goes.—SARA TEASDALE, The Philosopher
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Philosophy offers the rather cold consolation that perhaps we and our planet do not actually exist; religion presents the contradictory and scarcely more comforting thought that we exist but that we cannot hope to get anywhere until we cease to exit.—JAMES THURBER, I Believe
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It is easier to write ten volumes of philosophy than to put one principle into practice.—TOLSTOY, Diary
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The true philosophers are the young men of their age. Not . . . because they do it very well; but because they rush upon ideas with their whole soul. Later one philosophizes for praise, or for apology, or because it is a complicated intellectual game.—THORNTON WILDER, The Woman of Andros
