Quotes about Philosophy

The role of religion is to be a challenge to philosophy, not merely an object for examination.

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, And this too, shall pass away. How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!

Take all that you can of this book upon reason, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man. (When a skeptic expressed surprise to see him reading a Bible)

And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!

Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents of this, as philosophy to learn wisdom from.

Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged....

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.

Feeling lost, crazy and desperate belongs to a good life as much as optimism, certainty and reason.

It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value.

Though it may feel otherwise, enjoying life is no more dangerous than apprehending it with continuous anxiety and gloom.

To appreciate life's small moments, it helps to have a sense the whole can never be made perfect.

The truth, in so far as a human being is able to attain such a thing, lies in a statement which it seems impossible to disprove. It is by finding out what something is not that one comes closest to understanding what it is.