Quotes about Philosophy

Really great moral teachers never do introduce new moralities: it is quacks and cranks who do that.

Not only had I got rid of the theology and the supernatural, but I had found the truth of evolution.

How gloomy would be these mansions of the dead to him who did not know that he shall never die; that what now acts shall continue its agency, and what now thinks shall think on for ever. Those that lie here stretched before us, the wise and the powerful of ancient times, warn us to remember the shortness of our present state; they were, perhaps, snatched away while they were busy, like us, in the choice of life.

To me,' said the Princess, 'the choice of life is become less important; I hope hereafter to think only on the choice of eternity.

I will venture to say, that in no writings whatever can be found more bark and steel for the mind, if I may use the expression; more that can brace and invigorate every manly and noble sentiment. No. 32 on patience, even under extreme misery, is wonderfully lofty, and as much above the rant of stoicism, as the Sun of Revelation is brighter than the twilight of Pagan philosophy.

Faith and reason are indeed complementary faculties that we use to think about the truth. When any winged creature (or mechanism) tries to fly on just one wing, it falls to the ground. In a similar way, when we human beings try to wing it with just one faculty, we crash.

[Philosophers] are like a traveler passing through a field at night who in a momentary lightning flash sees far and wide, but the sight vanishes so swiftly that he is plunged again into the darkness of night before he can take even a step-let alone be directed on the way by its help.

It is at this point that the gospel differs most from philosophy, since it teaches that the salvation of men is through the free remission of sins.

It is clear that bearing the cross patiently does not mean that we harden ourselves or do not feel any sorrow; according to the old notion of the Stoic philosophers that a greathearted man is someone who has laid off his humanity, and who is not touched by adversity and prosperity, and not even by joy and sorrow, but who acts like a cold rock.

I leave it to the philosophers to discuss these faculties in their subtle way. For the upbuilding of godliness a simple definition will be enough for us.

natural reason can never guide men to Christ. Even

At present, likewise, there are among Christians new Stoics who think it a vice not only to groan and weep, but even to be sad or upset. And indeed, these ridiculous ideas generally come from idle men.