Quotes about Philosophy

It is better to cherish virtue and humanity, by leaving much to free will, even with some loss to the object, than to attempt to make men mere machines and instruments of a political benevolence. The world on the whole will gain by a liberty, without which virtue cannot exist.

When they smile, I see blood trickling down their faces; I see their insidious purposes; I see that the object of all their cajoling is—blood! I now warn my countrymen to beware of these execrable philosophers, whose only object it is to destroy every thing that is good here, and to establish immorality and murder by precept and example—'Hic niger est hunc tu Romane caveto' ['Such a man is evil; beware of him, Roman'. Horace, Satires I. 4. 85.].

Every ideology is contrary to human psychology.

The realization that life is absurd and cannot be an end, but only a beginning. This is a truth nearly all great minds have taken as their starting point. It is not this discovery that is interesting, but the consequences and rules of action drawn from it.

Just as all thought, and primarily that of non-signification, signifies something, so there is no art that has no signification.

It's no use reminding yourself daily that you are mortal: it will be brought home to you soon enough.

Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee?

What is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying.

For the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I'd been happy, and that I was happy still.

Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.

It is normal to give away a little of one's life in order not to lose it all.

To live is in itself a value judgment. To breathe is to judge.