Philosopher Archives - Pictorial Quotes

Philosopher

I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

All existing things are really one. We regard those that are beautiful and rare as valuable, and those that are ugly as foul and rotten The foul and rotten may come to be transformed into what is rare and valuable, and the rare and valuable into what is foul and rotten.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

For the wise man looks into space and he knows there is no limited dimensions.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

I know the joy of fishes in the river through my own joy, as I go walking along the same river.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Those who realize their folly are not true fools.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Life comes from the earth and life returns to the earth.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Cherish that which is within you, and shut off that which is without; for much knowledge is a curse.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Men honor what lies within the sphere of their knowledge, but do not realize how dependent they are on what lies beyond it.

Philosopher, Zhuangzi

Zhuangzi

Those thoughts are truth which guide us to beneficial interaction with sensible particulars as they occur, whether they copy these in advance or not.

Philosopher, William James

William James

There is an organic affinity between joyousness and tenderness, and their companionship in the saintly life need in no way occasion surprise.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The ‘I think’ which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the ‘I breathe’ which actually does accompany them.

Philosopher, William James

William James

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!

Philosopher, William James

William James

‘Pure experience’ is the name I gave to the immediate flux of life which furnishes the material to our later reflection with its conceptual categories.

Philosopher, William James

William James

To be radical, an empiricism must neither admit into its constructions any element that is not directly experienced, nor exclude from them any element that is directly experienced.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Truth lives, in fact, for the most part on a credit system. Our thoughts and beliefs pass, so long as nothing challenges them, just as bank-notes pass so long as nobody refuses them.

Philosopher, William James

William James

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.

Philosopher, William James

William James

To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one’s being added to that being.

Philosopher, William James

William James

There must be something solemn, serious, and tender about any attitude which we denominate religious. If glad, it must not grin or snicker; if sad, it must not scream or curse.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Metaphysics means nothing but an unusually obstinate effort to think clearly.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Time itself comes in drops.

Philosopher, William James

William James

To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else’s type of thinking.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Man lives for science as well as bread.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The best argument I know for an immortal life is the existence of a man who deserves one.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Truth is what works.

Philosopher, William James

William James

I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.

Philosopher, William James

William James

If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

Philosopher, William James

William James

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.

Philosopher, William James

William James

If merely ‘feeling good’ could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience.

Philosopher, William James

William James

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.

Philosopher, William James

William James

We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.

Philosopher, William James

William James

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

Philosopher, William James

William James

If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.

Philosopher, William James

William James

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

Philosopher, William James

William James

A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

Philosopher, William James

William James

If the grace of God miraculously operates, it probably operates through the subliminal door.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

Philosopher, William James

William James

A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.

Philosopher, William James

William James

If any organism fails to fulfill its potentialities, it becomes sick.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.

Philosopher, William James

William James

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Whatever universe a professor believes in must at any rate be a universe that lends itself to lengthy discourse. A universe definable in two sentences is something for which the professorial intellect has no use. No faith in anything of that cheap kind!

Philosopher, William James

William James

Every man who possibly can should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The sovereign cure for worry is prayer.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Where quality is the thing sought after, the thing of supreme quality is cheap, whatever the price one has to pay for it.

Philosopher, William James

William James

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Our faith is faith in someone else’s faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Individuality is founded in feeling; and the recesses of feeling, the darker, blinder strata of character, are the only places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making, and directly perceive how events happen, and how work is actually done.

Philosopher, William James

William James

An idea, to be suggestive, must come to the individual with the force of revelation.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.

Philosopher, William James

William James

We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Is life worth living? It all depends on the liver.

Philosopher, William James

William James

We are doomed to cling to a life even while we find it unendurable.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.

Philosopher, William James

William James

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Belief creates the actual fact.

Philosopher, William James

William James

We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.

Philosopher, William James

William James

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

Philosopher, William James

William James

No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one’s sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one’s character may remain entirely unaffected for the better.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Our esteem for facts has not neutralized in us all religiousness. It is itself almost religious. Our scientific temper is devout.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The god whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.

Philosopher, William James

William James

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Faith means belief in something concerning which doubt is theoretically possible.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

Philosopher, William James

William James

An act has no ethical quality whatever unless it be chosen out of several all equally possible.

Philosopher, William James

William James

One hearty laugh together will bring enemies into a closer communion of heart than hours spent on both sides in inward wrestling with the mental demon of uncharitable feeling.

Philosopher, William James

William James

It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all. And often enough our faith beforehand in an uncertified result is the only thing that makes the result come true.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. In a world where we are so certain to incur them in spite of all our caution, a certain lightness of heart seems healthier than this excessive nervousness on their behalf.

Philosopher, William James

William James

To spend life for something which outlasts it.

Philosopher, William James

William James

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.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

Philosopher, William James

William James

In business for yourself, not by yourself.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Genius… means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

Philosopher, William James

William James

If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

Philosopher, William James

William James

To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

Philosopher, William James

William James

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

Philosopher, William James

William James

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.

Philosopher, William James

William James

To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

Philosopher, William James

William James

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.

Philosopher, William James

William James

Laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

When all the world is overcharged with inhabitants, then the last remedy of all is war, which provideth for every man, by victory or death.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Sudden glory is the passion which maketh those grimaces called laughter.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

The condition of man… is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

The Papacy is not other than the Ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame or blame.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

They that approve a private opinion, call it opinion; but they that dislike it, heresy; and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

There is no such thing as perpetual tranquillity of mind while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without sense.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Such truth, as opposeth no man’s profit, nor pleasure, is to all men welcome.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend him.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

War consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the competition and mutual envy of the living.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Prudence is but experience, which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

A man’s conscience and his judgment is the same thing; and as the judgment, so also the conscience, may be erroneous.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Curiosity is the lust of the mind.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

The flesh endures the storms of the present alone; the mind, those of the past and future as well as the present. Gluttony is a lust of the mind.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Words are the money of fools.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Fear of things invisible in the natural seed of that which everyone in himself calleth religion.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

No man’s error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Leisure is the Mother of Philosophy.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravitation.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

The disembodied spirit is immortal; there is nothing of it that can grow old or die. But the embodied spirit sees death on the horizon as soon as its day dawns.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called ‘Facts’. They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

A man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by force, to take away his life.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

In the state of nature profit is the measure of right.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Man’s unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

For, if a good speaker, never so eloquent, does not see into the fact, and is not speaking the truth of that – is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

I grow daily to honour facts more and more, and theory less and less. A fact, it seems to me, is a great thing; a sentence printed, if not by God, then at least by the Devil.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The true university of these days is a collection of books.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The right of nature… is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his own life.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

The obligation of subjects to the sovereign is understood to last as long, and no longer, than the power lasteth by which he is able to protect them.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

That a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himself.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

It is not wisdom but Authority that makes a law.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

He that is taken and put into prison or chains is not conquered, though overcome; for he is still an enemy.

Philosopher, Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Happy the people whose annals are vacant.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Worship is transcendent wonder.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

History, a distillation of rumour.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together; that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the delight of life, which they are thenceforth to rule.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

A man cannot make a pair of shoes rightly unless he do it in a devout manner.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Good breeding differs, if at all, from high breeding only as it gracefully remembers the rights of others, rather than gracefully insists on its own rights.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune’s inequality exhibits under this sun.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

It is the heart always that sees, before the head can see.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Love is the only game that is not called on account of darkness.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Go as far as you can see; when you get there you’ll be able to see farther.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness, there can be no true joy.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

If you are ever in doubt as to whether to kiss a pretty girl, always give her the benefit of the doubt.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

History shows that the majority of people that have done anything great have passed their youth in seclusion.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

To us also, through every star, through every blade of grass, is not God made visible if we will open our minds and our eyes.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Long stormy spring-time, wet contentious April, winter chilling the lap of very May; but at length the season of summer does come.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

If there be no enemy there’s no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Nothing that was worthy in the past departs; no truth or goodness realized by man ever dies, or can die.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an evil thing is delayed, there is no justice; but only accident here below. Judgment for an evil thing is many times delayed some day or two, some century or two, but it is sure as life, it is sure as death.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Work alone is noble.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Woe to him that claims obedience when it is not due; woe to him that refuses it when it is.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Wonder is the basis of worship.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Endurance is patience concentrated.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The cut of a garment speaks of intellect and talent and the color of temperament and heart.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Thought is the parent of the deed.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Thought once awakened does not again slumber; unfolds itself into a System of Thought; grows, in man after man, generation after generation, – till its full stature is reached, and such System of Thought can grow no farther, but must give place to another.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

When new turns of behavior cease to appear in the life of the individual, its behavior ceases to be intelligent.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

I don’t like to talk much with people who always agree with me. It is amusing to coquette with an echo for a little while, but one soon tires of it.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

All great peoples are conservative.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or NO.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil; for which reason I have long since as good as renounced it.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Science must have originated in the feeling that something was wrong.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Silence is as deep as eternity, speech a shallow as time.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Silence is more eloquent than words.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

If an eloquent speaker speak not the truth, is there a more horrid kind of object in creation?

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

No ghost was every seen by two pair of eyes.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The spiritual is the parent of the practical.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

It were a real increase of human happiness, could all young men from the age of nineteen be covered under barrels, or rendered otherwise invisible; and there left to follow their lawful studies and callings, till they emerged, sadder and wiser, at the age of twenty-five.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

If what you have done is unjust, you have not succeeded.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Love is not altogether a delirium, yet it has many points in common therewith.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Not what I have, but what I do is my kingdom.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The world is a republic of mediocrities, and always was.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

It is a vain hope to make people happy by politics.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Culture is the process by which a person becomes all that they were created capable of being.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The difference between Socrates and Jesus? The great conscious and the immeasurably great unconscious.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The real use of gunpowder is to make all men tall.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

True humor springs not more from the head than from the heart. It is not contempt; its essence is love. It issues not in laughter, but in still smiles, which lie far deeper.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Imagination is a poor matter when it has to part company with understanding.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

It is a strange trade that of advocacy. Your intellect, your highest heavenly gift is hung up in the shop window like a loaded pistol for sale.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

For all right judgment of any man or things it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to a man.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Do the duty which lies nearest to you, the second duty will then become clearer.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Egotism is the source and summary of all faults and miseries.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Let each become all that he was created capable of being.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

No violent extreme endures.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Weak eyes are fondest of glittering objects.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

A person who is gifted sees the essential point and leaves the rest as surplus.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

In every phenomenon the beginning remains always the most notable moment.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Conviction never so excellent, is worthless until it coverts itself into conduct.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, can ever compel the soul of a person to believe or to disbelieve.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Oh, give us the man who sings at his work.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance – the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it; better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The old cathedrals are good, but the great blue dome that hangs over everything is better.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The three great elements of modern civilization, Gun powder, Printing, and the Protestant religion.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Clever men are good, but they are not the best.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The fearful unbelief is unbelief in yourself.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Show me the person you honor, for I know better by that the kind of person you are. For you show me what your idea of humanity is.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Narrative is linear, but action has breadth and depth as well as height and is solid.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The end of man is action, and not thought, though it be of the noblest.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Old age is not a matter for sorrow. It is matter for thanks if we have left our work done behind us.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The outer passes away; the innermost is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

A man lives by believing something: not by debating and arguing about many things.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Show me the man you honor, and I will know what kind of man you are.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with it fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

If you do not wish a man to do a thing, you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Teach a parrot the terms ‘supply and demand’ and you’ve got an economist.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

In books lies the soul of the whole past time.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

I don’t pretend to understand the Universe – it’s a great deal bigger than I am.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by action alone.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Men seldom, or rather never for a length of time and deliberately, rebel against anything that does not deserve rebelling against.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Every noble work is at first impossible.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

All that mankind has done, thought or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Be not a slave of words.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

No person is important enough to make me angry.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

No pressure, no diamonds.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

What you see, but can’t see over is as good as infinite.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

I’ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle. It’s a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Youth is to all the glad season of life; but often only by what it hopes, not by what it attains, or what it escapes.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

A man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Man is, properly speaking, based upon hope, he has no other possession but hope; this world of his is emphatically the place of hope.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Laughter is one of the very privileges of reason, being confined to the human species.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Necessity dispenseth with decorum.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The eye sees what it brings the power to see.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

He who could foresee affairs three days in advance would be rich for thousands of years.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Pray thee, spare, thyself at times: for it becomes a wise man sometimes to relax the high pressure of his attention to work.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists on playful words or deeds. Therefore it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at times.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness; on the confines of the two everlasting empires, necessity and free will.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

No man who has once heartily and wholly laughed can be altogether irreclaimably bad.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, became a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

Philosopher, Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

It is necessary to posit something which is necessary of itself, and has no cause of its necessity outside of itself but is the cause of necessity in other things. And all people call this thing God.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Love is a binding force, by which another is joined to me and cherished by myself.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

The theologian considers sin mainly as an offence against God; the moral philosopher as contrary to reasonableness.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

God should not be called an individual substance, since the principal of individuation is matter.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Love must precede hatred, and nothing is hated save through being contrary to a suitable thing which is loved. And hence it is that every hatred is caused by love.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Because we cannot know what God is, but only what He is not, we cannot consider how He is but only how He is not.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Law is nothing other than a certain ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by the person who has the care of the community.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

The knowledge of God is the cause of things. For the knowledge of God is to all creatures what the knowledge of the artificer is to things made by his art.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Whatever is received is received according to the nature of the recipient.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

It is possible to demonstrate God’s existence, although not a priori, yet a posteriori from some work of His more surely known to us.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

We can’t have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

If, then, you are looking for the way by which you should go, take Christ, because He Himself is the way.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

There is but one Church in which men find salvation, just as outside the ark of Noah it was not possible for anyone to be saved.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Three conditions are necessary for Penance: contrition, which is sorrow for sin, together with a purpose of amendment; confession of sins without any omission; and satisfaction by means of good works.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Wonder is the desire for knowledge.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope with things that are not at hand.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Because of the diverse conditions of humans, it happens that some acts are virtuous to some people, as appropriate and suitable to them, while the same acts are immoral for others, as inappropriate to them.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Moral science is better occupied when treating of friendship than of justice.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

How is it they live in such harmony the billions of stars – when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds about someone they know.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active power.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

To live well is to work well, to show a good activity.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work he produces.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

If forgers and malefactors are put to death by the secular power, there is much more reason for excommunicating and even putting to death one convicted of heresy.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Law; an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Man should not consider his material possession his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said has its origin in the Spirit.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Human salvation demands the divine disclosure of truths surpassing reason.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Reason in man is rather like God in the world.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

The things that we love tell us what we are.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

The truth of our faith becomes a matter of ridicule among the infidels if any Catholic, not gifted with the necessary scientific learning, presents as dogma what scientific scrutiny shows to be false.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

In order for a war to be just, three things are necessary. First, the authority of the sovereign. Secondly, a just cause. Thirdly, a rightful intention.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

How can we live in harmony? First we need to know we are all madly in love with the same God.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Beware of the person of one book.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Well-ordered self-love is right and natural.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

To convert somebody go and take them by the hand and guide them.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Happiness is secured through virtue; it is a good attained by man’s own will.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.

Philosopher, Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Because of its tremendous solemnity death is the light in which great passions, both good and bad, become transparent, no longer limited by outward appearences.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Since my earliest childhood a barb of sorrow has lodged in my heart. As long as it stays I am ironic if it is pulled out I shall die.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

The more a man can forget, the greater the number of metamorphoses which his life can undergo; the more he can remember, the more divine his life becomes.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Marriage brings one into fatal connection with custom and tradition, and traditions and customs are like the wind and weather, altogether incalculable.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

There are, as is known, insects that die in the moment of fertilization. So it is with all joy: life’s highest, most splendid moment of enjoyment is accompanied by death.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

The truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught. You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Personality is only ripe when a man has made the truth his own.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Love is all, it gives all, and it takes all.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Be that self which one truly is.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Purity of heart is to will one thing.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence and they think they have seen something.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Concepts, like individuals, have their histories and are just as incapable of withstanding the ravages of time as are individuals. But in and through all this they retain a kind of homesickness for the scenes of their childhood.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Not just in commerce but in the world of ideas too our age is putting on a veritable clearance sale. Everything can be had so dirt cheap that one begins to wonder whether in the end anyone will want to make a bid.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

The paradox is really the pathos of intellectual life and just as only great souls are exposed to passions it is only the great thinker who is exposed to what I call paradoxes, which are nothing else than grandiose thoughts in embryo.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Once you label me you negate me.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

I begin with the principle that all men are bores. Surely no one will prove himself so great a bore as to contradict me in this.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Patience is necessary, and one cannot reap immediately where one has sown.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

It seems essential, in relationships and all tasks, that we concentrate only on what is most significant and important.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations – one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it – you will regret both.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth – look at the dying man’s struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Old age realizes the dreams of youth: look at Dean Swift; in his youth he built an asylum for the insane, in his old age he was himself an inmate.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Boredom is the root of all evil – the despairing refusal to be oneself.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

How absurd men are! They never use the liberties they have, they demand those they do not have. They have freedom of thought, they demand freedom of speech.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

It was completely fruitless to quarrel with the world, whereas the quarrel with oneself was occasionally fruitful and always, she had to admit, interesting.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

One can advise comfortably from a safe port.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

During the first period of a man’s life the greatest danger is not to take the risk.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Since boredom advances and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Don’t forget to love yourself.

Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

The poets are only the interpreters of the gods.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

It is not living that matters, but living rightly.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Be as you wish to seem.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Wisdom begins in wonder.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

All men’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

An honest man is always a child.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.

Philosopher, Socrates

Socrates

Through Love all that is bitter will be sweet, Through Love all that is copper will be gold, Through Love all dregs will become wine, through Love all pain will turn to medicine.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

What shall I say, O Muslims, I know not myself, I am neither a Christian, nor a Jew, nor a Zoroastrian, nor a Muslim.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

I am neither of the East nor of the West, no boundaries exist within my breast.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground; there are a thousand ways to go home again.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

Water, stories, the body, all the things we do, are mediums that hid and show what’s hidden.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

The moment I first heard love I gave up my soul, my heart, and my eyes.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

Listen! Clam up your mouth and be silent like an oyster shell, for that tongue of yours is the enemy of the soul, my friend. When the lips are silent, the heart has a hundred tongues.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

However much I might try to expound or explain Love, when I come to Love itself, I am ashamed of my explanations… Love alone can explain the mysteries of love and lovers.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

Your depression is connected to your insolence and refusal to praise.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

When I die, I shall soar with angels, and when I die to the angels, what I shall become you cannot imagine.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

That which is false troubles the heart, but truth brings joyous tranquillity.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

Love will find its way through all languages on its own.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open through everything, your pain can become your greatest ally in your life’s search for love and wisdom.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

May this marriage be full of laughter, our every day in paradise.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

Beg of God the removal of envy, that God may deliver you from externals, and bestow upon you an inward occupation, which will absorb you so that your attention is not drawn away.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

I have no companion but Love, no beginning, no end, no dawn. The Soul calls from within me: ‘You, ignorant of the way of Love, set Me free.’

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

We are born of love; Love is our mother.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

The way the Beloved can fit in my heart, two thousand lives could fit in this body of mine. One kernel could contain a thousand bushels, and a hundred worlds pass through the eye of the needle.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

You left and I cried tears of blood. My sorrow grows. Its not just that You left. But when You left my eyes went with You. Now, how will I cry?

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

The garden of love is green without limit and yields many fruits other than sorrow or joy. Love is beyond either condition: without spring, without autumn, it is always fresh.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

Plant the love of the holy ones within your spirit; don’t give your heart to anything, but the love of those whose hearts are glad.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi

Sunlight fell upon the wall; the wall received a borrowed splendor. Why set your heart on a piece of earth, O simple one? Seek out the source which shines forever.

Philosopher, Rumi

Rumi