PHILOSOPHY
Kindness in thought leads to wisdom. Kindness in speech leads to eloquence. Kindness in action leads to love.
-Lao-Tsu
To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do for those who study it.
-Bertrand Russell
Shall I tell you what philosophy holds out to humanity? Counsel!
-Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
-Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Empty is the argument of any philosopher who doesn't relieve any human suffering.
-Epicurus
Anyone can become angry—that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way—this is not easy.
-Aristotle
The unexamined life is not worth living...Know thyself.
-Socrates
Carpenters fashion wood; fletchers fashion arrows; the wise fashion themselves.
-Buddha
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
-Anais Nin
To do philosophy is to explore one's own temperament, yet at the same time to attempt to discover truth.
-Iris Murdoch
To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school...It is to solve some of the problems of life, not theoretically, but practically.
-Henry David Thoreau
At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know
what you want.
-Lao-tzu
First say to yourself what you would be; then do what you have to do.
-Epictetus
How could you reach the pearl by only looking at the sea? If you seek the pearl, be a diver: The diver needs several qualities: He must trust his rope and his life to the Friend's hand, he must stop breathing, and he must jump.
-Rumi
At fifteen, I set my heart upon learning. At thirty, I had planted my feet upon the ground. At forty, I no longer suffered from perplexities. At fifty, I knew what were the biddings of Heaven. At sixty, I heard them with a docile ear. At seventy, I could follow the dictates of my own heart; for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right.
-Confucius
Ancient philosophy proposed to mankind an art of living. By contrast, modern
philosophy appears above all as the construction of a technical jargon reserved for specialists.
-Pierre Hadot
One doesn't need any experience in philosophy, nor read any philosophy text (unless you want to) - all that's needed is a philosophical turn of mind - a willingness to explore. In one way or another, we are all our own philosophers, if we take the time to develop it rather than making it up as we go.
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
-Andre Gide
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer.-Edward R. Murrow
You can't wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.-Navajo Proverb
You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.
Tell me, and I will forget; show me, and I may remember; involve me, and I will understand.
-Chinese Proverb
Only the shallow know themselves.
-Oscar Wilde
There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.
-Richard Back
There are two ways of spreading light: To be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
-Edith Wharton
Wisdom is knowing what path to take next...integrity is taking it.
Adversity does not build character...it reveals it.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
-Arthur Schopenhauer
The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.
-John Kenneth Galbraith
Each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand mediocre minds appointed to guard the past.
-Maurice Maeterlink
If you want to truly understand something, try to change it.
-Kurt Lewin
They know the deepest sorrow who have known the dearest joy.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.
-Frank Leahy
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
-George Bernard Shaw
Sow a thought and you reap an action.
Sow an act and you reap a habit.
Sow a habit and you reap a character.
Sow a character and you reap a destiny.
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hate so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
-James Baldwin
Fear leads to anger
Anger leads to hate
Hate leads to war-
Do not fear
-Yoda, "Return of the Jedi"
The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
The tongue weights practically nothing, but so few people can hold it.
Beautiful young people are acts of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.
The truth is simple, if it were complicated, more people would understand it.
Who you are screams so loudly into my ears that I cannot hear what you say.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Believeing everybody is dangerous; believing nobody is very dangerous.-Abraham Lincoln
Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
-John Wooden
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present!
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.
-Eleanor Roosevelt
Anger is one letter short of danger.
True courage is a result of reasoning.
-Jeremy Collier
Courage is doing what you’re afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you’re scared.
-Eddie Rickenbacker
It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.
-Judith Martin (Miss Manners)
How much is there left in you after you have lost everything outside of yourself?
-Orison Swett Marden
Art is I. Science is we.
-Claude Bernard
Ignore what a man desires and you ignore the very source of his power.
-Walter Lippmann
The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.
-Mark Twain
Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand.
Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
-Oliver Wendal Holmes
You get treated in life the way you train people to treat you.
We fear the thing we want the most.
Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.
-George Santayana
To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.
If someone betrays you once, it’s his fault; if he betrays you twice, it’s your fault.
Small minds discuss people; average minds discuss events; great minds discuss ideas.
Nagging is the repetition of unpalatable truths.
-Linda Ellerbee
You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.
-Erica Jong
We live in a world of problems which can no longer be solved by the level of thinking that created them.
-Albert Einstein
If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.-Horace Mann
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
-Leo Tolstoy
The keynote of progress is not merely doing away with what is bad, it is replacing the best with something better.
-Edward A. Filene
You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.
-Phil McGraw
Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.
The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.
-William James
