Philosophy Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old philosophy quotes, philosophy sayings, and philosophy proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know. Lao Tzu
I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think. Socrates
Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, "Is life a multiple choice test or is it a true or false test? ...Then a voice comes to me out of the dark and says, "We hate to tell you this but life is a thousand word essay." Charles Schulz
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, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged. Abraham Lincoln
Be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy be still a man. David Hume
There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy. Friedrich Nietzsche
We have to make philosophy itself an object of philosophical concern. Wilhelm Dilthey
Philosophy is the art of living. Plutarch
Philosophy is reason with the eyes of the soul. Sims
Philosophy goes no further than probabilities, and in every assertion keeps a doubt in reserve. James Froude
Philosophy's work is finding the shortest path between two points. Kahlil Gibran
Whence? Whither? Why? How? These questions cover all philosophy. Joseph Joubert
Truth is the object of philosophy, but not always of philosophers. John Collins
The gold of the philosophers with which the wise are enriched is not that gold which is coined. Theophrastus Paracelsus
The people who are not interested in philosophy need it most urgently; they are most helplessly in its power. Ayn Rand
The chief intellectual characteristic of the present age is its despair of any constructive philosophy. John Dewey
It is the bounty of nature that we live, but of philosophy, that we live well; which is, in truth, a greater benefit than life itself. Seneca
To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one's self to die. Cicero
All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain. Epictetus
The maxim 'Think for yourself,' is basic; but the further maxim, 'Think socially,' must be added if philosophy is to do its whole duty. Edgar Brightman
All the persecutors declare against each other mortal war, while the philosopher, oppressed by them all, contents himself with pitying them. Voltaire
The discovery of what is true, and the practice of that which is good, are the two most important objects of philosophy. Voltaire
When Aristotle was asked what he gained from philosophy, he answered, 'To do without being commanded what others do from fear of the laws.' Diogenes
What is your aim in philosophy? - To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle. Ludwig Wittgenstein
What is rational is actual and what is actual is rational. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
History is philosophy from examples. Dionysius of Halicarnassus
New philosophy calls all in doubt. John Donne
Do not all charms fly / At the mere touch of cold philosophy? John Keats
It is a great advantage for a system of philosophy to be substantially true. George Santayana
Philosophy: unintelligible answers to insoluble problems. Henry Brooks Adams