Quotes about Philosophy

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.

I want to die, even though I don't have to.

It is much better to die of hunger unhindered by grief and fear than to live affluently beset with worry, dread, suspicion and unchecked desire.

Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents.

Philosophy does not claim to secure for us anything outside our control. Otherwise it would be taking on matters that do not concern it. For as wood is the material of the carpenter, and marble that of the sculptor, so the subject matter of the art of life is the life of the self.

Never say of anything that I've lost it, only that Ive given it back.

greatness of reason is measured not by height or length, but by the quality of its judgements.

Man, the rational animal, can put up with anything except what seems to him irrational; whatever is rational is tolerable.

Taking account of the value of externals, you see, comes at some cost to the value of one's own character.

Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions.

Seeing that our birth involves the blending of these two things—the body, on the one hand, that we share with animals, and, on the other hand, rationality and intelligence, that we share with the gods—most of us incline to this former relationship, wretched and dead though it is, while only a few to the one that is divine and blessed.

Content yourself with being a lover of wisdom, a seeker of the truth. Return and return again to what is essential and worthy. Do not try to seem wise to others. If you want to live a wise life, live it on your own terms and in your own eyes.