Your Favorite Philosopher's Quote

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My favorite philosopher is Thomas Aquinas. This is by far my favorite quote from him, uttered near the time of his death as he was on his way to Rome to be examined for his views.

“You have I preached; You have I taught; never have I said anything against You. If anything was not well said, that is to be attributed to my ignorance. Neither do I wish to be obstinate in my opinions, but if I have written anything erroneous … I submit all to the judgment and correction of the Holy Roman Church, in whose obedience I now pass from this life.”
 
Well, I’m not sure I have a lasting favorite. However, the flavor of the week, for me, is John Stuart Mill, from On Liberty, chap. 2:

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

Regarding Aquinas, that is indeed a remarkable quote. Thanks for sharing!
 
Of the Greek philosophers of the 5th century BC, who rejected wealth and possessions in favour of simple virtues and a life in harmony with nature. Most prominent amongst them was Diogenes, the son of a banker, who famously lived in a barrel, ate raw meat and railed against the polite society of his time. There is a story that Diogenes, (nick-named simply ‘the dog’), became so famous that Alexander the Great no less came to Athens to meet this other great man. As he stood before the barrel Alexander’s shadow fell across him and, so the story goes, all Diogenes’ would say was ‘would you move aside, you’re standing in my light’.
 
hatsoff

I don’t think you could have picked a better one from Mill. 👍

As an atheist you may be interested to know what John Henry Newman, a contemporary of Mill, predicted. Must have turned a few Victorian heads.

“Outside the Catholic Church things are tending, – with far greater rapidity than in that old time from the circumstance of the age, – to atheism in one shape or another. What a scene, what a prospect, does the whole of Europe present at this day!”
 
Thing

‘would you move aside, you’re standing in my light’.

Do you suppose Alexander moved? 😉
 
Saint Thomas Aquinas is my favourite philosopher. But my favourite quote is from Edmund Burke, who said, “Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.”
 
My favorite philosopher, Cicero, gave two of my favorite quotes. The first one I’m going to paraphrase:

Our Republic is like an ancient painting, where the colors and lines have faded to such a point that only the general forms can be discerned. (from The Republic – * de re Publica* – arguing that the “colors and lines”, the original constitutional foundation of the Roman Republic, had to be restored or the Republic would be lost forever)

and:

“There is nothing so ridiculous, that a philosopher hasn’t said it.” 😛
 
“There is nothing so ridiculous, that a philosopher hasn’t said it.” :rotfl:
 
Penser fait la grandeur de l’homme - Pascal

(Thinking makes man great.)
 
I have several, actually!

“Love the sinner and hate the sin”-St. Augustine

“Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are unsure that we are doubly sure”-Reinhold Niebhur.

and one of all my all time favorites, quoted in The Republic,

“As for me, all I know is that I know nothing”-Socrates
 
I don’t really have a favorite philosopher, but my favorite Aquinas quote is about why he stopped working on the Summa:
He stopped work on it after celebrating Mass on December 6, 1273. When asked why he stopped writing, he replied, “I cannot go on… All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.” He died March 7, 1274.
Click to expand...
americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1274

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I beleive that is was Hawkeye Pierce that said it best when he said:

"All things considered, I’d rather have a full bottle in front of me, then a full frontal lobotomy".

May the Good Lord Bless You All

NOT JUST STRONG…CATHOLIC STRONG!!!****
 
Another from Pascal:

*If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles! *
 
“I drank what?”

–Socrates

Okay, maybe he didn’t say that one.
How about…?

“Turn me over…I’m done on this side.”

–St. Lawrence, patron saint of cooks…and comedians.
 
Not really my “favorite” philosophers, but:

Was vernuenftig ist, das ist wirklich; und was wirklich ist, das ist vernuenftig.
(What is rational, that is actual; and what is actual, that is rational.)
-Hegel

Some things I have said of which I am not altogether confident. But that we shall be better and braver and less helpless if we think that we ought to inquire, than we should have been if we thought that there was no knowing and no duty to seek to know what we do not know; - that is a belief for which I am ready to fight, in word and deed, to the utmost of my power.
-Socrates in Plato’s Meno

Also: What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul?
(I can’t remember who said this.)
 
What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his own soul?

Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 8 I think.
 
A good topic for my first post…

Sorry, can’t post just one.

“The issue now is clear. It is between light and darkness and everyone must choose his side.” G.K. Chesterton

“The idea which…shuts out the Second Coming from our minds, the idea of the world slowly ripening to perfection, is a myth, not a generalization from experience.” C.S. Lewis
 
A good topic for my first post…

Welcome to the club. Enjoy your stay! 👍
 
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