Your Favorite Philosopher's Quote

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Wise I would not call them, for that name is too great and belongs to God alone. Lovers of Wisdom–or philosophers–is a more befitting title.

–Socrates (Phaedrus)
 
I have many many favorite quotes from many philosophers, but the one that sticks out in my mind at the moment is from Cicero:anyone who has a library and a garden wants for nothing.
 
Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.
– St Thomas Aquinas
 
From Chesterton:
*
Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.*
 
‘When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.’
-Erasmus
 
Two more great ones from G.K.

“It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged.” :eek:

“Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honor should decline.” 😉
 
Another Pascal quote:

“The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.” (Pensees

Two G.K. Chesterton quotes:

“If there were no God, there would be no atheists.”

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, there is music and laughter and good red wine.”

And something I picked up from somewhere (sorry I don’t have a reference):

“Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil – it has not point.”
 
Saint Thomas Aquinas is my favourite philosopher. But my favourite quote is from Edmund Burke, who said, “Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.”
Do you have a source for the Burke quote? Bill Safire, the NY Times language maven, says Burke never uttered or wrote this phrase. It is in some books of quotations, but I have never found it in Burke’s writings, though I admit that while I have read some Burke, I have not read the entire corpus.
 
Burke’s famous quote is supposedly from a letter to William Smith, dated January 9, 1795.

At any rate, that is the source given by George Seldes, a compiler of great quotations.

If you can access Burke’s letters, you may be able to confirm that.

Good luck! 👍
 
Here’s from our two most recent Popes:

Pope Benedict XVI (as Cardinal Ratzinger):

“Love without Truth is blind;
Truth without Love is empty.”

Pope John Paul II:

“From now on, it is only through a conscious choice and deliberate policy that humanity can survive.”
 
One from a philosopher and two others that seem to fit this thread.

“The owl of Minerva, takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering”—Hegel (Preface to the Philosophy of Right)

“There is always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible and wrong.”
–H. L. Mencken, “The Divine Afflatus” in A Mencken Chrestomathy

“Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.” --Ambrose Bierce The Devil’s Dictionary
 
Please, all join in: Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists, etc.

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.”
My favorite quote from a philosopher, Herman Svaitz, " You miss with the bull, you get the horn."
 
Burke’s famous quote is supposedly from a letter to William Smith, dated January 9, 1795.

At any rate, that is the source given by George Seldes, a compiler of great quotations.

If you can access Burke’s letters, you may be able to confirm that.

Good luck! 👍
Thanks much! I will check it out.
 
“There are things I cant do…there are things I can do…and there are things I simply won’t do!”…Theodore Roosevelt this has been my guiding light these many years…Pas
 
Karl Marx, as he was dying, was supposedly asked by his housekeeper if he had any last words. His reply? “Get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough already!”

Very apposite given the amount of impact what he DID say has had on the world - imagine if he’d lived to write further, as he planned to!
 
PoliSciProf

There is an interesting discussion of the Burke quote. It appears to have been a paraphrase of something he said. Burke was not the best of writers, and someone may have done him a favor by re-phrasing it?

The actual source may not be a letter to William smith, but actually this:

‘Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents’, on April 23, 1770: ‘When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.’

tartarus.org/~martin/essays/burkequote2.html
 
Blessed Mother Teresa - Would hate being called a philosopher

“God doesn’t require us to succeed; he only requires that you try”

“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.”

“We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing.”

“Spread love everywhere you go: First of all in your own house… let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness.”

“Words which do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.”
 
Not sure who to attribute it to but I like this one:

“Abuse of the good does not negate the good of the good.”

How many people want to throw the baby out with the bathwater just because there are people who abuse something that was designed to be helpful.
 
“One swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.” - Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics

“Poetry demands a man with a special gift for it, or else one with a touch of madness in him.” - Aristotle’s Poetics

“I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.” - Attributed to Aristotle by Diogenes Laeritus

“No evil can happen to a good man, neither in life nor after death.” - Socrates

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” - Socrates

“The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways — I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.” - Socrates

“God is not the author of all things, but of good only.” - Plato

I mean…I haven’t studied ancient Greek philosophy one bit…
 
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