Philosophy Quotes

Questions about meaning, existence, and truth from thinkers who spent their lives searching for answers.

43879 quotes

W
"Family resemblance holds many philosophical problems at bay."
Wittgenstein, Richard
W
"When we do philosophy, we are like a child who wants to ask about the sky being held up."
Wittgenstein, Richard
W
"The correct method in philosophy would really be the following: to say nothing except what can be said."
Wittgenstein, Richard
W
"What we cannot think, we cannot think; therefore we also cannot say what we cannot think."
Wittgenstein, Richard
P
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity."
Perry, John
P
"All that we are is the result of what we have thought."
Perry, John
C
"The study of language reveals fundamental truths about human nature."
Chomsky, Noam
C
"Complexity of language mirrors complexity of thought."
Chomsky, Noam
C
"Social institutions shape individual consciousness more than we typically admit."
Chomsky, Noam
C
"Understanding grammar helps illuminate the architecture of thought itself."
Chomsky, Noam
C
"Systems persist because they become naturalized, appearing inevitable and unchangeable."
Chomsky, Noam
B
"Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language."
Burge, Tyler
K
"Language shapes reality; without words, certain thoughts remain imprisoned in the unconscious."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"The mind constructs reality through categorical frameworks we inherit from culture and reason."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"Every object carries a cloud of semantic properties beyond its physical form."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"The semanticist asks not 'what is it?' but 'what does it mean?'"
Katz, Jerrold
K
"Culture provides the dictionary through which we interpret experience."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"Philosophers are linguists of the soul, studying how we speak our deepest truths."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"Every theory of meaning must account for both clarity and ambiguity."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"Categories are human inventions, yet they reveal something true about reality."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"Every question contains hidden assumptions that careful language can expose."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"The semanticist seeks not final answers but clearer questions."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"To be rational is to be consistent; consistency requires clarity about meanings."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"Every statement about the world is also a statement about our way of understanding it."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"Words are both windows on reality and mirrors reflecting the mind that uses them."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"Every scientific theory is ultimately a way of talking about the world."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"The semantic content of a thought is not found in the brain but in the world it refers to."
Katz, Jerrold
K
"Clarity in thought begins with clarity about the meanings of our fundamental terms."
Katz, Jerrold
M
"We are not isolated minds floating in a void."
Millikan, Ruth Garrett
M
"The world is not composed of bare facts."
Millikan, Ruth Garrett