Philosophy Quotes

"The human being is the only creature that can ask 'why?'—and this is both our glory and our burden."

"The common good is not the sum of individual goods, but something higher."

"We are more responsible for our habitual actions than we often realize."

"The problem of evil cannot be solved by denying its existence."

"We are the authors of our choices, and thus the authors of our character."

"We cannot be fully human if we deny our nature as creatures capable of knowing and loving."

"Human beings are made for something higher than mere pleasure."

"Philosophy is the art of asking better questions, not necessarily finding better answers."

"Philosophy teaches us that our certainties are often the most unexamined of our beliefs."

"The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it."

"Either philosophy is practical, or else it is nonsense."

"The virtues are not just a matter of following rules, but of developing character through practice and habit."

"Natural virtues differ from moral virtues in that moral virtues require practical wisdom."

"Modern moral philosophy has lost sight of the importance of developing virtuous habits."

"We must distinguish between acting morally and being a moral person."

"The virtues form an interconnected whole rather than isolated traits."

"The question 'how should I live?' is more fundamental than 'what should I do?'"

"Human flourishing involves the exercise of our distinctive rational capacities."

"The virtues are unified in the sense that you cannot truly possess one without the others."

"The concepts of virtue and vice make sense only within a framework of human nature."

"The virtues are not luxuries for the morally refined but necessities for human life."

"Moral disagreements often reflect different understandings of human flourishing."

"The question of how to live well cannot be answered by moral rules alone."

"The virtuous person has integrated their feelings and their reasoning into a unified character."

"The concepts of duty and virtue capture different important aspects of morality."

"The meaning of a word is its use in the language."

"Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language."

"The world is everything that is the case."

"We cannot think of anything so strange that it has not been said by one philosopher or another."

"Logical impossibility is not the same as factual impossibility."