Philosophy Quotes

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

43879 quotes

L
"Each substance contains within itself the entire universe."
Leibniz, Gottfried
L
"The universe operates according to pre-established harmony."
Leibniz, Gottfried
L
"Every person possesses infinite worth and dignity."
Leibniz, Gottfried
L
"The mind creates reality through perception."
Leibniz, Gottfried
H
"The true skeptic will be diffident of his philosophical doubts as well as of his philosophical convictions."
Hume, David
H
"I am nothing but a bundle of perceptions."
Hume, David
H
"The prevalence of the mechanical philosophy came later, but by the time of Hume it had become the dominant intellectual force."
Hume, David
H
"I never asserted so absurd an opinion as that anything might arise without a cause."
Hume, David
H
"The mind, when it turns its view inward, perceives nothing but its own perceptions."
Hume, David
H
"The errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous."
Hume, David
H
"There is a natural progression from ignorance to superstition to philosophy."
Hume, David
H
"The mind is a kind of theater where perceptions make their appearance in continual flux and movement."
Hume, David
D
"I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind."
Descartes, René
D
"One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another."
Descartes, René
D
"I am thinking, therefore I exist."
Descartes, René
D
"There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not said it."
Descartes, René
D
"The mind creates a narrative to explain its perceptions."
Descartes, René
D
"Each thought is a journey."
Descartes, René
D
"The mind is everything; what you think is what you become."
Descartes, René
L
"I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts."
Locke, John
L
"There cannot any one moral rule be proposed whereof a man may not justly demand a reason."
Locke, John
L
"Our business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct."
Locke, John
L
"The object of all knowledge is truth and peace."
Locke, John
L
"Men are not born with the idea of God in their minds."
Locke, John
A
"Philosophy without practice is like a beautiful garden without fruit."
Al-Ghazali
A
"The philosopher seeks truth; the wise person applies it."
Al-Ghazali
A
"The observer and the observed are never truly separate."
Avicenna
A
"The body is the instrument through which the soul experiences the world."
Avicenna
A
"Every action has consequences that ripple through time in ways we cannot foresee."
Avicenna
A
"The mind is a mirror; it reflects the clarity or confusion of the soul."
Avicenna