Philosophy Quotes

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

43879 quotes

A
"Identity is something you become, not something you are born with."
Austin Clarke
A
"Philosophy begins with questions, not answers."
Austin Clarke
F
"I feel, therefore I am, but I don't know what I am."
Fernando Pessoa
F
"I think, therefore I am confused."
Fernando Pessoa
F
"I am many people; forgive me if I contradict myself."
Fernando Pessoa
F
"The soul is a guest in the body, never the owner."
Fernando Pessoa
F
"The universe is indifferent to our meaning-making."
Fernando Pessoa
J
"We are all actors performing on the stage of existence, never quite sure of our lines."
John Banville
J
"The self is not a fixed thing but a story we keep revising as we live."
John Banville
J
"The world is a great theater, and we are all merely actors in a play we did not write."
José María de Eça de Queirós
J
"We are all condemned to repeat the same mistakes of our ancestors."
José María de Eça de Queirós
J
"Men build civilization to hide their true nature from themselves."
José María de Eça de Queirós
J
"The modern world is a museum of forgotten virtues and abandoned principles."
José María de Eça de Queirós
J
"We are all actors, and the world is our stage of careful deceptions."
José María de Eça de Queirós
J
"The soul of a man is revealed not in his words, but in his silences."
José María de Eça de Queirós
J
"We are slaves to our passions and call it freedom."
José María de Eça de Queirós
J
"Every person contains multitudes; we are all contradictions."
José María de Eça de Queirós
P
"The heart of man is a mystery that no science can fully solve."
Padraig Colum
S
"We can distinguish the trees, and the leaves on the trees, and the veins on the leaves, but we cannot see the forest, we are inside the forest."
Saramago
S
"The human being is a complex creature capable of both great kindness and unspeakable cruelty."
Saramago
S
"We are all fragments of larger stories we will never fully comprehend."
Saramago
L
"The philosopher questions everything; the fool questions nothing."
Luís de Camões
"Philosophy is the art of being confused at a higher level"
Patrick Kavanagh
F
"Everything that is not thought is nothing more than silence."
Fernando Pessoa
F
"I think, therefore I doubt, and in doubt I am truly myself."
Fernando Pessoa
F
"I am my own universe; everyone else is merely visiting."
Fernando Pessoa
F
"To be modern is to be constantly uncertain."
Fernando Pessoa
J
"We are all actors on the stage of life, playing parts we barely understand."
John Banville
J
"The mind is a labyrinth of its own making."
John Banville
J
"The world is text, and we are its readers and writers."
John Banville