Philosophy quotes — Page 3

Tao Teh King, Chapter 15, James Legge translation, Project Gutenberg #216. The next sentence asks how the condition of rest is secured and answers through the gradual relation between movement and rest; the passage belongs to Taoist philosophy, not a clinical relaxation technique.

Tao Teh King, Chapter 71, James Legge translation, Project Gutenberg #216.

Tao Teh King, chapter 33, James Legge translation; the chapter continues by connecting contentment with richness and steadfastness with will.

My Confession, Leo Wiener translation; the question appears in Tolstoy’s investigation of how finite human life might be related to an infinite reality.

My Confession, Leo Wiener translation; the sentence belongs to Tolstoy’s account of accepting a meaning of life he believed was demonstrated in the lives of the people he had studied.

What Is Man?, Old Man speaking in the opening dialogue. This collection treats the sentence as a provocative deterministic position inside the dialogue, not as settled psychology.

What Is Man?, Part I, “a. Man the Machine. b. Personal Merit,” Project Gutenberg #70. The Old Man says “You and I are but sewing-machines” immediately after contrasting Shakespeare with a Gobelin loom and before insisting that people merely turn out what their inherited and external influences permit. This remains Twain’s comic-philosophical deterministic dialogue, not settled psychology or neuroscience.

What Is Man?, opening machine-and-metal analogy; the Old Man uses iron and gold to argue for limits within his deterministic model of human development.

A Vindication of the Rights of Men, opening letter to Edmund Burke, second edition (1790); this sentence follows Wollstonecraft’s refusal to disguise her sentiments behind courtly politeness.

Essays of Montaigne, Book I, Chapter XXIII, ‘Various Events from the Same Counsel,’ Charles Cotton translation edited by William Carew Hazlitt (1877); Project Gutenberg Volume 04 #3584 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne argues that excessive security-minded distrust can destroy the courage required for noble action; the reviewed direct evidence is the matching Wikisource chapter transcription.

Essays of Montaigne, Book I, Chapter XXXI, ‘That a Man Is Soberly to Judge of the Divine Ordinances,’ Charles Cotton translation edited by William Carew Hazlitt (1877); Project Gutenberg Volume 06 #3586 / Complete Essays #3600. The sentence appears in Montaigne’s skeptical warning about confidence concerning unknown things and speculative claims about divine purposes.

Essays of Montaigne, Book I, Chapter XXV, ‘Of the Education of Children,’ Charles Cotton translation edited by William Carew Hazlitt (1877); Project Gutenberg Volume 05 #3585 / Complete Essays #3600. The cheerfulness sentence belongs to Montaigne’s account of philosophy as forming a serene, active way of life rather than a gloomy scholastic display.

Essays of Montaigne, Book II, Chapter VI, “Use Makes Perfect,” Charles Cotton translation, W. C. Hazlitt 1877 edition, Project Gutenberg #3600. “My trade and art is to live” occurs while Montaigne defends speaking from his own sense, experience and practice. It remains early-modern autobiographical essay and moral reflection rather than modern therapeutic or behavioral-science evidence.

Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Chapter II, “Of Repentance,” Charles Cotton translation; Project Gutenberg Volume 14 #3594 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne distinguishes reporting a changing particular self from constructing an ideal model of humanity.

Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Chapter II, “Of Repentance,” Charles Cotton translation; Project Gutenberg Volume 14 #3594 / Complete Essays #3600. The surrounding passage treats fidelity and increasingly candid self-report as part of the Essays’ project.

The House of the Seven Gables, Project Gutenberg #77. This is Gothic literary narration surrounding Clifford’s long history of confinement and inner suffering; the metaphor is not a clinical account of mental illness.

Architects of Fate; Project Gutenberg #21622. The sentence occurs in a passage criticizing narrow material measures of a life.

The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I; Algernon Moncrieff. Exact catalog wording is preserved in the scan-backed Samuel French acting text on Wikisource, scan leaf 14 / printed page 12. The acting-text witness is abridged elsewhere, so this record is bound only to its independently verified page.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890 Lippincott magazine text, Chapter 2; Lord Henry states the temptation paradox while influencing Dorian in Basil Hallward’s garden.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890 Lippincott magazine text, Chapter 2; Lord Henry praises Dorian’s beauty and youth.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 edition, Chapter 17; Lord Henry answers the Duchess of Monmouth’s question “What are you?” with “To define is to limit.”

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 edition, Preface; the final aphorism of Wilde’s aesthetic manifesto.

Elements of Morals, Chapter XIV, section 165, printed page 296, Caroline Rollin Corson’s 1884 English translation, Project Gutenberg #37016. “Remember that thou art a man and do not degrade thyself: this is self-respect” appears in the same paragraph as Janet’s paired reminder against vain pride, making self-respect and humility complementary parts of his moral argument rather than generic affirmation copy.

Elements of Morals, Chapter XIV, section 165, printed page 296, Caroline Rollin Corson’s 1884 English translation, Project Gutenberg #37016. Janet distinguishes humility from abasement: humility arises from recognition of human weakness, but lowering oneself is not itself a virtue. The passage belongs to nineteenth-century systematic moral philosophy rather than modern clinical self-esteem guidance.

Final Causes, Book I, Chapter I, “The Principle,” opening sentence, William Affleck translation (1878). The represented public-domain scan prints the sentence on p. 17 after Robert Flint’s prefatory matter. Janet begins by denying that finality functions as an automatic a priori principle like causality; this remains nineteenth-century philosophical teleology rather than current scientific consensus.

A Defence of Poetry, written in 1821 and first published posthumously in 1840. The represented wording is verified in Project Gutenberg #5428 and the standalone Wikisource transcription; the immediately preceding sentences define moral imagination through identification with other people rather than through fantasy alone.

Plato, Apology, Benjamin Jowett translation, Project Gutenberg #1656. Socrates says this after examining a politician whom others considered wise; the wording is dialogue speech attributed to Socrates within Plato’s work, not a claim that Socrates knew literally nothing.

Apology 38a; wording varies by translation.

Apology, final paragraph in Jowett’s translation; Socrates closes after the jury has sentenced him to death.

Crito, Benjamin Jowett translation; Socrates is testing the moral premises that will govern his decision about escaping prison.

Plato, Crito, approximately 48b, Socrates speaking with Crito in prison; Benjamin Jowett public-domain English, Gutenberg #1657. The conditional question occurs in the dramatic text after a discussion of justice, public opinion and fear of execution. Socrates is the dramatic speaker; it is not a recorded autobiographical quotation by Plato.

Laches, roughly Stephanus 192b–c, Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1584. Laches answers Socrates’s attempt to define courage beyond battlefield conduct; Socrates then challenges whether foolish endurance can count as courageous. The local dramatic speaker is Laches, not Socrates or Plato himself. This is a contested proposal inside an unresolved inquiry, not Plato’s stand-alone creed.

Plato, Lysis, approximately 219c–d, Socrates speaking with Lysis and Menexenus; Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1579. The sentence follows a chain of examples of things desired for other things, and Socrates soon reopens the argument by asking whether friendship depends on evil. It is a provisional dialectical step, not a conclusive formula offered by Plato.

Lysis, around Stephanus 221e, Socrates addressing Lysis and Menexenus while exploring desire, affinity and friendship. Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1579. The dialogue goes on to challenge whether the congenial is simply the like and ends without reaching a settled definition; do not present the tentative argument as an unconditional fact.

Plato, Lysis, around 211e–212a (opening inquiry into friendship), Socrates addressing Menexenus; Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1579, dramatic text after Menexenus rejoins the discussion. Gold of Darius is a historical royal-wealth comparison and Socrates goes on to question what it means to be a friend. Do not attribute this speech to Plato as personal autobiography.

Plato, Meno, approximately Stephanus 89a; Socrates is questioning Meno after connecting the usefulness of virtues with wise guidance. The conclusion is provisional and is challenged shortly afterwards when they examine the absence of recognized teachers of virtue. Exact complete sentence in Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1643, dialogue proper (not translator introduction); the historical Plato is not the speaking character.

Phaedo, Benjamin Jowett translation; Socrates asks the question during the dialogue’s argument about visible bodies and the unseen soul.

Plato, Phaedo, approximately 107c, Socrates addressing his companions after the arguments concerning the soul; Benjamin Jowett English, Gutenberg #1658. This sentence is in the dialogue proper, not the translator introduction. Preserve the surrounding conditional argument about the soul and historical belief in immortality.

Plato, Philebus, approximately 30c–d; Socrates addressing Protarchus amid the argument that reason or mind belongs with the ordering cause rather than with limitless pleasure. Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1744, dialogue text.

Symposium, Diotima’s ascent toward beauty as recounted by Socrates, Benjamin Jowett translation, Project Gutenberg #1600. This is one stage in an ancient philosophical account of beauty and love, not a modern psychological ranking of attractiveness.

Symposium, Socrates recounting Diotima’s teaching, Benjamin Jowett translation, Project Gutenberg #1600. The represented wording belongs to Diotima’s account of Love as intermediate between the wise and the ignorant.

Symposium, Socrates recounting Diotima’s teaching, Benjamin Jowett translation, Project Gutenberg #1600. Diotima is a reported speaker within the dialogue; the passage is philosophical argument about ignorance and desire for wisdom.

The Republic, Book IV; the statement summarizes a definition developed within Socrates’ argument about the ordered city.

The Republic, Book V; Socrates places opinion between knowledge and ignorance in the argument about what each apprehends.

The Republic, Book I, close of Socrates’s argument with Thrasymachus about the function and excellence of the soul. Benjamin Jowett English translation, Project Gutenberg #1497. It belongs to a provisional exchange that ends with Socrates acknowledging that the inquiry has not fully determined what justice is; it is not a scientific claim about the soul.

Plato, The Republic, Book I, around 344e, Socrates in dialogue with Thrasymachus. Wording verified in Benjamin Jowett, third edition (1888), transcribed in Gutenberg #55201. This is dialogue speech following Thrasymachus’s defence of injustice, not the translator’s prefatory analysis. Edition-specific wording must be preserved.

Plato, The Republic, Book IV, approximately 441e–442a; Socrates addressing Glaucon while contrasting the rational, spirited and appetitive parts of the soul. Exact sentence from Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1497, Book IV main dialogue (not introductory editorial matter). The premise belongs to an ancient account of the soul and remains open to philosophical interpretation; not clinical or neuroscientific evidence.

Nature (first published 1836), Chapter I, “Nature,” in James Munroe and Company’s 1849 new-edition witness represented by Project Gutenberg #29433. A scan of the same 1849 J. Munroe edition places “Nature always wears the colors of the spirit” on printed page 9. Emerson is arguing that inward condition colors the experience of landscape; this is nineteenth-century Transcendentalist philosophy, not modern cognitive science, environmental psychology or a clinical claim.

“The American Scholar” (1837), represented in Emerson’s Essays, Project Gutenberg #16643. Emerson contrasts thought as a partial function with the fuller act of living one’s truth; the line elevates character without dismissing intellectual life.

The Story of My Heart (1883), Chapter III, Project Gutenberg #2317. The inherited Chapter I note is corrected: ‘It is eternity now’ occurs in Jefferies’s tumulus meditation after he writes that, recognising his inner consciousness / psyche, he cannot understand time. It is speculative spiritual autobiography and metaphysical-poetic reflection, not a scientific theory of time, physics or consciousness.

The Story of My Heart (1883), Chapter III, Project Gutenberg #2317. The inherited Chapter I note is corrected: ‘Now is eternity; now is the immortal life’ immediately follows the same tumulus passage in which Jefferies treats the present moment as continuous eternity. This is his personal metaphysical/spiritual intuition, not empirical evidence for immortality, neuroscience or clinical guidance.

Essays in the Art of Writing, “On Some Technical Elements of Style in Literature,” represented by the 1905 Chatto & Windus edition in Project Gutenberg #492. The collection is posthumous; the excerpt concerns literary aesthetics.

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, “Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case,” Project Gutenberg #42. This is Jekyll’s fictional account of moral and psychological division inside the novel, not a medical or psychological diagnosis.

When William Came, represented by Project Gutenberg #14540 from the 1914 John Lane edition. This is the narrator’s satirical aside about Herr von Kwarl; the digestion comparison is literary humor, not medical or psychological advice.

Dhammapada 63, Chapter V, “The Fool,” F. Max Müller translation, Project Gutenberg #2017. The verse belongs to a Buddhist canonical collection and remains a textual source voice rather than a modern individual-author quotation.

Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, Chapter V, Project Gutenberg #586. The represented 1869 J. W. Willis Bund collection states that its Hydriotaphia text is taken from the 1686 folio edition. “Life is a pure flame” occurs inside Browne’s Christian meditation on burial, resurrection, mortality and posthumous memory; the “invisible sun” is metaphysical-religious imagery, not scientific evidence.

Religio Medici, represented by Project Gutenberg #586. Browne develops this sentence inside an explicitly Christian natural-theology argument about providence, creation and the beauty of living forms. It is historical religious philosophy, not a scientific definition of nature.

Thomas Hobbes, De Cive, Chapter I, represented in The English Works of Thomas Hobbes, Project Gutenberg #73906. 'All society therefore is either for gain, or for glory' appears inside Hobbes's seventeenth-century argument from appetite, glory and self-interest; it is political anthropology/philosophy, not a modern empirical law of all relationships.

Thomas Hobbes, De Corpore / Elements of Philosophy, Part I, Chapter I, section 6, represented in The English Works of Thomas Hobbes, Project Gutenberg #73877. 'The end of knowledge is power' is immediately developed through the use of theorems for construction and action; it remains Hobbes's seventeenth-century account of philosophy's utility.

Leviathan, Part I, Chapter XIII, Project Gutenberg #3207. “And the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” closes Hobbes’s list of consequences in the hypothetical condition where there is no common power able to keep people in awe. It remains a seventeenth-century political-philosophy argument about the state of nature, not a blanket empirical description of ordinary social life.

Common Sense (1776), “Of the Origin and Design of Government in general,” validated Wikisource scan leaf 13. Paine distinguishes voluntary society from coercive government and calls government even in its best state a necessary evil.

Rights of Man, Part II, Project Gutenberg public-domain collection #3742. The line appears in Paine’s statement of independence from place or person while criticizing hereditary political privilege. The exact text is “my country is the world, and my religion is to do good,” not the later expanded attribution “all mankind are my brethren.”

Rights of Man, Part I, Conclusion; represented from Moncure Daniel Conway’s public-domain Project Gutenberg #3742 collection. The passage attributes national hostility to old systems of government rather than to an inevitable enmity between people.

Rights of Man, Part II; the surrounding passage attributes much ordinary social coordination to society itself.

Rights of Man; represented in the public-domain Conway edition and kept in the work’s polemical political context.

Rights of Man, Part I; represented through Moncure Daniel Conway’s public-domain Project Gutenberg collection.

The Age of Reason, Part I, Chapter I, “The Author’s Profession of Faith”; Moncure Daniel Conway collected/edited text represented by Project Gutenberg #3743 and cross-checked against Wikisource. The retained catalog wording says “I believe in the equality of man,” while the Conway/Gutenberg and Wikisource witness reads “I believe the equality of man.” This collection keeps its frozen legacy wording and discloses the edition-level variant rather than silently rewriting it. The passage is Paine’s deist profession of faith joining equality, justice, mercy and the happiness of fellow-creatures.

A Philosophical Dictionary, article ‘Toleration,’ Section I, Project Gutenberg #35630. Voltaire opens the section by calling toleration an attribute of humanity and urging mutual pardon for human weakness and error, then turns immediately to religious communities trading together without violence. This remains an Enlightenment polemic against religious persecution rather than a modern legal definition or universal empirical law.

Leaves of Grass (1855), untitled first-edition poem later known as “Song of Myself,” printed page 56 (Wikisource scan page 62). The line belongs to the poem’s final movement, later numbered section 52; the 1855 record remains tied to the unnumbered first edition rather than inheriting later section structure.

Leaves of Grass (1855), untitled first-edition poem later known as “Song of Myself,” printed page 55 (Wikisource scan page 61). The verbal passage is present there, while this collection retains the more familiar later punctuation/parenthetical presentation. Later editions number this movement section 51; that section number is cross-edition orientation only and is not presented as 1855 structure.

The Renaissance, “The School of Giorgione”; Project Gutenberg #2398. The surrounding paragraph explains that other arts strive to reduce the separation between matter and form.

The Renaissance, Conclusion; Project Gutenberg #2398. This is an aesthetic-philosophical thesis, not a universal empirical rule for how everyone ought to live.

The Renaissance, Conclusion; Project Gutenberg #2398. The line belongs to Pater’s historically controversial conclusion on experience and culture.

O Pioneers!, Part II, Chapter IV, Project Gutenberg #24. Carl Linstrum says that there are ‘only two or three human stories’ while he and Alexandra discuss recurring patterns around the old homestead and their younger neighbors. The line is fictional dialogue and literary reflection on repetition in human life, not an empirical taxonomy of all human experience.

Short poem commonly titled “Eternity”; Blake contrasts grasping with the passing movement of joy.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, “Proverbs of Hell,” represented by Project Gutenberg #45315 at printed page 16. Gutenberg regularizes the line to “imagined”; Blake’s engraved text is often transcribed with historical spelling and punctuation. The proverb is part of Blake’s deliberately paradoxical infernal-wisdom sequence, not a literal claim that every imagined thing will eventually be proved.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 14; Blake’s prose-poetic argument about the limits and cleansing of perception.

The Task, Book I, represented by Project Gutenberg #3698. “God made the country, and man made the town” appears in Cowper’s didactic contrast between urban fashion and rural life immediately before claims about health and virtue in fields and groves. It remains eighteenth-century poetic and Christian-inflected judgment rather than empirical evidence that country living is healthier or more virtuous.

The Round Table, No. 1, ‘On the Love of Life,’ dated 15 January 1815 in the represented collected text, Project Gutenberg #55932. The sentence opens Hazlitt's argument that attachment to life is driven more by active passions than by present enjoyment and is immediately followed by ‘Without life there can be no action.’ It is philosophical-psychological essay argument, not modern clinical evidence.

Table-Talk, Volume I, Essay III, “On the Past and Future,” Project Gutenberg #3020. “The future is yet to come” occurs in Hazlitt’s comparison of the already-existing past with the not-yet-existing future: the full sentence continues that the future “has never been anything.” The retained short excerpt is therefore part of a philosophical contrast, not a prediction, forecasting rule or scientific proposition.

Pragmatism, Lecture VI, “Pragmatism’s Conception of Truth”; Project Gutenberg #5116. Capitalization has been normalized from “Truth HAPPENS to an idea”; the surrounding passage explains verification and validation.

Pragmatism, Lecture II, “What Pragmatism Means”; Project Gutenberg #5116. Capitalization has been normalized from the represented all-caps sentence while the wording is otherwise preserved.

Pragmatism, Lecture II, “What Pragmatism Means”; Project Gutenberg #5116. The sentence follows James’s claim that theories become instruments rather than final answers.

“Is Life Worth Living?” in The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, Project Gutenberg #26659. James explicitly says the “scientific proof” may remain unclear; the passage is philosophical encouragement about action under uncertainty, not empirical proof that belief guarantees outcomes.

Hopes and Fears for Art, lecture “The Beauty of Life”; Project Gutenberg #3773. This is Morris’s aesthetic-social position, not an empirical necessity claim.

As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7, Jaques; 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Jack R. Crawford, printed page 42 / Wikisource scan leaf 54. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players” opens Jaques’s seven-ages speech after Duke Senior compares human suffering with theatrical pageants. The metaphor remains dramatic character speech about roles and aging, not Shakespeare speaking autobiographically.

Act 3, Scene 1; Hamlet weighs existence against suffering and uncertainty.

Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5.

Act 2, Scene 2; Juliet separates Romeo from the social meaning of his family name.

Act 1, Scene 2; Ferdinand describes the terror surrounding the shipwreck.

Act 4, Scene 1.