Philosopher – A Pondering Mind

Poor People

There are two types of poor people, those who are poor together and those who are poor alone. The first are the true poor, the others are rich people out of luck.

~ Jean-Paul Sartre

“The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.” ~Martin Heidegger

“Nothing is everything that doesn’t happen at this very moment.” ~Martin Heidegger

Pursuit Of Money

“In constant pursuit of money to finance campaigns, the political system is simply unable to function. Its deliberative powers are paralyzed.”

~ John Rawls, Philosopher, 1921 – 2002

“Lawyers sometimes tell the truth. They’ll do anything to win a case.” ~Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham, Philosopher, 1748 – 1832

“There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse.” ~David Hume

Bricks

“A concept is a brick. It can be used to build a courthouse of reason. Or it can be thrown through the window.”

~ Gilles Deleuze, Philosopher, 1925 – 1995

“No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.” ~Baruch Spinoza

Two Ways To Be Fooled

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

~ Soren Kierkegaard

Words

Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.

~ Blaise Pascal

The Poor

The poor don’t know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity.

~ Jean-Paul Sartre

The secret of theory is that truth does not exist. ~Jean Baudrillard

More And More Information

We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.

~ Jean Baudrillard, French philosopher, Born: June 27, 1929 – Died: March 6, 2007

Freedom Of Choice

“When we can’t think for ourselves, we can always quote” ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein

Living

What is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying.

~Albert Camus

Hell isn’t other people. Hell is yourself. ~Ludwig Wittgenstein

Treasured Wealth

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.

~Henry David Thoreau

The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth. ~Albert Camus

Senseless To Think Of Complaining

It is therefore senseless to think of complaining since nothing foreign has decided what we feel, what we live, or what we are.

`~Jean-Paul Sartre

“Rules for Happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.” ~Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant, Philosopher, Born: April 22, 1724 – Died: February 12, 1804

People

To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do rather than what they say.

~Rene Descartes

Shoes

“Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.”

~ John Locke

Life After Death

“The real question of life after death isn’t whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.”

~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosopher ~ 1889 – 1951

“Nothing is everything that doesn’t happen at this very moment.” ~ Martin Heidegger

Boundaries

“A boundary is not that at which something stops, but that from which something begins.”

~ Martin Heidegger, Philosopher ~ 1889 – 1976

Dreaming

“It is possible that I am dreaming right now and that all of my perceptions are false.”

~ Rene Descartes, Philosopher ~ 1596 – 1650

“I know that I exist; the question is, What is this ‘I’ that ‘I’ know.” ~Rene Descartes

Fear

“To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.”

~ Bertrand Russell

“There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.” ~ Bertrand Russell

“The wise man can change his mind; the stubborn one, never.” ~Immanuel Kant

Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure it is not in order to enjoy ourselves. ~Ludwig Wittgenstein

There is a life and there is a death, and there are beauty and melancholy between. ~Albert Camus

To Be

“To be is to be perceived (Esse est percipi).” Or, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”

~ George Berkeley

“All perception is a gamble.” ~Edmund Husserl

People Know What They Do

“People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does.”

~ Michel Foucault, Philosopher – Born: October 15, 1926 – Died: June 25, 1984

“Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hate, and hate leads to violence. This is the equation.” ~Averroes

Averroes, Philosopher – Born: April 14, 1126-Died: December 10, 1198

The body

“The body is to be compared, not to a physical object, but rather to a work of art.”

~ Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Philosopher ~ 1908-1961

“All consciousness is consciousness of something” ~Edmund Husserl

Two People

“Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.”

~ William James

Time is the most unknown of all unknown things. ~Aristotle

Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats. ~Voltaire

“What worries you, masters you.” ~ John Locke

“Life is a constant process of dying.” ~Arthur Schopenhauer

“Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed.” ~Arthur Schopenhauer

Majority Of Men

“The majority of men… are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and… are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.”

~ Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher – 1788-1860

“If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.” ~Baruch Spinoza

“To choose not to choose is still to act.” ~Jean-Paul Sartre

One Day Left

“There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk.”

~ Jean-Paul Sartre

“I rebel; therefore I exist.” ~Albert Camus

Nihilist

A nihilist is not one who believes in nothing, but one who does not believe in what exists.

~ Albert Camus

“Curiosity is the lust of the mind.” ~ Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes – Philosopher, 1588-1679

“We are our choices.” ~Jean-Paul Sartre

“If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.” ~Jean-Paul Sartre

“I know what I can know, and am not troubled about what I cannot know.” ~Johann Gottlieb Fichte*

*Philosopher, 1762-1814

Lie Is A Lie

“But a lie is a lie, and in itself intrinsically evil, whether it be told with good or bad intents.”

~ Immanuel Kant

You only know me as you see me, not as I actually am. ~Immanuel Kant

Three Things

“Three things tell a man: his eyes, his friends and his favorite quotes”

~ Immanuel Kant

“Every word has consequences. Every silence, too.” ~Jean-Paul Sartre

“How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?” ~ Rene Descartes

Good Books

“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”

~ Rene Descartes

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” ~ Aristotle

“How can great minds be produced in a country where the test of great minds is agreeing in the opinion of small minds?” ~ John Stuart Mill

People Know What They Do ~ Michel Foucault

“People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does.”
~ Michel Foucault

Jean de la Bruyere Quote: Three Events

There are only three events in a man’s life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscience of being born, he dies in pain, and he forgets to live.
-Jean de la Bruyere
French Philosopher