“Simplify your life. Don’t waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don’t burden yourself with possessions. Keep your needs and wants simple and enjoy what you have. Don’t destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past. Live in the present. Simplify!” ~ Henry David Thoreau
Tag Archives: Philosophy
Pondering Thought 1
quiet nights are exhilarating
a thought
and so it goes. so it goes…
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
“How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?” ~Rene Descartes
Six Words
a new day. a normal life.
Six Words Redux
spill the beans. face gets redder.
Six Words
to know thyself, works for me.
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
Six Words Redux
Morning thought: coffee, self medicating stimulant.
Six Word Sunday
Sunday silence. Sunday sun. Sunday serenity.
A Thought
Today is the new normal, to be replaced tomorrow by the new normal, and the next day a new normal will commence. See the pattern? Just a thought.
For What Its Worth
Better to write it right, and/or writes it write.
3:00 A.M. ~ A Thought
Quietude and darkness at 3:00 a.m. For most people, both are conducive to a good night’s sleep. Just a thought.
Three Words
a beautiful day
Three Words
lost in thoughts
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
3:00 A.M.
Funny how shit may sometimes happen at 3:00 a.m.
Six Words
Coffee: it livens up the mood.
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
“Life’s like a mayonnaise soda.” ~Lou Reed
“All perception is a gamble.” ~Edmund Husserl
Two Sentences
Drumming my fingers on the table. Waiting for the new normal to arrive.
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
Six Word Sunday
Good conversation. Great times. Happy people.
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
Six Word Saturday
Into the void. No exit found.
Two Sentences
Life’s short. Make the best of it.
Six Words Redux
Do it yourself, works for me.
Six Words
High on life is all good.
Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats. ~Voltaire
Materials Of Knowledge
“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” ~ John Locke
For What Its Worth
Moving forward. Not looking back. What’s the point of it.
“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
Six Words Sunday
Lazy day. Idling by. Forward moving.
“If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.” ~Baruch Spinoza
Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge. ~Carl Jung
To be is to be perceived. (Esse est percipi) ~Bishop ~George Berkeley
Two Sentences
Never said I was perfect. Far from it.
“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
Six Words
So… here I sit, doing nothing.
Six Words
Life: it is what it is.
Six Word Sunday
Keeping the beat. Life is grand.
Understanding Ourselves
“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
Six Words
I am I. You are you.
“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
Three Words
normal is passe
Six Words
Think freely. Speak freely. Live freely.
Free Will
“Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will.” ~ Jawaharlal Nehru
“Who lies for you will lie against you.” ~ John Locke
For What Its Worth
Everyday is a new day, and different from yesterday. Tomorrow will be different than today.
Philosophy is common sense with big words. ~James Madison
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” ~Soren Kierkegaard
Watch Your Thoughts
“Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habit.” ~ Laozi
Philosophical Animal
“It is difficult to obtain the friendship of a cat. It is a philosophical animal… one that does not place its affections thoughtlessly.” ~ Theophile Gautier
Philosophical Questions
“Philosophical questions are not by their nature insoluble. They are, indeed, radically different from scientific questions, because they concern the implications and other interrelations of ideas, not the order of physical events; their answers are interpretations instead of factual reports, and their function is to increase not our knowledge of nature, but our understanding ofContinue reading “Philosophical Questions”
“Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.” ~ Albert Camus
“If you chase two rabbits,you catch none.” ~ Confucius
Are We Human
“A philosopher once asked, “Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?” Pointless, really…”Do the stars gaze back?” Now that’s a question.” ~ Neil Gaiman
To Be A Philosopher
“To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
“Life is just one cup of coffee after another, and don’t look for anything else.” ~Bertrand Russell
The Wonder Remains
“Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.” ~ Alfred North Whitehead
“There are no whole truths: All truths are half-truths.” ~Alfred North Whitehead
To think is to differ. ~Clarence Darrow
“A person is able to understand only when he solves the problem by himself.” ~Peter Deunov
Peter Deunov, Bulgarian Philosopher – July 11, 1864 – December 27, 1944
Nothing In Nature
“Nothing in nature is by chance… Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of knowledge.” ~ Baruch Spinoza
Human Conception
“Life is life – whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man’s own advantage.” ~ Sri Aurobindo
A Pondering Mind 