20th-century Philosopher Quotes

Science aims to give us, in its theories, a literally true story of what the world is like; and acceptance of a scientific theory involves the belief that it is true.

Bas van Fraassen

Nihilism is not an existential quandary but a speculative opportunity.

That which is injurious loses its capacity to harm when it is brought into the light, and we attract to us that which we emanate.

David Hawkins (philosopher)

Performance for another in no way signals the inferiority of the performer to the one for whom the performance is intended.

It could plausibly be argued that far from Christian theology having hampered the study of nature for fifteen hundred years, it was Greek corruptions of biblical Christianity which hampered it.

The interpretation of thought as ""inner speech" has taken different forms, and has been used to clarify a variety of problems--thus problems pertaining to the logical forms of thought and the connection of thought with things.

Wilfrid Sellars

Perhaps every science must start with metaphor and end with algebra; and perhaps without the metaphor there would be no algebra.

To kill or not to kill, that was the question that haunted me.

Torbjörn Tännsjö

Necessary, since every moment in our lives is marked by death, like a shadow from another realm, it appear to us like a vanishing point for everything. How can one meditate on live without meditating too on its brevity, its precariousness, its fragility?

André Comte-Sponville

For the institutions of the European Union are at present incomplete. A European Senate is badly needed to complete them. By creating an upper chamber in the European parliament, a new bridge could be built between national political classes, which retain democratic legitimacy, and the decision-making process in Brussels. Such a Senate should be recruited by indirect election from exisiting national parliaments.

Larry Siedentop

Like paths and alleys overgrown with hardy, rank-growing weeds, the words we use are overgrown with our individual, private, provincial associations, which tend to choke the meaning.

Stefan Themerson

The failure to take organization seriously is perhaps but another consequence of the rapid development of physics and chemistry as compared to other sciences, and the consequent dazzling effect this had on biological vision.

Joseph Henry Woodger

Deconstruction is not meant to be a soft sighing for the future, but a way of deciding now and being impassioned in a moment.

Life is a mirror that reflects what one thinks and does or what his own thoughts make him do.

Carlos Bernardo González Pecotche

Time leaves its mark, its wrinkles and its grey hairs, on the stars, so that we can guess their ages tolerable well, and the evidence is all in favor of stellar lives, not of thousands of millions, but of millions of millions, of years.

The full analysis of the notions of saying something and understanding what one said inevitably involves a concept which, as I will show in detail, essentially corresponds to the Cartesian idea of thought.

It has been said that the question, 'Why is there something rather than nothing?' is so profound that it would occur only to a metaphysician, yet so simple that it would occur only to a child.

Jim Holt (philosopher)

It is also certain that when we assent to some piece of reasoning when our perception of it is lacking, then either we go wrong, or, if we do stumble on the truth, it is by accident, so that we cannot be sure that we are not in error.

There are lots of stories about how philosophy begins. Some people claim it begins in wonder; some people claim it begins in worry. I claim it begins in disappointment.

Simon Critchley

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and information is in the head of the receiver.

Emptiness is not a mere emptiness, but rather fullness in which the distinctiveness of everything is throughly realized.

Set theory is peculiarly important... because mathematics can be exhibited as involving nothing but set-theoretical propositions about set-theoretical entities.

David Malet Armstrong

If the power of government rests on the widespread acceptance of false indeed absurd and foolish ideas, then the only genuine protection is the systematic attack of these ideas and the propagation and proliferation of true ones.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Roark, … like Socrates before him, appears quite willing to martyr himself. … The leading characters in Atlas Shrugged, however, have chosen voluntary exile—reminiscent of Aristotle's response to Athens when he was charged with the same crimes as Socrates.

Douglas Den Uyl

When mind is quiet, all is Self. When mind moves the world arises. So be Still, throw away everything and be Free.

H. W. L. Poonja