Mario Cuomo Quotes

Philosophy is no more a barrier against political disaster than it is against plague.

Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.

What I always liked about Socrates was his insistence on questioning things for the sake of reaching some sort of clarity - even if it is only clarity about the gaps in our knowledge.

I preferred the weapons of dialectic to all the other teachings of philosophy, and armed with these, I chose the conflicts of disputation rather than the trophies of war.

It is, I think, particularly in periods of acknowledged crisis that scientists have turned to philosophical analysis as a device for unlocking the riddles of their field. Scientists have not generally needed or wanted to be philosophers.

It will sometimes strike a scientific man that the philosophers have been less intent on finding out what the facts are, than on inquiring what belief is most in harmony with their system.

There are a few dogmas and double standards and really regrettable exports from philosophy that have confounded the thinking of scientists on the subject of morality.

A Socrates in every classroom.

The knife of historical relativism... which has cut to pieces all metaphysics and religion must also bring about healing.

I arrived from Harvard, where I had studied philosophy and the history of ideas, with a bias toward literature and formal thought.

The word 'right' should be excluded from political language, as the word 'cause' from the language of philosophy.

Without philosophy, history is always for me dead and dumb.

That reasonably intelligent and well-meaning young people are willing to call white black is a matter of concern. It raises questions about our ways of education and about the values that guide our conduct.

Philosophy, most broadly viewed, is the critical survey of existence from the standpoint of value.

I like the concept of teenagers and philosophy.

We see things like reciprocity which are fairly central to our view of ethics. But if you're talking about a set of worked-out rules on what we are supposed to do then, yes, it is a human product.

I studied English at Princeton in the early eighties in what I consider a period of high obscurity. Professors and students ran around discussing the work of critics and philosophers that I doubt they'd read or understood.

Take from the philosopher the pleasure of being heard and his desire for knowledge ceases.

There is no philosophy without the art of ignoring objections.

Lastly, literature and philosophy both allow past idols to be resurrected with a frequency which would be truly distressing to a sober scientist.

Again, both literature and philosophy work by appealing to certain reigning idols.

Let philosophy resolutely aim to be as scientific as possible, but let her not forget her strong kinship with literature.

Socrates was executed … not for his megalomania or grandiose propositions or certitudes, but for stubbornly doubting the absolute truths of others.

When we reason upon general subjects, one may justly affirm, that our speculations can scarce ever be too fine, provided they be just.

No philosophical opinion, however ancient, however generally received, ought to rest upon authority. There is no presumption in requiring evidence for it, or in regulating our belief by the evidence we can find.