Philosophical Ideas Quotes

I teach you the Overman. Man is something which shall be surpassed.

I believe in limited government. I believe that government should be limited in many ways, …. No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race

Confucius - or Kongzi, which means Master Kong - was not born to power, but his idiosyncrasies and ideas made him the Zelig of the Chinese classics.

After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense.

One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.

I think every period - except for the 14th century, or something - has some merits.

Fuzzy thinking is, after all, just one step above not thinking at all. But to take the ideas of serious transformational thinkers and philosophers and throw the "new age" label at them is also abhorrent.

A 'philosophical dictionary' is not a dictionary of philosophy that you use to look up obscure thinkers or recondite terms. It is a collection of brief and pithy essays on diverse topics, informed by one vision, and usually arranged in alphabetical order.

Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness

Imaginary numbers are a fine and wonderful refuge of the divine spirit almost an amphibian between being and non-being.

Colours exist for me as entities in themselves, as metaphysical beings.

The World is not an idea as asserted by philosophers who have dedicated their entire lives to the exploration of ideas. First and foremost the world is passion. But passion is associated with sadness. Sadness does not only arise from death which makes us face the Eternity, but also from life which causes us to confront the Time.

Nietzsche's ideas and plans: for example, the idea of giving up the whole wretched academic world to form a secular monastic community.

It's a common notion that if you like Tagore, then he must have had an influence on your life. While I like Tagore's poetry and his thoughts, he doesn't influence my work.

Mental fire is what won't burn real sticks; mental water is what won't necessarily (though of course it may) put out even a mentalfire.

From my point of view, 'Stranger in a Strange Land' isn't just a science fiction masterpiece; it also happens to be one of my favorite books ever.

During the 2300 years since Plato, very little opposition has been registered to his ideas.

Since ancient times, philosophers have maintained that to strive too hard for one's own happiness is self-defeating.

When most people turn on their TVs, they don't expect a frank discussion of philosophical ideas in their practical context. Or any context.

Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated about among men of thought.

There isn't [in new atheism]. Nothing that wasn't in Bertrand Russell or probably Robert Ingersoll. But I suppose it is more of a political effect, in that all these books happened to come out at the same time. I like to think that we have some influence.

The idea of a book that can make a change to your life, that can affect your perspective, is a beautiful and great ambition: one that Seneca, Nietzsche and Tolstoy would have sympathised with.

I was reading Plato's 'The Republic' at age 18, and I can't account fully the electricity that had for me.

It was from America that the plain ideas that men ought to mind their business, and that the nation is responsible to Heaven for the acts of the State, - ideas long locked in the breast of solitary thinkers, and hidden among Latin folios, - burst forth like a conqueror upon the world they were destined to transform, under the title of the Rights of Man... and the principle gained ground, that a nation can never abandon its fate to an authority it cannot control.

I remember seeing a stage version of Plato's 'Symposium' and being really moved because it was written by a man rather than a culture.