philosophy Quotes

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

It was reading Hamlet that ruined the concept of authenticity for me, not because Hamlet lacked existentialist credentials himself - indeed, as an earlier discontented Dane, he could be said to have laid the ground for Kierkegaard - but because the line 'to thine own self be true' was spoken by that humourless old ninny, Polonius.

Religions do a useful thing: they narrow God to the limits of man. Philosophy replies by doing a necessary thing: it elevates man to the plane of God.

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.

I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher could more wish to be than a good dancer. For the dance is his ideal, also his fine art, finally also the only kind of piety he knows, his 'divine service.'

I think, fundamentally, open source does tend to be more stable software. It's the right way to do things.

The order of the world is always right - such is the judgment of God. For God has departed, but he has left his judgment behind, the way the Cheshire Cat left his grin.

Every people have gods to suit their circumstances.

Like dreams, statistics are a form of wish fulfillment.