Here are 115 of the best philosophy quotes that will teach you more than a philosophy class.

What’s the goal?

To make you think deeply.

But most importantly, to help you find a new philosophy of life from these great philosophers.

You’ll learn from Einstein, Goethe, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Thoreau, MLK, and many more.

Enjoy!

Philosophy is the science of truth. Aristotle

Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don’t know. Bertrand Russell

Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it. Epictetus

The philosopher’s product is his life. Friedrich Nietzsche

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate – that’s my philosophy. Thornton Wilder

Philosophy teaches us to act, not to speak. Seneca

We have philosophy professors, but no philosophers. Henry David Thoreau

Learn to ask of all actions, “Why are they doing that?”, starting with your own. Marcus Aurelius

To live without philosophizing is in truth the same as keeping the eyes closed without attempting to open them. René Descartes

Philosophy, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing. Ambrose Bierce

History is philosophy teaching by examples. Thucydides

Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits. William James

Philosophy is trying to make sense of what doesn’t. Maxime Lagacé

Astonishment is the root of philosophy. Paul Tillich

The three great things of life are: good health; work; and a philosophy of life. Jack London

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The Best Philosophy Quotes

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Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition. Michel de Montaigne

Be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy be still a man. David Hume

Philosophy is man’s expression of curiosity about everything and his attempt to make sense of the world primarily through his intellect. Alan Watts

There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means. Ryan Holiday

Philosophy is the memoir of a fully-lived life. Naval Ravikant

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language. Ludwig Wittgenstein

A little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. Francis Bacon

My philosophy? Simplicity plus variety. Hank Stram

We study science to learn how to get what we want. We study philosophy to know what to want in the first place. Naval Ravikant

My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier. Anthony Hopkins

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers. William James

Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself. H. L. Mencken

Philosophy is “an unusually stubborn attempt to think clearly.” William James

Philosophy is itself the disease for which it pretends to be the cure: the wise man does not pursue wisdom but lives his life, and therein precisely does his wisdom lie. Bruce Lee

Just as eating cow meat doesn’t turn you into a cow, studying philosophy doesn’t make you wiser. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

To ridicule philosophy is really to philosophize. Blaise Pascal

The best philosophy of life I’ve found is this: just keep going. Maxime Lagacé

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. Bertrand Russell (The Philosophy of Logical Atomism, Amazon book)

What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows. Epictetus

A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring. Ludwig Wittgenstein

A wise man does not converse for the sake of displaying his own intelligence. James Pierce

To philosophize is to learn how to die or to rise to divinity. Karl Jaspers

Real philosophy is to learn to see the world again. Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Part 2. Philosophy Quotes That Are…

The Most Famous Philosophy Quotes

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Searching for a famous philosophy quote? Check out those by Einstein, Plato, Beethoven, Montaigne, etc.

Her philosophy is carpe diem for herself and laissez faire for others. F. Scott Fitzgerald

I do not at all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense. Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity. Albert Einstein

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. John Adams

I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think. Socrates

Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom. Bertrand Russell

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents. Ludwig van Beethoven

To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher. Blaise Pascal

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. Oprah Winfrey

This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities. Bertrand Russell

In the eyes of dialectical philosophy, nothing is established for all times, nothing is absolute or sacred. Karl Marx

How slow men are in matters when they believe they have time and how swift they are when necessity drives them to it. Niccolò Machiavelli

Anyone who studies present and ancient affairs will easily see how in all cities and all peoples there still exist, and have always existed, the same desires and passions. Niccolò Machiavelli

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands. Plato

There is something of a civil war going on within all of our lives. There is a recalcitrant South of our soul revolting against the North of our soul. And there is this continual struggle within the very structure of every individual life. Martin Luther King Jr

Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it. François de la Rochefoucauld

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. Bertrand Russell

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what people say. I just watch what they do. Andrew Carnegie

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher. Socrates

The man of science is a poor philosopher. Albert Einstein

To live alone one must be an animal or a God – says Aristotle. There is yet a third case: one must be both – a philosopher. Friedrich Nietzsche

If a man’s good for nothing else, he can at least teach philosophy. William James

But people themselves alter so much, that there is something new to be observed in them for ever. Jane Austen

A good philosopher makes a bad citizen. Napoleon Bonaparte

Related: What is Philosophy for? (5-minute YouTube video)

Inspirational Philosophy Quotes

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Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it. Karl Marx

A philosophy of life is a bundle of wisdom you have gathered from your reading and experience. It is not a rigid ideology that allows no development and complexity. It’s a living thing, a developing idea about life that belongs to you alone. Thomas Moore

I think everybody should study ants. They have an amazing four-part philosophy. Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can. Jim Rohn

Philosophy offers not wisdom but the love of wisdom. Petrarch

The endpoint of philosophy is childlike wonder. James Pierce (Source)

It surprises me how disinterested we are today about things like physics, space, the universe and philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination. It’s a crazy world out there. Be curious. Stephen Hawking

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school…it is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically. Henry David Thoreau

To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being paralysed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can still do for those who study it. Bertrand Russell

The perfection of wisdom, and the end of true philosophy is to proportion our wants to our possessions, our ambitions to our capacities, we will then be a happy and a virtuous people. Mark Twain

Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments. Isaac Asimov

What is philosophy? It is something that lightens up, that makes bright. Victor Cousin

No one should postpone the study of philosophy when he is young, nor should he wear of it when he becomes mature, for the search for mental health is never untimely or out of season. Epicurus

A meditator won’t judge you for seeking inner peace. A philosopher won’t judge you for seeking wisdom. Maxime Lagacé

The ones who let go are the ones who stay sane. Maxime Lagacé

That’s a central part of philosophy, of ethics. What do I owe to strangers? What do I owe to my family? What is it to live a good life? Those are questions which we face as individuals. Peter Singer

Intuition does not in itself amount to knowledge, yet cannot be disregarded by philosophers and psychologists. Corliss Lamont

There are three classes of men; the retrograde, the stationary and the progressive. Johann Kaspar Lavater

Always look at what people do, not who they are. Gloria Steinem (My Life on the Road, Amazon book)

Deep Philosophy Quotes

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We are biological machines programmed to survive and replicate. Happy is anti-evolution. Naval Ravikant

To be human is above all to be sensitive. Alan Watts

It’s ok to not have a strong opinion on everything. Zuby

A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes. Ludwig Wittgenstein

Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only they truly live. Not satisfied to merely keep good watch over their own days, they annex every age to their own. Seneca

Philosophy is no longer the pillar of fire going before a few intrepid seekers after truth: it is rather an ambulance following in the wake of the struggle for existence and picking up the weak and wounded. Bertrand Russell

The things which philosophy attempts to teach by reasoning, poverty forces us to practice. Diogenes

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion. Baruch Spinoza

Reading philosophy is good if you want knowledge. Living philosophy is great if you want character. Maxime Lagacé

Every philosophy is the philosophy of some stage of life. Friedrich Nietzsche

We like explanations, we like theories, we indulge in speculative philosophy and we are carried away by all that. Jiddu Krishnamurti

We live in the age of philosophy, science, and intellect. Huge libraries are open for everyone. Everywhere we have schools, colleges, and universities which give us the wisdom of the people from many previous millennia. And what then? Have we become wiser for all this? Do we better understand our life, or the meaning of our existence? Do we know what is good for our life? Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The right philosophy is the one that will make you move forward. Maxime Lagacé

For what is philosophy but an art – one more attempt to give “significant form” to the chaos of experience?” Will Durant

Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up. Thomas Nagel

There is no statement so absurd that no philosopher will make it. Cicero

There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people. G.K. Chesterton

Related: Six Ideas From Eastern Philosophy (8-minute YouTube video by The School of Life)

Wise Philosophy Quotes

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Read philosophy. It is not for the old, but for the young to learn how to live. Thibaut

To become a philosopher, start by walking very slowly. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

You know you have influence when people start noticing your absence more than the presence of others. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Inner peace is the final stage of philosophy. Maxime Lagacé

Philosophy lives in words, but truth and fact well up into our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulation. William Jamesau

Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics. Thomas Nagel (Mortal Questions, Amazon book)

The strongest intellectual foundation is built upon science, math, and philosophy, as they are the search for universal truths. Naval Ravikant

Read less, study less, but think more. Learn, both from your teachers and from the books which you read, only those things which you really need and which you really want to know. Leo Tolstoy

The creative mind is the playful mind. Philosophy is the play and dance of ideas. Eric Hoffer

The world I believe is far too serious, and being far too serious, it has need of a wise and merry philosophy. Lin Yutang

The object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thought. Ludwig Wittgenstein

The hunger for facile wisdom is the root of all false philosophy. George Santanaya

Related: EASTERN PHILOSOPHY – The Buddha (6-minute YouTube video by The School of Life)

Part 3. Conclusion

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The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next. Henry Ward Beecher

If you live long enough, you become a philosopher because you start trying to solve the big problems in your life. The big problems are the old ones — the ones we’ve been trying to solve since the beginning: How do I stay happy? How do I become healthy? How do I become wealthy? How do I raise the family I want? Naval Ravikant

Last words

As a lover of quotes, psychology, and philosophy myself, I’ve always been fascinated by how the old philosophers viewed life and how they dealt with it.

It seems a lost art nowadays to ponder deep philosophical and existential questions.

Happily, we still have access to those beautiful words.

In a sense, it’s reassuring and guiding to know how people like Nietzsche or Einstein approached their lives and struggles.

Like Buddha said, life is suffering, and without a way of life and a philosophy of life, it can be hard to navigate it.

Further Readings

• Topic: Life
• 75 Words of Wisdom From The Best Minds (Ever)
• 100 Decision Quotes For Better Decision Making (And Life)
• 77 Life Lessons Quotes (To Learn And Grow)
• 205 Philosophical Questions – A huge list of thought-provoking questions (conversationstartersworld.com)
• 73 Life Is Short Quotes To Help You Live To The Fullest
• 57 Life Goes On Quotes That Will Move You
• 21 Life-Changing Questions To Ask Yourself Today

Hope you enjoyed these beautiful philosophy quotes. If you did, please share them with a friend today!

What’s your favorite philosophy quote? And remember: words can transform your life, if you find the right ones.