Philosophical wisdom

If particulars are to have meaning, there must be universals. Plato



If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother Epictetus

If a lion could talk, we could not understand him. Wittgenstein

Virtue is relative to the actions and ages of each of us in all that we do. Plato

Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself. John Locke

I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts. Virgil



The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction. Plato

Dubium sapientiae initium. Descartes

All our sweetest hours fly fastest. Virgil

If you would judge, understand. Seneca

From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned. Kant

Fear of things invisible in the natural seed of that which everyone in himself calleth religion. Thomas Hobbes

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows. Epictetus

Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit. Aristotle

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. Aristotle

I say a murder is abstract. You pull the trigger and after that you do not understand anything that happens. Sartre

If you judge, investigate. Seneca

The limits of my language means the limits of my world. Wittgenstein

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself. Plato

But every historical statement and legitimization itself moves within a certain relation to history. Martin Heidegger

Man has to awaken to wonder - and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again. Wittgenstein

Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief. Cicero



Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity. Karl Marx

Great grief does not of itself put an end to itself. Seneca

A confession has to be part of your new life. Wittgenstein

The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking. Martin Heidegger

We make war that we may live in peace. Aristotle

It is an hypothesis that the sun will rise tomorrow: and this means that we do not know whether it will rise. Wittgenstein

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle

It is the quality rather than the quantity that matters. Seneca

I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it. Machiavelli

I'm not ugly, but my beauty is a total creation. Hegel

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld. Saint Augustine

In order to improve the mind, we ought less learn than to contemplate. Descartes



A letter does not blush. Cicero



None but himself can be his parallel. Virgil



Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice. William James



If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil. Spinoza



Politics have no relation to morals. Machiavelli



All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue. Plato



Landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed. Karl Marx



The state is not abolished, it withers away. Friedrich Engels



They do certainly give very strange, and newfangled, names to diseases. Plato



Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth. Aristotle

We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope. Epictetus



The spirit of moderation should also be the spirit of the lawgiver. Montesquieu



Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones. Montesquieu



Your life is what your thoughts make it. Marcus Aurelius


It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. Confucius



There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it. Seneca



The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances. Aristotle



Life must be lived as play. Plato



Most nations,as well as people are impossible only in their youth;they become incorrigible as they grow older Rousseau



Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy. Martin Heidegger



While the miser is merely a capitalist gone mad, the capitalist is a rational miser. Karl Marx

Laws should be interpreted in a liberal sense so that their intention may be preserved. Cicero



He who has great power should use it lightly. Seneca



I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule,not to bewail,not to scorn human actions,but to understand them Spinoza



Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it. Marcus Aurelius



In most things success depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed. Montesquieu



Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain. Machiavelli



One often makes a remark and only later sees how true it is. Wittgenstein



Life's like a play: it's not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters. Seneca



If the grace of God miraculously operates, it probably operates through the subliminal door. William James



There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality. Seneca



All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education. Rousseau



Cogito, ergo sum. Descartes



Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one. Socrates



Worthless people love only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live. Socrates



No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone. Cicero



To seek the highest good is to live well. Saint Augustine



Not by wrath does one kill, but by laughter. Nietzsche



He that does good to another does good also to himself. Seneca



First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak. Epictetus



You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself. Seneca



They succeed, because they think they can. Virgil



Understanding is nothing else than conception caused by speech. Thomas Hobbes



Avarice, the spur of industry. David Hume



Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world. Schopenhauer













Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived. Spinoza



The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold. Aristotle



One man excels in eloquence, another in arms. Virgil



We don't laugh because we're happy - we're happy because we laugh. William James








The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. Henri Bergson



When one has much to put into them, a day has a hundred pockets. Nietzsche



Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope. Epictetus


Your descendants shall gather your fruits. Virgil



Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss. Epicurus








Fear is proof of a degenerate mind. Virgil



Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies. Schopenhauer






No one can give you better advice than yourself. Cicero



Metaphysics means nothing but an unusually obstinate effort to think clearly. William James



Fascism is not defined by the number of its victims, but by the way it kills them. Sartre







If any organism fails to fulfill its potentialities, it becomes sick. William James



Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered. Aristotle












No man is free who is not master of himself. Epictetus



The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger. Seneca



In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy. Cicero



Love is a serious mental disease. Plato



It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death. Epictetus



Fortune favours the bold. Virgil



Courage is a kind of salvation. Plato














To suffer the penalty of too much haste, which is too little speed. Plato

The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all private property. Karl Marx

Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. Schopenhauer

In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred. Cicero














If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain. Plato

Whatever one of us blames in another, each one will find in his own heart. Seneca

It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver. Machiavelli















Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty. Cicero



The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny. David Hume



The reason the Romans built their great paved highways was because they had such inconvenient footwear. Montesquieu



All pain is either severe or slight, if slight, it is easily endured; if severe, it will without doubt be brief Cicero














How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. Marcus Aurelius

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not. Spinoza

The German language speaks Being, while all the others merely speak of Being. Martin Heidegger

Experience praises the most happy the one who made the most people happy. Karl Marx













The greatest wealth is to live content with little. Plato

Hatred is settled anger. Cicero

I want you to be everything that's you, deep at the center of your being. Confucius



We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. Seneca













A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. William James


Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body. Seneca



You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long. Marcus Aurelius



Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery. Seneca



Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed. Epictetus



Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers. Rousseau

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living. Rousseau













A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts. Seneca



Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. Sartre



I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them. Spinoza



Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly. Epictetus



From one learn all. Virgil



Men often act knowingly against their interest. David Hume



Bashfulness is an ornament to youth, but a reproach to old age. Aristotle



It is right to give every man his due. Plato



The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others. Cicero



No one is laughable who laughs at himself. Seneca



Character is the result of a system of stereotyped principals. David Hume



If you get a good wife you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher. Socrates


To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short. Confucius

Liberty is the right to do what the law permits. Montesquieu











He like a rock in the sea unshaken stands his ground. Virgil



Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts. Spinoza



The secret to humor is surprise. Aristotle


It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both. Machiavelli



The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present. Machiavelli


If merely 'feeling good' could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience. William James











As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears. John Locke













A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently. Saint Augustine



One of the most misleading representational techniques in our language is the use of the word 'I.' Wittgenstein



Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible. Saint Augustine



Art is always and everywhere the secret confession, and at the same time the immortal movement of its time. Karl Marx



It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness. Seneca


Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears. Marcus Aurelius



If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done. Wittgenstein



The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action. Confucius



It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own. Cicero



Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear. Machiavelli