81 ideas
13310 | Wisdom does not lie in books, and unread people can also become wise [Seneca] |
13560 | A wise man is not subservient to anything [Seneca] |
13295 | Wise people escape necessity by willing it [Seneca] |
19579 | The history of philosophy is just experiments in how to do philosophy [Novalis] |
19583 | Philosophy only begins when it studies itself [Novalis] |
13317 | Philosophy aims at happiness [Seneca] |
13293 | What philosophy offers humanity is guidance [Seneca] |
22026 | Philosophy is homesickness - the urge to be at home everywhere [Novalis] |
19588 | The highest aim of philosophy is to combine all philosophies into a unity [Novalis] |
19598 | Philosophy relies on our whole system of learning, and can thus never be complete [Novalis] |
19586 | Philosophers feed on problems, hoping they are digestible, and spiced with paradox [Novalis] |
19587 | Philosophy aims to produce a priori an absolute and artistic world system [Novalis] |
13309 | That something is a necessary condition of something else doesn't mean it caused it [Seneca] |
13313 | Even philosophers have got bogged down in analysing tiny bits of language [Seneca] |
19574 | If man sacrifices truth he sacrifices himself, by acting against his own convictions [Novalis] |
19571 | Delusion and truth differ in their life functions [Novalis] |
19597 | Logic (the theory of relations) should be applied to mathematics [Novalis] |
19581 | A problem is a solid mass, which the mind must break up [Novalis] |
19584 | Whoever first counted to two must have seen the possibility of infinite counting [Novalis] |
22025 | Novalis thought self-consciousness cannot disclose 'being', because we are temporal creatures [Novalis, by Pinkard] |
19575 | Refinement of senses increasingly distinguishes individuals [Novalis] |
22067 | Poetry is true idealism, and the self-consciousness of the universe [Novalis] |
19572 | Experiences tests reason, and reason tests experience [Novalis] |
19590 | Empiricists are passive thinkers, given their philosophy by the external world and fate [Novalis] |
19594 | General statements about nature are not valid [Novalis] |
13297 | To the four causes Plato adds a fifth, the idea which guided the event [Seneca] |
19591 | Desire for perfection is an illness, if it turns against what is imperfect [Novalis] |
13307 | If everything can be measured, try measuring the size of a man's soul [Seneca] |
19596 | The whole body is involved in the formation of thoughts [Novalis] |
19573 | The seat of the soul is where our inner and outer worlds interpenetrate [Novalis] |
19577 | Everything is a chaotic unity, then we abstract, then we reunify the world into a free alliance [Novalis] |
21399 | Referring to a person, and speaking about him, are very different [Seneca] |
19585 | Every person has his own language [Novalis] |
19578 | Only self-illuminated perfect individuals are beautiful [Novalis] |
19582 | Morality and philosophy are mutually dependent [Novalis] |
13558 | The supreme good is harmony of spirit [Seneca] |
13325 | Trouble in life comes from copying other people, which is following convention instead of reason [Seneca] |
22239 | Humans acquired the concept of virtue from an analogy with bodily health and strength [Seneca, by Allen] |
13294 | We know death, which is like before birth; ceasing to be and never beginning are the same [Seneca] |
13299 | Living is nothing wonderful; what matters is to die well [Seneca] |
13300 | It is as silly to lament ceasing to be as to lament not having lived in the remote past [Seneca] |
13321 | Is anything sweeter than valuing yourself more when you find you are loved? [Seneca] |
13292 | Selfishness does not produce happiness; to live for yourself, live for others [Seneca] |
13550 | To be always happy is to lack knowledge of one half of nature [Seneca] |
13303 | A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is [Seneca] |
13302 | Life is like a play - it is the quality that matters, not the length [Seneca] |
13301 | We are scared of death - except when we are immersed in pleasure! [Seneca] |
13323 | The whole point of pleasure-seeking is novelty, and abandoning established ways [Seneca] |
13318 | Nature doesn't give us virtue; we must unremittingly pursue it, as a training and an art [Seneca] |
13324 | Living contrary to nature is like rowing against the stream [Seneca] |
13559 | I seek virtue, because it is its own reward [Seneca] |
13554 | True greatness is never allowing events to disturb you [Seneca] |
13305 | Character is ruined by not looking back over our pasts, since the future rests on the past [Seneca] |
13561 | Virtue is always moderate, so excess need not be feared [Seneca] |
13562 | It is shameful to not even recognise your own slaves [Seneca] |
13556 | Every night I critically review how I have behaved during the day [Seneca] |
13308 | It's no good winning lots of fights, if you are then conquered by your own temper [Seneca] |
13552 | Anger is an extreme vice, threatening sanity, and gripping whole states [Seneca] |
13553 | Anger is a vice which afflicts good men as well as bad [Seneca] |
13312 | Excessive curiosity is a form of intemperance [Seneca] |
13549 | Nothing bad can happen to a good man [Seneca] |
13564 | There is far more scope for virtue if you are wealthy; poverty only allows endurance [Seneca] |
13563 | Why does your wife wear in her ears the income of a wealthy house? [Seneca] |
13565 | If wealth was a good, it would make men good [Seneca] |
22027 | Life isn't given to us like a novel - we write the novel [Novalis] |
13315 | To govern used to mean to serve, not to rule; rulers did not test their powers over those who bestowed it [Seneca] |
19589 | The whole point of a monarch is that we accept them as a higher-born, ideal person [Novalis] |
13557 | Unfortunately the majority do not tend to favour what is best [Seneca] |
13322 | Both teachers and pupils should aim at one thing - the improvement of the pupil [Seneca] |
13290 | One joy of learning is making teaching possible [Seneca] |
19580 | If the pupil really yearns for the truth, they only need a hint [Novalis] |
19593 | Persons are shaped by a life history; splendid persons are shaped by world history [Novalis] |
13298 | Suicide may be appropriate even when it is not urgent, if there are few reasons against it [Seneca] |
13319 | If we control our own death, no one has power over us [Seneca] |
13320 | Sometimes we have a duty not to commit suicide, for those we love [Seneca] |
19595 | Nature is a whole, and its individual parts cannot be wholly understood [Novalis] |
19592 | The basic relations of nature are musical [Novalis] |
13548 | The ocean changes in volume in proportion to the attraction of the moon [Seneca] |
13311 | Does time exist on its own? Did anything precede it? Did it pre-exist the cosmos? [Seneca] |
19576 | Religion needs an intermediary, because none of us can connect directly to a godhead [Novalis] |
1513 | The Egyptians were the first to say the soul is immortal and reincarnated [Herodotus] |