Quotes by Philosophers

The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation. George Santayana

Witness Reward Mind Instrument Operation Body Function

Each religion, by the help of more or less myth, which it takes more or less seriously, proposes some method of fortifying the human soul and enabling it to make its peace with its destiny. George Santayana

To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood. George Santayana

Arrogant Down Angle Delight Knock Blood Deep Thing

The primary use of conversation is to satisfy the impulse to talk. George Santayana

Conversation Primary Talk Impulse Use Satisfy

Let a man once overcome his selfish terror at his own infinitude, and his infinitude is, in one sense, overcome. George Santayana

Man Selfish Overcome Own Sense Once Terror His

To be brief is almost a condition of being inspired. George Santayana

Inspired Almost Condition Being Brief

The mind of the Renaissance was not a pilgrim mind, but a sedentary city mind, like that of the ancients. George Santayana

Mind Ancient City Sedentary Like Renaissance Pilgrim

The love of all-inclusiveness is as dangerous in philosophy as in art. George Santayana

Love Art Dangerous Philosophy

The tendency to gather and to breed philosophers in universities does not belong to ages of free and humane reflection: it is scholastic and proper to the Middle Ages and to Germany. George Santayana

Reflection Free Humane Philosophers Proper Tendency Scholastic Does Germany Middle Middle Ages Ages Breed Belong Universities Gather

It is true that men themselves made this world of nations... but this world without doubt has issued from a mind often diverse, at times quite contrary, and always superior to the particular ends that men had proposed to themselves. Giambattista Vico

That which we have lived is nothing; that which we live is a point; that which we have to live is not yet a point, but may be a point which, together, shall be and shall have been. Giordano Bruno

Together Nothing Live Shall Point Been May Which Lived

There is no law governing all things. Giordano Bruno

Law All Things No Law Governing Things

Every soul and spirit has some degree of continuity with the universal spirit, which is recognized to be located not only where the individual soul lives and perceives, but also to be spread out everywhere in its essence and substance, as many Platonists and Pythagoreans have taught. Giordano Bruno

Do you not see what damage has been done to science through this: i.e. pedants wishing to be philosophers; to treat of natural things, and mix themselves with and decide about things Divine? Giordano Bruno

You Science Natural Treat Philosophers Has-Been See About Through Divine Wishing Mix Been Done Decide Themselves Things Damage

I consider that all which lives must feed itself and nourish itself in a manner suitable to the way in which it lives. Giordano Bruno

Suitable Consider Way Must Feed Itself Which Manner Nourish Lives

Those who are truly contemporary are those who neither perfectly coincide with their time nor adapt to its demands... Contemporariness, then, is that relationship with time that adheres to it through a disconnection. Giorgio Agamben

Time Relationship Those Neither Through Perfectly Demands Contemporary Nor Truly Then Who Adapt Coincide

Finally there are simple ideas of which no definition can be given; there are also axioms or postulates, or in a word primary principles, which cannot be proved and have no need of proof. Gottfried Leibniz

Simple Word Finally Definition Proof Given Primary Ideas Also Principles Proved Cannot Which Axiom Need

I maintain also that substances, whether material or immaterial, cannot be conceived in their bare essence without any activity, activity being of the essence of substance in general. Gottfried Leibniz

Immaterial General Maintain Conceived Also Without Material Any Essence Substance Substances Being Cannot Whether Bare Activity

It follows from what we have just said, that the natural changes of monads come from an internal principle, since an external cause would be unable to influence their inner being. Gottfried Leibniz

Natural Cause Changes Unable Would Would-Be Follows Since Come Principle Said Just Being Influence Internal Inner External

I hold that the mark of a genuine idea is that its possibility can be proved, either a priori by conceiving its cause or reason, or a posteriori when experience teaches us that it is in fact in nature. Gottfried Leibniz

Nature Experience Cause Mark Possibility Fact Idea Conceiving Genuine Proved In Fact Hold Either Us Teaches Reason