Quotes by Philosophers - Page 111

I asked a man who took a death boat to Europe across the treachelous waters of the Mediterranean from Libya"Why are you taking this death boat". "I am already dead." He said. This is my coffin. If I succeed to get to the other side, I get a new life. If I fail, I loose nothing. I remain what I am now: Dead.
Bangambiki Habyarimana
Despair is the source of all evil
Bangambiki Habyarimana
Even if the powers destroy us," he said, "who are we, to condemn them? As well might a fleeting word judge the speaker that forms it. Perhaps they use us for their own high ends, use our strength and our weakness, our joy and our pain, in some theme inconceivable to us, and excellent." But I protested, "What theme could justify such waste, such futility? And how can we help judging; and how otherwise can we judge than by the light of our own hearts, by which we judge ourselves? It would be base to praise the Star Maker, knowing that he was too insensitive to care about the fate of his worlds." Bvalltu was silent in his mind for a moment. Then he looked up, searching among the smoke-clouds for a daytime star. And then he said to me in his mind, "If he saved all the worlds, but tormented just one man, would you forgive him? Or if he was a little harsh only to one stupid child? What has our pain to do with it, or our failure? Star Maker! It is a good word, though we can have no notion of its meaning. Oh, Star Maker, even if you destroy me, I must praise you. Even if you torture my dearest. Even if you torment and waste all your lovely worlds, the little figments of your imagination, yet I must praise you. For if you do so, it must be right. In me it would be wrong, but in you it must be right.
Olaf Stapledon
I would like to explode, flow, crumble into dust, and my disintegration would be my masterpiece.
Emil M. Cioran
Hence it is a superficial view (which presumably has never seen a person in despair, not even one’s own self) when it is said of a man in despair, "He is consuming himself." For precisely this it is he despairs of, and to his torment it is precisely this he cannot do, since by despair fire has entered into something that cannot burn, or cannot burn up, that is, into the self.
Søren Kierkegaard
Just as the weak, despairing person is unwilling to hear anything about any consolation eternity has for him, so a person in such despair does not want to hear anything about it, either, but for a different reason: this very consolation would be his undoing; as a denunciation of all existence. Figuratively speaking, it is as if an error slipped into an author's writing and the error became conscious of itself as an error; perhaps it actually was not a mistake but in a much higher sense an essential part of the whole production, and now this error wants to mutiny against the author, out of hatred toward him, forbidding him to correct it and in maniacal defiance saying to him: No! I refuse to be erased! I will stand as a witness against you; a witness that you are a second-rate author.
Søren Kierkegaard
The seemingly most hateful, those on the front lines of despair, are mere instruments of sinister forces, which pull the manipulative strings of manufactured supremacy.
T.F. Hodge
I feel as if I had been born dead underAmerican bombardment.
Ştefan Bolea
the deepest subjective experiences are also the most universal, because through them one reaches the universal source of life.
Emil M. Cioran
Whether you are man or woman, rich or poor, dependent or free, happy or unhappy; whether you bore in your elevation the splendour of the crown or in humble obscurity only the toil and heat of the day; whether your name will be remembered for as long as the world lasts, and so will have been remembered as long as it lasted, or you are without a name and run namelessly with the numberless multitude; whether the glory that surrounded you surpassed all human description, or the severest and most ignominious human judgment was passed on you -- eternity asks you and every one of these millions of millions, just one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not, whether so in despair that you did not know that you were in despair, or in such a way that you bore this sickness concealed deep inside you as your gnawing secret, under your heart like the fruit of a sinful love, or in such a way that, a terror to others, you raged in despair. If then, if you have lived in despair, then whatever else you won or lost, for you everything is lost, eternity does not acknowledge you, it never knew you, or, still more dreadful, it knows you as you are known, it manacles you to yourself in despair!
Søren Kierkegaard
Long after the traces of the human animal have disappeared, many of the species it is bent on destroying will still be around, along with others that have yet to spring up.The Earth will forget mankind. The play of life will go on.
John N Gray
Wherever one encounters members of the human race, they always show the traits of a being that is condemned to surrealistic effort. Whoever goes in search of humans will find acrobats.
Peter Sloterdijk
If we were entirely sane, if madness did not have a serious grip on one side of us, other people's tragedies would hold a great deal less interest for us.
Alain de Botton
I am a 21st century person who was accidentally launched in the 20th. I have a deep nostalgia for the future
FM-2030
Ah, this dear old planet! All is clear now. We know ourselves; we now know of what we are capable.
Albert Camus
Human beings are by nature political animals
Aristotle
Don't go into the business of pleasing people. You can't please everybody. Simply do your best at what you do
Bangambiki Habyarimana
Even a whale is concealed by darkness.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The wise have two arms, and yet can grasp many things,and have two eyes, and yet can perceive many things.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A calm ocean is safer than a raging river.
Matshona Dhliwayo
By the time a fool learns how to hold a spear, the lion has eaten him.
Matshona Dhliwayo
No matter how deep the whale swims, it will always surface.
Matshona Dhliwayo
He who traps mice should not boast to he who hunts lions.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A full mind is more valuable than a full bank account.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A calm lion is still more dangerous than a raging dog.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The folly of the wise is better than the wisdom of fools.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Wisdom in sorrow is better than joy in folly.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The size of a fish does not determine its speed.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A kind ‘no’ from the heart is better than a deceitful ‘yes’ from the tongue.
Matshona Dhliwayo
He who cannot dance blames the song.
Matshona Dhliwayo
One who has been stung by a spider should not go out and kill bees.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A knife is cutlery in one hand and a weapon in another.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Herbs may be bitter, but cure.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Not every dog that barks, bites.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A foolish son has no advantage over an orphan.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Healthy trees bear healthy fruit.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A foolish rabbit is endeared by a foxes’ smile.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Grass is food for elephants, but a cushion for lions.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A teaspoon of honey is worth more to the bee than a barrel of gold.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A whale has nowhere to hide in a river.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The arrow that pierces the deer only scratches a whale.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Fish that boast in a pond should not boast in the ocean.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A floating leaf has more to boast about than a sinking ship.
Matshona Dhliwayo
An apple never bares a pear.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Words live longer than mortals.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The sweetest apples are eaten first.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A lion gains nothing from boasting to a dog.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A chariot cannot travel in two directions.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Beautiful trees sometimes bear bitter fruit.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The bird and the elephant drink from the same river.
Matshona Dhliwayo
If you step on a serpent, it will reply you with its fangs.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A bow is useless without an arrow.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The early lion gets the best game.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A slice is a loaf to a mouse.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Regret poisons your thoughts.Doubt poisons your dreams.Fear poisons your hopes.Insincerity poisons your deeds.
Matshona Dhiliwayo
Timeless wisdom brings timeless blessings.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The poorest people sometimes have the richest minds.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Grass is never green by accident.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Love is the weapon of the wise.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A river cannot boast to a sea.
Matshona Dhliwayo