Quotes from Philosophers: Timeless Wisdom for Life

Know thyself. — Socrates

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. — Socrates

He who is not a good servant will not be a good master. — Plato

Plato is my friend, but truth is a better friend. — Aristotle

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

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. — Aristotle

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others. — Aristotle

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something. — Plato

The measure of a man is what he does with power. — Plato

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance. — Plato

All that we hear is an opinion, not a fact. All that we see is a perspective, not the truth. — Marcus Aurelius

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. — Marcus Aurelius

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. — Marcus Aurelius

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

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. — Marcus Aurelius

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. — Marcus Aurelius

Very little is needed to make a happy life. — Epictetus

It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. — Epictetus

Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control. — Epictetus

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

He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at. — Seneca

We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. — Seneca

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. — Seneca

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. — Seneca

Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. — Jean-Paul Sartre

Existence precedes essence. — Jean-Paul Sartre

Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you. — Jean-Paul Sartre

Despair is the price man pays for being free. — Jean-Paul Sartre

The world is absurd, and that’s where freedom begins. — Albert Camus

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. — Albert Camus

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. — Albert Camus

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. — Albert Camus

Life is a sum of all your choices. — Jean-Paul Sartre

Everything has been figured out, except how to live. — Jean-Paul Sartre

The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world. — Albert Camus

I rebel; therefore I exist. — Albert Camus

Dare to know! Have courage to use your own understanding. — Immanuel Kant

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law. — Immanuel Kant

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life. — Immanuel Kant

Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind. — Immanuel Kant

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The most certain way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Prejudices are what fools use for reason. — Voltaire

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire

Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers. — Voltaire

Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else. — John Stuart Mill

The spirit of the age may alter, but principles endure. — John Locke

The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. — John Locke

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. — Laozi

A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel. — Laozi

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. — Laozi

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. — Laozi

When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you. — Laozi

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. — Buddha

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule. — Buddha

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without. — Buddha

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. — Buddha

Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely. — Buddha

The self is a response to a social situation. — Confucius

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

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. — Friedrich Nietzsche

What does not kill me makes me stronger. — Friedrich Nietzsche

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Without music, life would be a mistake. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. — Mark Twain

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. — Mark Twain

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform. — Mark Twain

Comparison is the thief of joy. — Theodore Roosevelt

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. — Theodore Roosevelt

Inaction kills manhood. — John F. Kennedy

Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. — John F. Kennedy

The only thing I know is that I know nothing. — Socrates

All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. — Voltaire (satirical)

Falsity cannot succeed where knowledge prevails. — Francis Bacon

Knowledge is power. — Francis Bacon

The true method of experience first lights the candle, and then by means of the candle shows the way. — Francis Bacon

There is no truth but truth. — Parmenides

Truth lies hidden in obscurity. — Heraclitus

Bigotry is the disease of ignorance. — Wendell Phillips

Doubt is the origin of wisdom. — René Descartes

I think, therefore I am. — René Descartes

To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence. — René Descartes

Philosophy begins in wonder. — Plato

Virtue is its own reward. — Cicero

It is not enough to win; others must lose. — Gore Vidal (ironic critique)

Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual. — Friedrich Nietzsche

An action is morally good if it results in the greatest happiness for the greatest number. — Jeremy Bentham

Better ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer. — William Blackstone

The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you. — John Wooden

Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching. — C.S. Lewis

Ethics is nothing other than reverence for life. — Albert Schweitzer

Goodness is the only investment that never fails. — Henry David Thoreau

Out of clutter, find simplicity. — Albert Einstein

The unexamined life is not worth living. — Socrates

To live is to suffer; to survive is to find meaning in the suffering. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. — John Lennon (inspired by philosopher themes)

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is a man without the proper use of his senses? — Michel de Montaigne

I came into the world poor and naked; I shall leave it rich and clothed in wisdom. — Michel de Montaigne

Life is not measured in years, but in the moments that take your breath away. — George Bernard Shaw

The meaning of life is that it stops. — Franz Kafka

One must imagine Sisyphus happy. — Albert Camus

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. — Oscar Wilde

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. — Søren Kierkegaard

Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of one's desires, but by the removal of desire. — Epictetus

Freedom is nothing else but the chance to be better. — Charles Baudelaire

No one is more enslaved than the one who thinks he is free without being so. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Freedom is responsibility. That is why most men dread it. — George Bernard Shaw

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people. — John Adams

The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression. — W.E.B. Du Bois

Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. — George Orwell

Until we are all free, we are none of us free. — Emma Lazarus

Responsibility walks hand in hand with capacity and power. — Abigail Adams

With great power comes great responsibility. — Voltaire (popularized by Spider-Man)

True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline. — Mortimer J. Adler

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. — Thomas Jefferson