50 of the best philosophy quotes, ranging from Ancient Greece through to modern times. Perfect for making sense out of life, the universe, and everything!
Top Philosophical Quotes
This collection of philosophical words and quotes is drawn from all eras of human history. Including Greek philosophers quotes, words from modern thinkers, and amazing insights, this list is designed to make you think.
Whilst my blog is normally about travel, philosophy plays an important part in my life. Of all the philosophical schools, I would consider myself more a Stoic than anything else.
Another connection of course, is that I now live in Greece. You could say it is the birthplace of Western philosophy!
I hope you enjoy these best philosophical sayings and thoughts as much as I did putting them together.
Greek Philosophers Quotes
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”
– Aristotle
“The unexamined life is not worth living”
– Socrates
“It is hard to fight desire; but to control it is the sign of a reasonable man.”
– Democritus
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”
– Plato
“The only thing I know is that I know nothing”
– Socrates
“The worst of all deceptions is self-deception.”
– Plato
“Happiness is the highest good”
– Aristotle
“The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.”
– Thales
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”
– Aristotle
Philosophy Quotes
“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”
– Ludwig Wittgenstein
“Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily”
– William of Ockham
“The life of man (in a state of nature) is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”
– Thomas Hobbes
“I think therefore I am” (“Cogito, ergo sum”)
– René Descartes
“He who thinks great thoughts, often makes great errors”
– Martin Heidegger
“We live in the best of all possible worlds”
– Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
“What is rational is actual and what is actual is rational”
– G. W. F. Hegel
“God is dead! He remains dead! And we have killed him.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide”
– Albert Camus
Philosophy Quotations
Here's our next section of sayings and quotes. This inspiring philosophical quote reminds us that life is always changing and new journeys are just beginning.
“One cannot step twice in the same river”
– Heraclitus
“To be is to be perceived” (“Esse est percipi”)
– Bishop George Berkeley
“Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination”
– Immanuel Kant
“No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience”
– John Locke
“Liberty consists in doing what one desires”
– John Stuart Mill
“Even while they teach, men learn”
– Seneca the Younger
“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance”
– Socrates
“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him”
– Voltaire
“Leisure is the mother of philosophy”
– Thomas Hobbes
“Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language”
– Ludwig Wittgenstein
“Only one man ever understood me, and he didn’t understand me”
– G. W. F. Hegel
“The mind is furnished with ideas by experience alone”
– John Locke
“Life must be understood backward. But it must be lived forward ”
– Søren Kierkegaard
“Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know”
– Bertrand Russell
“Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits”
– William James
“History is Philosophy teaching by examples”
– Thucydides
“Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly”
– Francis Bacon
“A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.”
– Francis Bacon
“The superior man seeks what is right; the inferior one, what is profitable.”
– Confucious
“Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man's?”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
Quotes from Famous Philosophers
Rather than focus on a specific subset of philosophy, such as existentialism or stoicism, we've tried to come up with 50 of the best philosophical quotes for you.
“I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong”
– Bertrand Russell
“Religion is the sign of the oppressed … it is the opium of the people”
– Karl Marx
“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it”
– Epicurus
“Whatever is reasonable is true, and whatever is true is reasonable”
– G. W. F. Hegel
“Man is condemned to be free”
– Jean-Paul Sartre
“It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth”
– John Locke
“I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure it is not in order to enjoy ourselves”
– Ludwig Wittgenstein
“That man is wisest who, like Socrates, realizes that his wisdom is worthless”
– Plato
“All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”
– Voltaire (in parody of Leibniz)
“Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains”
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest”
– Denis Diderot
“Virtue is nothing else than right reason”
– Seneca the Younger
“Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of one's desires, but by the removal of desire”
– Epictetus
“In everything, there is a share of everything”
– Anaxagoras
“The brave man is he who overcomes not only his enemies but his pleasures”
– Democritus
“Good and evil, reward and punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature”
– John Locke
“Man is the measure of all things”
– Protagoras
“We are too weak to discover the truth by reason alone”
– St. Augustine
FAQ About Philosophy and Life
Ancient and modern philosophers alike continually ask themselves questions in order to determine what, if any, meaning there is in life.
What is the best philosophy in life?
The purpose of life is a comprehensive examination of one's beliefs about how we should live our lives and the world in general. This might include questions such as: Do you believe there is a God? What do you mean by “success”? What does “purpose” mean to you?
What is a famous philosophy quote?
‘Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.' by Albert Einstein.
What are some good philosophy quotes?
‘The unexamined life is not worth living' – Socrates and ‘Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent' – Ludwig Wittgenstein.
What is the meaning of life?
The difference between being alive and truly living is examined by the philosophical question ‘What is the meaning of life?'
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10 of the Greatest Philosophers
- Socrates -One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.
- Plato – Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something
- Aristotle – Happiness lies in virtuous activity, and perfect happiness lies in the best activity, which is contemplative.
- Kierkegaard – Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
- Hegel – We learn from history that we do not learn from history.
- Voltaire – Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
- Rousseau – Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.
- Kant – Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck.
- Nietzsche – He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
- Wittgenstein – Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.
I hope you've enjoyed this collection of top 50 philosophy quotes! I tried to touch on the major milestones in the history of thought, but this is by no means an exhaustive list. The world's best philosophers are far too numerous to cover them all here, so I only cited a few of our favorites.
How about you? What quotes did I miss that mean a lot to you?
– Dave BriggsDave is a travel writer originally from the UK who now lives in Greece. As well as creating this list of Greek philosopher quotes, he's written hundreds of travel guides about awesome destinations all over Greece. Follow Dave on social media for travel inspiration from Greece and beyond: