Favorite philosophical quotes

Any of you have a quote you find that philosophically really touches you, and you feel is relative to your life?

Please share if so. And please recommend any book or article you found it in.

Here’s mine:
“If you think this Universe is bad, you should see some of the others.” - Philip K Dick :)laughing:

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This was on a shoe box a while back. Go Do Be .It speaks to me + probably some others here who seem caught up with only the Be.

I have many quotes I like. Here’s two…

“The first step you never take, will be the longest journey you’ll ever have.”

and…

“Any man who said he never had a chance, never took a chance.”

This last one reminds me a bit of @shutterbug. How he bucked the odds…never looked for an excuse …and eventually turned his life around. :wink:

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“when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.”

-Nietzsche

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"Can’t we all just get along"
Rodney King

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That’s one of my favorites too.

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I love this Neitzsche quote!

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Is there a second part to it? ‘Chase not monsters, less ye become a monster.’ To paraphrase it.

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“The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they’re okay, then it’s you.”

Rita Mae Brown

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…and 3 out of 4 dentists recommend it!!..

I asked my dentist if she was the 4th who didn’t recommend it. She thought that was hilarious! :wink:

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If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am for myself only, what am I? And if not now, when?

  • Hillel -

I came across a man,
Sitting naked, bestial, in a desert.
In his hands he held his heart,
And he ate of it.
I said, "Friend, is that good?"
He said, “Ah, it is bitter, bitter,
But I like it,
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”

  • Stephen Crane -
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I’ve posted my own quotes before so I’ll rehash a couple just for this thread…

On Fatherhood…

“Long days, fast years”

On Art…

Bad art can make you laugh
Good art can make you think
Great art can destroy you

I wrote that down in a moment of enlightenment when I was in full-blown psychosis, and I want it written on my tombstone! I think it’s a brilliantly crazy quote made at the height of my mania.

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It goes - “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster … for when you gaze into the abyss, it also gazes into you.”

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I identify a lot with that quote.

Those are great Patrick!

Madness does often create the best art. I just finished a story titled the Prism. I wrote it when I wasn’t getting a lot of sleep, and was kind of in a bizarre mindset. And it shows in the story haha!

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Thank you. This exact quote is in the graphic novel the Watchmen.

Yes, but the gazing into the abyss part is my favorite :slight_smile:

What does this quote mean to you?

I take it as: you become what you put too much focus/dwell on.

Ex.
If you perceive everything negatively so much, that’s exactly what you will be.

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Hahaha mine too! :smile:

To me it basically comes across as meaning if you seek evil in the world, then that’s what you’ll get. But if you seek goodness and light you’ll get that instead.

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“Time spent with cats is never waisted”

Freud

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Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. And nothing, that’s all that Bobby left me.

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