#philosophers

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers. ↗

— William James

#one thing #only #other #philosopher #philosophers

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition! ↗

— William James

#call #craves #every #fact #generally

It is, I think, particularly in periods of acknowledged crisis that scientists have turned to philosophical analysis as a device for unlocking the riddles of their field. Scientists have not generally needed or wanted to be philosophers. ↗

— Thomas Kuhn

#analysis #crisis #device #field #generally

Perhaps it is of more value to infuriate philosophers than to go along with them. ↗

— Wallace Stevens

#go #more #perhaps #philosophers #than

All of the philosophers I studied were white (with a few Eastern exceptions), and, for that matter, they were all male. Africa, the cradle of civilization, seemed to have no footing in the highest form of human thought. ↗

— Walter Mosley

#civilization #cradle #eastern #exceptions #few

An honest religious thinker is like a tightrope walker. He almost looks as though he were walking on nothing but air. His support is the slenderest imaginable. And yet it really is possible to walk on it. ↗

— Ludwig Wittgenstein

#philosophy #religion #wittgenstein #imagination

It has been a long time since philosophers have read men’s souls. It is not their task, we are told. Perhaps. But we must not be surprised if they no longer matter much to us. ↗

— Emil Cioran

#men

As long as there have been men and they have lived, they have all felt this tragic ambiguity of their condition, but as long as there have been philosophers and they have thought, most of them have tried to mask it. ↗

— Simone de Beauvoir

#existentialism #philosophers #men

There is reason to think the most celebrated philosophers would have been bunglers at business; but the reason is because they despised it. ↗

— George Savile

#been #business #celebrated #despised #most

Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards. ↗

— Diogenes

#fewest #get #good #greatest #philosophers