Top 200 Philosophical Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

— Albert Camus

52. “It is the responsibility of leadership to work intelligently with what is given, and not waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.”

— Marcus Aurelius

53. “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

— Albert Camus

54. “Confine yourself to the present.”

— Marcus Aurelius

55. “The easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves. ”

— Socrates

56. “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.”

— Confucius

57. “I only know one thing, and that is I know nothing.”

— Socrates

58. “Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.”

— Marcus Aurelius

59. “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

60. “So long as there is desire or want, it is a sure sign that there is imperfection. A perfect, free being cannot have any desire.”

— Swami Vivekananda

61. “If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one’s own self-deception and ignorance.”

— Marcus Aurelius

62. “Life is long, if you know how to use it.”

— Seneca

63. “Art is the proper task of life. ”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

64. “Muddy water, let stand, becomes clear.”

— Lao Tzu

65. “Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.”

— Immanuel Kant

66. “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

— Albert Camus

67. “You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.”

— Eckhart Tolle

68. “Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.”

— Lao Tzu

69. “Man is condemned to be free.”

— Jean-Paul Sartre

70. “Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think.”

— Buddha

71. “The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.”

— Marcus Aurelius

72. “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

— Socrates

73. “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”

— Bertrand Russell

74. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”

— Buddha

75. “Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

76. “Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves.”

— Nisargadatta Maharaj

77. “You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.”

— Alan Watts

78. “Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

79. “For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.”

— Marcus Aurelius

80. “Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.”

— Lao Tzu

81. “Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.”

— Bertrand Russell

82. “Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.”

— Marcus Aurelius

83. “Be here now.”

— Ram Dass

84. “Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.”

— Alan Watts

85. “Thoughts come and go. Feelings come and go. Find out what it is that remains.”

— Ramana Maharshi

86. “If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”

— René Descartes

87. “Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up. Now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.”

— Alan Watts

88. “Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.”

— Saint Augustine

89. “When force of circumstance upsets your equanimity lose no time in recovering your self-control, and do not remain out of tune longer than you can help. Habitual recurrence to the harmony will increase your mastery of it.”

— Marcus Aurelius

90. “The master observes the world but trusts his inner vision. He allows things to come and go. He prefers what is within to what is without.”

— Lao Tzu

91. “The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.”

— Confucius

92. “Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law.”

— Immanuel Kant

93. “Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the self is enlightenment. Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self requires strength; He who knows he has enough is rich. Perseverance is a sign of will power.”

— Lao Tzu

94. “Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”

— Voltaire

95. “It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.”

— Marcus Aurelius

96. “Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

97. “It is not events that disturb the minds of men, but the view they take of them.”

— Epictetus

98. “I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.”

— Richard P. Feynman

99. “The difficult problems in life always start off being simple. Great affairs always start off being small.”

— Lao Tzu

100. “Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?”

— Marcus Aurelius