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The object of philosophy is the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a theory but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations. The result of philosophy is not a number of “philosophical propositions”, but to make propositions clear. Philosophy should make clear and delimit sharply the thoughts which otherwise are, as it were, opaque and blurred.
 
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.
 
The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. 
 
I’m a nobody, nobody is perfect, therefore I’m perfect.
 
Our craving for generality has [as one] source … our preoccupation with the method of science. I mean the method of reducing the explanation of natural phenomena to the smallest possible number of primitive natural laws; and, in mathematics, of unifying the treatment of different topics by using a generalization. Philosophers constantly see the method of science before their eyes, and are irresistibly tempted to ask and answer in the way science does. This tendency is the real source of metaphysics, and leads the philosopher into complete darkness. I want to say here that it can never be our job to reduce anything to anything, or to explain anything. Philosophy really is “purely descriptive.”
 
I can be friends with people only when they are at their lowest point and have neither the desire nor the strength to restore their habitual sentimental illusions.
 
Temperamentally anxious people can have a hard time staying motivated, period, because their intense focus on their worries distracts them from their goals.
 
CONSCIENCE: The inner voice that warns us that someone may be looking.
 
Masturbation is having sex with someone you love.
 
A great rock is not disturbed by the wind; the mind of a wise man is not disturbed by either honor or abuse.
 
Cognitive psychology has shown that the mind best understands facts when they are woven into a conceptual fabric, such as a narrative, mental map, or intuitive theory. Disconnected facts in the mind are like unlinked pages on the Web: They might as well not exist.
 
Science, however, is not just a matter of making mistakes, but of making mistakes in public. Making mistakes for all to see, in the hopes of getting the others to help with the corrections.
 
People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.
 
Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.
 
The best for me, perhaps, would be if I could lie down one evening and not wake up again.
 
The truth is so precious that it must be guarded by a vast bodyguard of lies.
 
Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.
 
You say you love your wife. You depend on her; she has given you her body, her emotions, her encouragement, a certain feeling of security and well-being. Then she turns away from you; she gets bored or goes off with someone else, and your whole emotional balance is destroyed, and this disturbance, which you don’t like, is called jealousy. There is pain in it, anxiety, hate and violence. So what you are really saying is, ‘As long as you belong to me I love you but the moment you don’t I begin to hate you.
 
The most violent element in society is ignorance.
 
Martyrdom is the only way a person can become famous without ability.
 
2718 quotes