Philosophical Quotations
He who exercises his reason and cultivates it seems to be both in the best state of mind and most dear to the gods. For if the gods have any care for human affairs, as they are thought to have, it would be reasonable both that they should delight in that which is best and most akin to them and that they should reward those who love and honour this most, as caring for the things that are dear to them and acting both rightly and nobly. And that all these attributes belong most to the philosopher is manifest. He, therefore, is the dearest to the gods. And he who is that will presumably be also the happiest. (Nichomachean Ethics)
Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars. (Poetics)
Every realm of nature is marvellous: and as Heraclitus, when the strangers who came to visit him found him warming himself at the furnace in the kitchen and hesitated to go in, is reported to have bidden them not to be afraid to enter, as even in that kitchen divinities were present, so we should venture on the study of every kind of animal without distaste; for each and all will reveal to us something natural and something beautiful. (Parts of Animals)
Believe that man’s happiness lies not in the magnitude of his possessions but in the proper condition of his soul. Even the body is not called blessed because it is magnificently clothed, but because it is healthy and in good condition, even if it lacks this decoration. In the same way only the cultivated soul is to be called happy; and only the man who is such, not the man who is magnificently decorated with external good, but is himself of no value. We do not call a bad horse valuable because it has a golden bit and costly harness; we reserve our praise for the horse that is in perfect condition. (Protrepticus)
It is clear, then, that according to the most authoritative opinion wisdom is the greatest of goods. We ought, therefore, not to flee philosophy, if it is, as we think, the acquisition and use of wisdom, and wisdom is among the greatest goods; and if in pursuit of gain we run many risks by sailing to the pillars of Hercules, we should not shrink from labour or expense in the pursuit of wisdom. Indeed, it is the part of a slave to desire life rather than the good life, to follow the opinions of the many instead of expecting the many to follow one’s own, to seek gain and pay no heed whatever to what is noble. (Protrepticus)
It is well to repeat constantly that man is a being who is full of contradictions and that he is in a state of conflict with himself. Man seeks freedom. There is within him an immense drive towards freedom, and yet not only does he easily fall into slavery, but he even loves slavery. (Slavery and Freedom)
Freedom is the freedom of the spirit and it is mere illusion to search for it exclusively in the natural world. For the order of freedom and the order of nature are opposed to one another, and the deepest thinkers have always been aware of the difference between them. Nature is always a deterministic system, and our own nature therefore cannot be the source of our freedom […] Freedom must be discovered and revealed in the experience of the spiritual life. (Freedom and the Spirit)
Freedom of personality is a duty, it is a fulfilment of vocation, the realization of the divine idea of man, an answer to the divine call. Man ought to be free, he dare not be a slave, because he ought to be a man. Such is the will of God. Man likes being a slave and puts forward a claim to slavery as a right, a claim which changes its form from time to time. It is precisely slavery to which man lays claim as a right. Freedom ought not to be a declaration of the rights of man; it ought to be a declaration of man’s obligations, of the duty of man to be a personality, to display the strength of character of personality. One ought not to refuse personality. One can refuse life and sometimes one ought to refuse it, but not personality, not the dignity of man, not the freedom to which that dignity is linked. (Slavery and Freedom)
The Gospel is essentially – not accidentally – controversial. It is an attack on man who is his own centre. Divine truth wrestles with human falsehood, and man conceals himself behind his ‘self-knowledge’ in order to defend himself against the Divine claim. Hence a Christian doctrine of man must be beaten out on the anvil of continual argument with man’s own view of himself. (Man in Revolt)
Shigalyov is a man of genius. He has discovered ‘equality’. He has it all so beautifully written down in his copy-book. He believes in espionage. He wants the members of society to control each other and be in duty bound to denounce their neighbours. Everybody belongs to all and all belong to each single one. All are slaves and equals in slavery. As a final resort there will be calumny and murder; but the most important thing remains equality. (The Devils)
The Parisian philosophers […] explode or render odious or contemptible, that class of virtues which restrain the appetite […] In the place of all this, they substitute a virtue which they call humanity or benevolence. (Letter to Rivarol, 1791)