Deep philosophical quotes offer us a chance to think about the profound, complex, and multi-layered aspects of life.
They not only stimulate deep thought, but also inspire self-reflection, providing new perspectives on the world and our place within it.
What are the most philosophical quotes?
A philosophical quote is one that delves into the nature of life and existence, stimulates deep thought, and often leaves us with more questions than answers 🙂
They explore fundamental questions about existence, reality, consciousness, values, reason, and usually originate from philosophers, writers, thinkers, and ‘thought leaders’.
Here’s a collection of deep philosophical quotes for you to ponder further.
Deep Philosophical Quotes
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates
“I think therefore I am.” René Descartes
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” Friedrich Nietzsche
“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” Jean-Paul Sartre
“Courage is knowing what not to fear.” Plato
“If you are depressed you are living in the past, if you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” Lao Tzu
“The only thing I know is that I know nothing.” Socrates
“Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but of how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.” Immanuel Kant
“The mind is everything. What you think you become.” Buddha
“Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination.” Immanuel Kant
“Liberty consists in doing what one desires.” John Stuart Mill
“It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.” John Locke
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” Albert Einstein
“In everything, there is a share of everything.” Anaxagoras
“The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.” Confucius
“Philosophy is at once the most sublime and the most trivial of human pursuits.” William James
“Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.” Albert Einstein
“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
“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” Ludwig Wittgenstein
“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” Søren Kierkegaard
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” Alan Watts
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Aristotle
“Life must be understood backward. But it must be lived forward.” Søren Kierkegaard
“We do not describe the world we see, we see the world we can describe.” René Descartes
“What is rational is actual and what is actual is rational.” G.W.F. Hegel
“Science is what you know, philosophy is what you don’t know.” Bertrand Russell
“The measure of life is not its duration, but its donation.” Peter Marshall
“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.” Epicurus
“The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.” Marcus Tullius Cicero
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Aristotle
“The brave man is he who overcomes not only his enemies but his pleasures.” Democritus
“To find yourself, think for yourself.” Socrates
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” Plato
“The only thing permanent is change.” Heracl*tus
“The journey of the soul is not to learn, but to remember.” Plato
“One cannot step twice in the same river.” Heracl*tus
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Deep Philosophical Quotes About Life
“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” Epicurus
“To be, or not to be, that is the question.” William Shakespeare
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” Plato
“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” Donald Rumsfeld
“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” Voltaire
“The meaning of life is to give life meaning.” Viktor E. Frankl
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” Marcus Aurelius
“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” John Milton
“Necessity is the mother of invention.” Plato
“Even while they teach, men learn.” Seneca the Younger
“The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.” William Saroyan
“I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?” Zhuangzi
“It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true.” Bertrand Russell
“We live in the best of all possible worlds.” Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” Ludwig Wittgenstein
“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” Karl Marx
“All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.” Blaise Pascal
If you’re interested in more deep and philosophical quotes, then check out:
- 25 Funny Philosophical Quotes
- 65 Short Philosophical Quotes and Sayings In A Modern World
