The traditional disputes of philosophers are, for the most part, as unwarranted as they are unfruitful.
~ Sir Alfred Jules Ayer

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.
~ Francis Bacon

Unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.
~ Henry Brooks Adams

The philosopher is like a man fasting in the midst of universal intoxication. He alone perceives the illusion of which all creatures are the willing playthings; he is less duped than his neighbor by his own nature. He judges more sanely, he sees things as they are. It is in this that his liberty consists -- in the ability to see clearly and soberly, in the power of mental record.
~ Henri Frederic Amiel

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.
~ St. Thomas Aquinas

In it he proves that all things are true and states how the truths of all contradictions may be reconciled physically, such as for example that white is black and black is white; that one can be and not be at the same time; that there can be hills without valleys; that nothingness is something and that everything, which is, is not. But take note that he proves all these unheard-of paradoxes without any fallacious or sophistical reasoning.
~ Savinien Cyrano De Bergerac

What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind.
~ George Berkeley

A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.
~ Ambrose Bierce

All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher.
~ Ambrose Bierce

Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society.
~ Anita Brookner

Look, I really don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive, you got to flap your arms and legs, you got to jump around a lot, you got to make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death. And therefore, as I see it, if you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy, or at least your thoughts should be noisy and colorful and lively.
~ Mel Brooks

Real philosophy seeks rather to solve than to deny.
~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

One may summon his philosophy when they are beaten in battle, not till then.
~ John Burroughs

All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.
~ Samuel Butler

Pythagoras, Locke, Socrates -- but pages might be filled up, as vainly as before, with the sad usage of all sorts of sages, who in his life-time, each was deemed a bore! The loftiest minds outrun their tardy ages.
~ Lord Byron

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.
~ Albert Camus

The profoundest thoughts of the philosophers have something trickle about them. A lot disappears in order for something to suddenly appear in the palm of the hand.
~ Elias Canetti

Tell me what gives a man or woman their greatest pleasure and I'll tell you their philosophy of life.
~ Dale Carnegie

To philosophize is only another way of being afraid and leads hardly anywhere but to cowardly make-believe.
~ Louis-Ferdinand Celine

Philosophy, like medicine, has plenty of drugs, few good remedies, and hardly any specific cures.
~ Sebastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort