Critical Philosophy Quotes

The more he identifies with the dominant images of need, the less he understands his own life and his own desires. The spectacle's estrangement from the acting subject is expressed by the fact that the individual's gestures are no longer his own; they are the gestures of someone else who represents them to him. ~ Guy Debord

To some people independent thought is heresy and critical thought blasphemy ~ Rassool Jibraeel Snyman

It is ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing the ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish which lies in the way to knowledge. ~ John Locke

The understanding, like the eye, whilst it makes us see and perceive all other things, takes no notice of itself: and it requires art and pains to set it at a distance and make it its own object ...
If by this inquiry into the nature of the understanding, I can discover the powers thereof; how far they reach; to what things they are in any degree proportionate; and where they fail us, I suppose it may be of use to prevail with the busy mind of man to be more cautious in meddling with things exceeding its comprehension; to stop when it is at the utmost extent of its tether; and to sit down in a quiet ignorance of those things which, upon examination, are found to be beyond the reach of our capacities. ~ John Locke

Do you see the slightest evidence anywhere in the universe that creation came to an end with the birth of man? Do you see the slightest evidence anywhere out there that man was the climax toward which creation had been straining from the beginning? ... Very far from it. The universe went on as before, the planet went on as before. Man's appearance caused no more stir than the appearance of jellyfish. ~ Daniel Quinn

In life, your greatest wealth is not your money, but it is your time. ~ Debasish Mridha

I reject ‛poor' as the artificial creation of humans. Hunger exists, though, and a hungry creature is entitled to eat. ~ Rachel Hartman

To be a leader you have to jump into the ocean of uncertainty and lead the followers toward the known or unknown destination. ~ Debasish Mridha

The thing that attracted me about philosophy was that it went straight to essentials. I had never liked fiddling detail; I perceived the general significance of things rather than their singularities, and I preferred understanding to seeing; I had always wanted to know everything; philosophy would allow me to appease this desire, for it aimed at total reality;philosophy went right to the heart of truth and revealed to me, instead of an illusory whirlwind of facts or empirical laws, an order, a reason, a necessity in everything. ~ Simone De Beauvoir

Nothing in our everyday experience gives us any reason for supposing that water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen; and yet when we subject water to to certain rather drastic treatments, the nature of its constituent elements becomes manifest. Similarly, nothing in our everyday experience gives us much reason for supposing that the mind of the average sensual man has, as one of its constituents, something resembling, or identical with, the Reality substantial to the manifold world; and yet, when that mind is subjected to certain rather drastic treatments, the divine element, of which it is in part at least composed, becomes manifest, not only to the mind itself, but also, by its reflection in external behaviour, to other minds. ~ Aldous Huxley

Respect and love yourself first. Others will love you with trust. ~ Debasish Mridha

The annals of official philosophy are populated by 'bureaucrats of pure reason' who speak in 'the shadow of the despot' and are in historical complicity with the State. They invent 'a properly spiritual…absolute State that… effectively functions in the mind.' Theirs is a discourse of sovereign judgment, of stable subjectivity legislated by 'good' sense, of rocklike identity, 'universal' truth, and (white male) justice. 'Thus the exercise of their thought is in conformity with the aims of the real State, with the dominant significations, and with the requirements of the established order. ~ Gilles Deleuze

...it pointed to an alternative approach, a 'negative path' to happiness, that entailed taking a radically different stance towards those things that most of us spend our lives trying to avoid. It involved learning to enjoy uncertainty, embracing insecurity, stopping trying to think positively, becoming familiar with failure, even learning to value death. In short, all these people seemed to agree that in order to be truly happy, we might actually need to be willing to experience more negative emotions - or, at the very least to learn to stop running quite so hard from them. ~ Oliver Burkeman

My philosophy has always been, you don't put your name in front of a movie. ~ Lee Daniels

The earthly city glories in itself, the Heavenly City glories in the Lord. ~ Augustine Of Hippo

Both life and work were a great deal more rewarding when you didn't take them seriously. ~ Kirsten Beyer

Choose to be in love! ~ Debasish Mridha

I was very fierce and very driven at eighteen. But my basic philosophy I think has stayed the same, I'm still an atheist, I still believe strongly in the power of free will (despite the mysticism in my prose). I don't believe in the notion of a pre-ordained destiny, and I think because of the sudden death of my father at sixteen I learnt then that it is essential to live life to the fullest as it could be snatched away at any second. ~ Tobsha Learner

The most important duty of a person is to love himself wholeheartedly. ~ Debasish Mridha

Be the symbol of love to feel the joy of life. ~ Debasish Mridha

Creating any type of art is an actual experience inasmuch as it affects the artist's life. The experience of writing not only merges disparate parts of the mind, this expressive experience affects the evolution of the self. Writing is not about the process of creating a piece of literature; rather, writing is an artistic, transformative experience. All opposite forces in human nature are reconciled in the unity of consciousness, which is why the most fully developed human being strives to makes their unconsciousness thoughts, feelings, and prejudices conscious through acts of contemplation. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Humanism is not a pompous philosophy to be talked and debated about by a handful of intellectuals - it is the purest form of moral compass, which defines the civilized heart of thinking humanity. ~ Abhijit Naskar

The slope contains many wonders not found at the summit. ~ Marty Rubin

Always be there for others. Always inspire them with your dreams and hope, vision and mission, attitude and aptitude. ~ Debasish Mridha

We were designed to love and to be loved, to reach our dreams to unleash our potentials but not live in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. ~ Auliq Ice

When you forget what you ultimately stand for, you rejoice in blinding ignorance. Missing the bigger picture for the near pleasure is what humans and all living beings stand for. I guess there is no alternate way either. Because it is after all a game that all are destined to play until they end up dead. ~ Rakesh Ranjan

Meditation is a wonderful way to shout down the outer noise so that you may pay attention to the universal inner message. ~ Debasish Mridha

Art is a critical component in a well-rounded education. Art is the level playing field - no matter how rich or poor, tall or short, pretty or ugly to the bone, if you can draw, you can find personal fulfillment and build self-confidence. Art is the highest achievement of mankind. ~ Lynda Resnick

Longing for love makes a woman beautiful and beloved. ~ Debasish Mridha

A cold atheistical materialism is the tendency of the so-called material philosophy of the present day. ~ Adam Sedgwick

Never compromise your "Self-respect" for "Love". If feel like you are loosing your "Self-respect" for "Love" Tell them you can keep your "love" and I will keep my "Self-respect ~ Sharfaraz Ahmed

When you do exams you never want to be the one who finishes first and you never want to be the one who finishes last. ~ Anthony T. Hincks

The U.S. news media have a critical role to play in educating the public about climate change. ~ Amy Goodman

The rage for wanting to conclude is one of the most deadly and most fruitless manias to befall humanity. Each religion and each philosophy has pretended to have God to itself, to measure the infinite, and to know the recipe for happiness. What arrogance and what nonsense! I see, to the contrary, that the greatest geniuses and the greatest works have never concluded. ~ Gustave Flaubert

In the minds of some people, writing is one thing, but thinking is quite another. If they define writing as spelling, the production of sentences with random meanings, and punctuation, then they might have a case. But who would accept such a definition? Writing is the production of meaning. Writing is thinking. ~ George Hillocks Jr.

But my dear man, reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know. ~ Alan W. Watts

How come? I am receiving a New Year.. Our gift from time.. A happy New Year!"
"You can't describe a year before it starts, you should say your opinion in the end of the year.. Seldom does human have satisfaction to call it a good year, seldom does time grant him his wish, that wish.. Anyway, wishes don't count, they must be private. ~ Noha Alaa El-Din

Rock is a great master of life. It teaches us this simple philosophy: Stay firm! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

You have sacrificed justice to mercy. You have sacrificed independence to unity. You have sacrificed reason to faith. You have sacrificed wealth to need. You have sacrificed self-esteem to self-denial. You have sacrificed happiness to duty. ~ Ayn Rand

FYI, it isn't how I suspected. If you eat enough Cheetos you will NOT actually poop an extra-large Cheeto. ~ Felicia Day

Survival, it is called. Often it is accidental, sometimes it is engineered by creatures or forces that we have no conception of, always it is temporary. ~ Wallace Stegner

What's the survival value of obsessing on a sunset? ~ Peter Watts

Temperament is fixed, set. The skull, followed by the temperament: the two hardest parts of the body. Follow your temperament. It is not a philosophy, It is a rule, like the Rule of St Benedict. ~ J.M. Coetzee

POETRY HAS A PEPTIC PRESENCE. PRESENTLY. ~ Amy King

In the case of Anathem, most of the research had to do with philosophy and metaphysics. Reading this sort of thing has never been my strong suit, so I actually had to be somewhat more "organized and results-driven" than is my habit. I just made up my mind that I was going to have to read some of these philosophy tomes, and I forced myself to read something like 10 pages a day until I had bashed my way through them. ~ Neal Stephenson

Nature understands you more than you understand nature. Nature is your true mother. ~ Debasish Mridha

Within the immense ocean of galaxies and stars we are in a remote corner; amidst the infinite arabesques of forms which constitute reality we are merely a flourish among innumerably many such flourishes. ~ Carlo Rovelli

So when the ruling ideology enjoins us to enjoy sex, not to feel guilty about it, since we are not bound by any prohibitions whose violations should make us feel guilty, the price we pay for this absence of guilt is anxiety. ~ Slavoj Zizek

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is; the people is never corrupted, but it is often deceived ... (Bk2:3) ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. "I despise intelligence" really means: "I cannot bear my doubts. ~ Albert Camus