I believe that there never was a creator of a philosophical system who did not confess at the end of his life that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to men that the inventors of syllogisms. He who imagined a ship towers considerably above him who imagined innate ideas.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, not even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust.

Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it.

A great philosophy is not one that passes final judgments and establishes ultimate truth. It is one that causes uneasiness and starts commotion.

Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to enduring fact of mystery.

There is only one thing that a philosopher can be relied on to do, and that is, to contradict other philosophers.

A true philosopher is like an elephant; he never puts the second foot down until the first one is solidly in place.

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.

True philosophy invents nothing; it merely establishes and describes what is.

The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.