One of the basic philosophical tenets of conservatism - which says that the more power devolves from the federal government to the states, the greater individual freedom grows - is just flatly contradicted by crucial junctures in the country's life, most conspicuously in the 1860s and 1960s, when it's been the federal government that's interceded against the states to secure individual freedom.
I believe that my theory is correct; for whatever be the question upon which I am arguing, whether it be religious, philosophical, political, or economical; whether it affects well-being, morality, equality, right, justice, progress, responsibility, property, labor, exchange, capital, wages, taxes, population, credit, or Government; at whatever point of the scientific horizon I start from, I invariably come to the same thing—the solution of the social problem is in liberty.
Philosophy is life's dry-nurse, who can take care of us - but not suckle us.
If you understand compound interest, you basically understand the universe.
Each day provides its own gifts.
It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.
Your descendants shall gather your fruits.
As far as I am concerned, I resign from humanity. I no longer want to be, nor can still be, a man. What should I do? Work for a social and political system, make a girl miserable? Hunt for weaknesses in philosophical systems, fight for moral and esthetic ideals? It’s all too little. I renounce my humanity even though I may find myself alone. But am I not already alone in this world from which I no longer expect anything?
Modern thought does not offer consolations, but upsets.
As people are walking all the time, in the same spot, a path appears.
When you're young you try to be methodical and philosophical, but reality keeps breaking in.
Newton, Pascal, Bossuet, Racine, F?nelon -- that is to say, some of the most enlightened men on earth, in the most philosophical of all ages -- have been believers in Jesus Christ; and the great Cond?, when dying, repeated these noble words, "Yes, I shall see God as He is, face to face!".
Thanks to the acuteness of his mind, he saw through the poverty of philosophical and Gnostic knowledge, and contemptuously rejected it.
Would there be this eternal seeking if the found existed?
The most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any known tongue. . . . perhaps the deepest and loftiest thing the world has to show.
If, like Hume, I had all manner of adornment in my power, I would still have reservations about using them. It is true that some readers will be scared off by dryness. But isn't it necessary to scare off some if in their case the matter would end up in bad hands?
So all I'm saying is, everything that seems important--our quarrels, or philosophical differences--in the end, it doesn't matter much. You know? In the end, what matters is what remains.
To make a revolution, people must not only struggle against existing institutions. They must make a philosophical spiritual leap and become more 'human' human beings. In order to change transform the world, they must change transform themselves.
for we are inquiring not in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good, since otherwise our inquiry would have been of no use
The alchemists in their search for gold discovered many other things of greater value.