Philosophy and Wisdom

Immanuel Kant is generally regarded as the greatest of the modern philosophers. ... His most distinctive contribution was the invention of what he called the 'critical' philosophy, which, assuming as a datum that there is knowledge of various kinds, inquired how such knowledge comes to be possible, and deduced, from the answer to this inquiry, many metaphysical results as to the nature of the world. Whether these results were valid may well be doubted. But Kant undoubtedly deserves credit for two things: first, for having perceived that we have a priori knowledge which is not purely 'analytic,' i.e. such that the opposite would be self-contradictory; and secondly, for having made evident the philosophical importance of the theory of knowledge. Bertrand Russell The Problems of Philosophy

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic. Edward de Bono

No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping. Essays on suicide and the Immortality of the Soul. David Hume

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this. Bertrand Russell

When men are most sure and arrogant, they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities. David Hume

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom. Voltaire

⚪️ ⚪️ We never live; we are always in the expectation of living. Voltaire

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many. Baruch Spinoza

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be. Henry Thoreau

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ It may easily come to pass that a vain man may become proud and imagine himself pleasing to all when he is in reality a universal nuisance. Baruch Spinoza

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it. Leonardo da Vinci

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic. Edward de Bono

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many. Baruch Spinoza

A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true happiness dare live. Bernard Russell

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them. Carter G. Woodson

It is, of course, possible that all or any of our beliefs may be mistaken, and therefore all ought to be held with at least some slight element of doubt. But we cannot have reason to reject a belief except on the ground of some other belief. Hence, by organising our instinctive beliefs and their consequences, by considering which among them it is most possible, if necessary, to modify or abandon, we can arrive, on the basis of accepting as our sole data what we instinctively believe, at an orderly systematic organisation of our knowledge, in which, though the possibility of error remains, its likelihood is diminished by the interrelation of the parts and by the critical scrutiny which has preceded acquiescence. The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell

⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ ⚪️ Human reason has the peculiar fate in one species of its cognitions that it is burdened with questions which it cannot dismiss, since they are given to it as problems by the nature of reason itself, but which it also cannot answer, since they transcend every capacity" of human reason. Reason falls into this perplexity through no fault of its own. It begins from principles whose use is unavoidable in the course of experience and at the same time sufficiently warranted by it. With these principles it rises (as its nature also requires) ever higher, to more remote conditions. But since it becomes aware in this way that its business must always remain incomplete because the questions never cease, reason sees itself necessitated to take refuge in principles that overstep all possible use in experience, and yet seem so unsuspicious that even ordinary common sense agrees with them. But it thereby falls into obscurity and contradictions, from which it can indeed surmise that it must somewhere be proceeding on the ground of hidden errors; but it cannot discover them, for the principles on which it is proceeding, since they surpass the bounds of all experience, no longer recognize any touchstone of experience. The battlefield of these endless controversies is called metaphysics. Preface The Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant

Philosophy should show us the hierarchy of our instinctive beliefs, beginning with those we hold most strongly and presenting each as much isolated and as free from irrelevant additions as possible. It should take care to show that, in the form in which they are finally set forth, our instinctive beliefs do not clash but form a harmonious system. There can never be any reason for rejecting one instinctive belief except that it clashes with others; thus, if they are found to harmonise, the whole system becomes worthy of acceptance. The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell