Philosopher Quotes

Erotic or sexual love can truly be love if it is not selfishly sexual or lustful.

Ask others about themselves, at the same time, be on guard not to talk too much about yourself.

We acknowledge but one motive - to follow the truth as we know it, whithersoever it may lead us; but in our heart of hearts we are well assured that the truth which has made us free, will in the end make us glad also.

Think how different human societies would be if they were based on love rather than justice. But no such societies have ever existed on earth.

There is only one situation I can think of in which men and women make an effort to read better than they usually do. It is when they are in love and reading a love letter.

The telephone book is full of facts, but it doesn't contain a single idea.

The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.

One of the embarrassing problems for the early nineteenth-century champions of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an orthodox Christian.

Love without conversation is impossible.

In English we must use adjectives to distinguish the different kinds of love for which the ancients had distinct names.

I find the selectivity of erotic love - the choice of this man or this woman - much more intelligible if liking the person is the origin of sexual interest, rather than the other way.

Friendship is a very taxing and arduous form of leisure activity.

Freedom is the emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men.

Conjugal love, or the friendship of spouses, can persist even after sexual desires have weakened, withered, and disappeared.

Aristotle uses a mother's love for her child as the prime example of love or friendship.

You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think.

The ultimate end of education is happiness or a good human life, a life enriched by the possession of every kind of good, by the enjoyment of every type of satisfaction.

We are selfish when we are exclusively or predominantly concerned with the good for ourselves. We are altruistic when we are exclusively or predominantly concerned with the good of others.

Love can be unselfish, in the sense of being benevolent and generous, without being selfless.

Unless we love and are loved, each of us is alone, each of us is deeply lonely.

If one wants another only for some self-satisfaction, usually in the form of sensual pleasure, that wrong desire takes the form of lust rather than love.

It is love rather than sexual lust or unbridled sexuality if, in addition to the need or want involved, there is also some impulse to give pleasure to the persons thus loved and not merely to use them for our own selfish pleasure.

When we ask for love, we don't ask others to be fair to us-but rather to care for us, to be considerate of us. There is a world of difference here between demanding justice... and begging or pleading for love.

Love consists in giving without getting in return; in giving what is not owed, what is not due the other. That's why true love is never based, as associations for utility or pleasure are, on a fair exchange.

Well I guess the plan was to write poetry and publish books and make a living from writing poetry. That was a pretty ambitious plan I guess.

Well - I started writing - probably in the early 60s and by say '65-'66 I had read most of the poetry that had been published - certainly in the 20 years prior to that.

There's one of my new poems actually - is a good example of where my poetry has ended up. My earlier river poetry was more like a cross between Shelley and Dylan Thomas.

I don't know if younger poets read a lot of, you know, the poets - the established poets. There was a lot of pretty boring stuff to sort of put up with and to add to, to make something vital from.

He was certainly in a confused state. I used to go and visit him in Callan Park. They were really - to me they were the best poets those two writing in those days but it wasn't very encouraging because, well, they weren't getting far were they?

Francis Webb is easily our greatest poet and one of the greatest poets in the world but he's hardly ever mentioned.