To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor 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.

For what, in the name of heaven, is more to be desired than wisdom? What is more to be prized? What is better for a man, what more worthy of his nature? Those who seek after it are called philosophers; and philosophy is nothing else, if one will translate the word into our idiom, than ‘the love of wisdom.’ Wisdom … is ‘the knowledge of things human and divine and of the causes by which those things are controlled.’ And if the man lives who would belittle the study of philosophy, I quite fail to see what in the world he would see fit to praise.

The Greek word for philosopher (philosophos) connotes a distinction from sophos. It signifies the lover of wisdom (knowledge) as distinguished from him who considers himself wise in the possession of knowledge. This meaning of the word still endures: the essence of philosophy is not the possession of the truth but the search for truth....Philosophy means to be on the way. Its questions are more essential than its answers, and every answer becomes a new question.

The philosopher is a person who refuses no pleasures which do not produce greater sorrows, and who knows how to create new ones.

A philosophy is the aggregate of your attitudes toward fundamental matters and is derived from a process of consciously thinking about critical issues and developing rational reasons for holding one particular belief or position rather than another.

Philosophy is an attempt to express the infinity of the universe in terms of the limitations of language.

Philosophy’s purpose is to illuminate the ways our soul has been infected by unsound beliefs, untrained tumultuous desires, and dubious life choices and preferences that are unworthy of us. Self-scrutiny applied with kindness is the main antidote.

When one begins to reflect on philosophy — then philosophy seems to us to be everything, like God, and love. It is a mystical, highly potent, penetrating idea — which ceaselessly drives us inward in all directions. The decision to do philosophy — to seek philosophy is the act of self-liberation — the thrust toward ourselves.

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.

To philosophize means to make vivid.

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.

Philosophy is but sophisticated poetry.

Ein Philosoph ist ein Mann, der in Ermangelung einer Frau die ganze Welt umarmt.

Philosophy is common sense with big words.