“A thirsty ambition for truth and virtue, and a frenzy to conquer all lies and vices which are not recognized as such nor desire to be; herein consists the heroic spirit of the philosopher.”
Socratic Memorabilia, J. Flaherty, trans. (Baltimore: 1967), p. 147.
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Johann Georg Hamann13
German philosopher 1730–1788Related quotes
Seneca the Younger book Epistulae morales ad Lucilium
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXI: On the supreme good
Louis Bourdaloue (1632–1704) French serman writer
as quoted in The Bourgeois: Catholicism vs. Capitalism in Eighteenth-Century France (1927), p. 137
R. H. Tawney (1880–1962) English philosopher
Part IV, Ch. 2
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926)
“Vice has nothing in common with virtue, nor Freedom with slavery.”
Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece
Golden Sayings of Epictetus
Context: What you shun enduring yourself, attempt not to impose on others. You shun slavery—beware of enslaving others! If you can endure to do that, one would think you had been once upon a time a slave yourself. For Vice has nothing in common with virtue, nor Freedom with slavery. (41).
Francis Bacon book Essays
Of Adversity
Essays (1625)
Context: The virtue of prosperity, is temperance; the virtue of adversity, is fortitude; which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New; which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
“I have no ambitions nor desires.
To be a poet is not my ambition,
It's simply my way of being alone.”
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher
Não tenho ambições nem desejos
Ser poeta não é uma ambição minha
É a minha maneira de estar sozinho.
Alberto Caeiro (heteronym), O Guardador de Rebanhos ("The Keeper of Herds", tr. Richard Zenith) in Athena (January 1925)
M. S. Golwalkar book Bunch of Thoughts
M.S. Golwalkar : ‘Bunch of Thoughts’, third edition, 1996, p. 92 Quoted from Talreja, K. M. (2000). Holy Vedas and holy Bible: A comparative study. New Delhi: Rashtriya Chetana Sangathan.
Bunch of Thoughts
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
1920s, The Prospects of Industrial Civilization (1923)
Context: The governors of the world believe, and have always believed, that virtue can only be taught by teaching falsehood, and that any man who knew the truth would be wicked. I disbelieve this, absolutely and entirely. I believe that love of truth is the basis of all real virtue, and that virtues based upon lies can only do harm.
“Conquer anger with love, evil with good, meanness with generosity, and lies with truth.”
Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism
Source: Pali Canon, Sutta Pitaka, Khuddaka Nikaya (Minor Collection), Dhammapada, Ch. 17, Verse 223