It’s like trying to explain love, the idea of philosophy, and thinking about thought. These philosophical quotes will indeed shed light on life and meaning.
Although I never understood the term for it, when I sat for hours contemplating existence, I was caught in the realms of philosophical thought. I wondered about life, death, meaning, and even why simple things were so beautifully complicated.
Then I came across a few philosophical quotes that helped me piece together what I struggled to comprehend. It started to make more sense.
Philosophical quotes and life
Honestly, the word philosophy means “Lover of wisdom”, derived from the Greek word, Philein Sophia. With this understanding, philosophy could have a place in almost any category or topic.
When encountering philosophical quotes, it puts these ideas into perspective. Here are 9 philosophical quotes that provide insight into life itself.
“Even a clock that does not work is right twice a day.”
-Polish Proverb
According to a Polish proverb, even the most imperfect aspects of life offer some perfections somewhere. Things can be broken, but still can offer a semblance of truth and completeness in some parts of their whole. A broken clock cannot work effectively, that’s true, but twice a day, it’s completely perfect.
There is deep meaning in these words, reminding us that life has hidden perfections even amongst the many imperfections.
“What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits.”
-Carl Jung
What an amazing way to look at happiness. Yes, this quote reveals the secrets of how to be happy with a simple thought process. If you are just to remember what you were doing when younger, the thing that passed by so quickly, then you would know where true happiness comes from.
As many people know, time passes quickly during the fun, fulfilling times and seems to pass rather slowly when doing something that you do not enjoy. Here is the key.
“Art and love are the same things: it’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.”
-Chuck Klosterman
It took many years to understand the truth of love, as well as the truth of being an artist. Klosterman says it best when he compares love to art as a form of recognizing yourself in other things.
To love another, you must find those pieces of yourself within them, a similarity in their laughter, a connection in their speech, and a feeling of home within their touch. In art, you must see your face in the canvas and your soul in the brush strokes, long before the work is complete, thus spreading your soul completely amongst the colors of your creation. This is beautiful, no?
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
-Kahlil Gibran
I’m sure you’ve heard this so many times before, but the strongest souls have emerged from the hardest battles. I have seen strong people and then I have seen those who are mighty beyond imagination. These mighty people are those who have seen the depths of hell and experienced some of the most devastating trauma.
Philosophical quotes such as this one are great tools for understanding why we should never give up.
“If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one.”
-Russian proverb
It’s about making choices and the power it takes to make choices. If you choose to pursue both options, it may work for a short time, but eventually, you will lose both. You cannot split your intentions forever and you cannot continue to stretch yourself in opposite directions. You must make a choice and you must pursue one path at a time.
“The tighter you squeeze, the less you have”
-Zen saying
If only I would think of this when I’m trying to force my way. Many times, I think that rules and promises should be enforced. Without order, I think, things would just turn into chaos.
Most times, however, it works in the opposite manner. It’s like being in love and understand the saying “If you love it, set it free”, right. I often hold tightly to something I care about, but then starve it of what it needs to grow.
“Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light?”
-Maurice Freehill
As a child, we are afraid of the literal dark, and at the same time afraid of what hides in the darkness – it’s that which we do not know. As a man, the darkness is comforting, because what we don’t know cannot hurt us, and we choose to live in ignorance. It’s quite the opposite, meaning as children, we are in ways, much wiser.
“It’s not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”
You’re never too old to strive for a goal or enjoy something wonderful. Never let your age deter you from happiness. Your dreams only die because you decide it’s too late to pursue them. This attitude is actually the thing that causes the death of those dreams.
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
I think we have the wrong idea about life. Our biggest mistake is to see life as some puzzle that has to be solved when in truth, life is an experience itself. It can be spontaneous and unbelievable. It can also be heartbreaking and difficult.
One thing is for certain, it is a wild ride which is experienced in truth. There are no solid answers and solutions, only what’s right for us individually.
Wisdom in philosophical quotes
Just when you thought you had it all figured out, philosophical quotes reveal more wisdom to shake your world and simultaneously comfort your soul.
Life is beautifully tragic and has many lessons to teach us about existence. It’s great to know that we can experience all that life has to offer and learn a few things in the process.
I disagree. To be truly free you must let go of your dreams.
The biggest killer in old age is holding onto dreams.
Stephen,
I can see what you’re saying. However, I do think that dreams are important if there are things that can still have time to do. Old age does not mean to give up. I understand that somethings just won’t happen when you’ve reached old age, but I think the worst move is holding onto regrets, regrets that dreams were not fulfilled. Maybe, just maybe we can alter our dreams into something more feasible. Interesting take. Thank you for reading, Stephen.
age & dreams are still two sophisticated factors in life that their relationship isn’t yet defined well.
I’ll give my thought later.
I believe, in this case, the term “dreams” is synonymous with goals, in fact, it may have multiple meanings, but I dare say it is not intended to be limited to a simplified definition of the word “goal”
I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
Some letter of that After-life to spell:
And by and by my Soul return’d to me,
And answer’d: ‘I Myself am Heav’n and Hell.