If therefore my work is negative, irreligious, atheistic, let it be remembered that atheism--at least in the sense of this work--i...s the secret of religion itself; that religion itself, not indeed on the surface, but fundamentally, not in intention or according to its own supposition, but in its heart, in its essence, believes in nothing else than the truth and divinity of human nature.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The present age ... prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the ess...ence ... for in these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Religion is the dream of the human mind. But even in dreams we do not find ourselves in emptiness or in heaven, but on earth, in t...he realm of reality; we only see real things in the entrancing splendor of imagination and caprice, instead of in the simple daylight of reality and necessity.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have always taken as the standard of the mode of teaching and writing, not the abstract, particular, professional philosopher, b...ut universal man, that I have regarded man as the criterion of truth, and not this or that founder of a system, and have from the first placed the highest excellence of the philosopher in this, that he abstains, both as a man and as an author, from the ostentation of philosophy, i.e., that he is a philosopher only in reality, not formally, that he is a quiet philosopher, not a loud and still less a brawling one.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) has often been compared to Socrates, and there are some striking resemblances--the trances of conc...entration they went into, the sharp questioning of those who professed to know, the search for purity of language and life. But the contrast is sharper than any such comparisons. Wittgenstein is a powerful example of the separation of modern philosophy from ordinary life, a separation he deeply regretted but could do little to remedy. Unlike Socrates, who engaged citizens in philosophical self-examination at public meeting places, Wittgenstein could not bring himself, very often, to meet with a small circle of students. He feared that not even those select Cambridge philosophers could understand him.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I think it's only in a crisis that Americans see other people. It has to be an American crisis, of course. If two countries fight ...that do not supply the Americans with some precious commodity, then the education of the public does not take place. But when the dictator falls, when the oil is threatened, then you turn on the television and they tell you where the country is, what the language is, how to pronounce the names of the leaders, what the religion is all about, and maybe you can cut out recipes in the newspaper of Persian dishes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »