C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Philosophy
Queen of arts, and daughter of heaven.
Philosophy is nothing but discretion.
Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy.
Philosophy is the health of the mind.
Philosophy is the art of living.
To scorn philosophy is truly to philosophize.
A true philosopher is beyond the reach of fortune.
Philosophy is reason with the eyes of the soul.
The business of philosophy is to circumnavigate human nature.
To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one’s self to die.
This same philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an arrant jade on a journey.
What is philosophy? It is something that lightens up, that makes bright.
All philosophy lies in two words, “sustain” and “abstain.”
Philosophy is as far separated from impiety as religion is from fanaticism.
Philosophy, if rightly defined, is naught but the love of wisdom.
All that philosophy can teach is to be stubborn or sullen under misfortunes.
The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.
Philosophy abounds more than philosophers, and learning more than learned men.
Philosophy, while it soothes the reason, damps the ambition.
A little philosophy inclineth a man’s mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.
If I wished to punish a province, I would have it governed by philosophers.
The Christian religion, rightly understood, is the deepest and choicest price of philosophy.
Whence? whither? why? how?—these questions cover all philosophy.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Philosophy is the rational expression of genius.
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils, but present evils triumph over it.
Philosophy goes no further than probabilities, and in every assertion keeps doubt in reserve.
Religion is the eldest sister of philosophy: on whatever subjects they may differ, it is unbecoming in either to quarrel, and most so about their inheritance.
Philosophy consists not in airy schemes or idle speculations; the rule and conduct of all social life is her great province.
Philosophy is the art and law of life, and it teaches us what to do in all cases, and, like good marksmen, to hit the white at any distance.
The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important objects of philosophy.
Philosophy, when superficially studied, excites doubt: when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.
How charming is divine philosophy! not harsh nor crabbed, as dull fools suppose, but musical as is Apollo’s lute!
The philosopher is he to whom the highest has descended, and the lowest has mounted up; who is the equal and kindly brother of all.
To be a husbandman is but a retreat from the city; to be a philosopher, from the world; or rather a retreat from the world, as it is man’s, into the world, as it is God’s.
Philosophy alone makes the mind invincible, and places us out of the reach of fortune, so that all her arrows fall short of us.
Philosophy is a goddess, whose head indeed is in heaven, but whose feet are upon earth; she attempts more than she accomplishes, and promises more than she performs.
A pipe is a pocket philosopher,—a truer one than Socrates, for it never asks questions. Socrates must have been very tiresome, when one thinks of it.
There was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently, however they have writ the style of gods, and made a push at chance and sufferance.
True philosophy is that which renders us to ourselves, and all others who surround us, better, and at the same time more content, more patient, more calm, and more ready for all decent and pure enjoyment.
The road to true philosophy is precisely the same with that which leads to true religion; and from both the one and the other, unless we would enter in as little children, we must expect to be totally excluded.
Philosophy is a proud, sullen detector of the poverty and misery of man. It may turn him from the world with a proud, sturdy contempt; but it cannot come forward and say, here are rest, grace, pardon, peace, strength, and consolation.
Philosophy is a bully that talks very loud when the danger is at a distance; but the moment she is hard pressed by the enemy she is not to be found at her post, but leaves the brunt of the battle to be borne by her humbler but steadier comrade, Religion.
Make philosophy thy journey, theology thy journey’s end: philosophy is a pleasant way, but dangerous to him that either tires or retires; in this journey it is safe neither to loiter nor to rest, till thou hast attained thy journey’s end; he that sits down a philosopher rises up an atheist.
Philosophical studies are beset by one peril, a person easily brings himself to think that he thinks; and a smattering of science encourages conceit. He is above his companions. A hieroglyphic is a spell. The gnostic dogma is cuneiform writing to the million. Moreover, the vain man is generally a doubter. It is Newton who sees himself in a child on the sea shore, and his discoveries in the colored shells.