Sublime Philosophy! Thou art the patriarchs ladder, reaching heaven; And bright with beckoning angelsbut alas! We see thee, like the patriarch, but in dreams, By the first step,dull slumbering on the earth. Bulwer-LyttonRichelieu. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 4.
Beside, he was a shrewd philosopher, And had read evry text and gloss over Whateer the crabbedst author hath, He understood b implicit faith. ButlerHudibras. Pt. I. Canto I. L. 127.
Before Philosophy can teach by Experience, the Philosophy has to be in readiness, the Experience must be gathered and intelligibly recorded. CarlyleEssays. On History.
O vitæ philosophia dux! O virtutis indagatrix, expultrixque vitiorum! Quid non modo nos, sed omnino vita hominum sine et esse potuisset? Tu urbes peperisti; tu dissipatos homines in societatum vitæ convocasti. O philosophy, lifes guide! O searcher-out of virtue and expeller of vices! What could we and every age of men have been without thee? Thou hast produced cities; thou hast called men scattered about into the social enjoyment of life. CiceroTusc. Quæst. Bk. V. 2. 5.
The Beginning of Philosophy * * * is a Consciousness of your own Weakness and inability in necessary things. EpictetusDiscourses. Bk. II. Ch. XI. St. 1.
How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh, and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollos lute, And a perpetual feast of nectard sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns. MiltonMask of Comus. L. 476.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 166. (Our philosophy in some readings.)
The philosopher is Natures pilot. And there you have our difference: to be in hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer. Bernard ShawMan and Superman. Act III. L. 509.
La clarté est la bonne foi des philosophes. Clearness marks the sincerity of philosophers. VauvenarguesPensées Diverses. No. 372. Gilberts ed. 1857. Vol. I. P. 475.
Why should not grave Philosophy be styled. Herself, a dreamer of a kindred stock, A dreamer, yet more spiritless and dull? WordsworthThe Excursion. Bk. III.