Words of Wisdom: Philosophy's Most Important Quotations and Their Meanings

Words of Wisdomis an anthology of history’s most memorable, uplifting or thought-provoking quotations from the greatest philosophers who have ever lived. Each of the 350 quotations is accompanied by a brief essay that tells the story of the speaker or explains the circumstances that gave rise to the quotation. The words used often encapsulate the human condition and offer instruction and inspiration in equal measure. Contains all the most famous philosophical quotations, including: ‘I know that I know nothing’, Socrates ‘ Eureka: I have found it!’, Archimedes ‘Every instant of time is a pinprick of eternity’, Marcus Aurelius ‘Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily’, William of Occam ‘ Cogito ergo sum’, Descartes ‘I am what I am’, Descartes ‘The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals’, Bentham ‘The world is will to power – and nothing else’, Nietzsche ‘What does not destroy me makes me stronger’, Nietzsche ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’, Simone de Beauvoir ‘Existence precedes essence’, Jean-Paul Sartre ‘Life must be lived forward, but can only be understood backward’, Kierkegaard ‘Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do’, Russell