Looking for some inspirational words that are thought-provoking? We have rounded some of the best Philosophical quotes, sayings, and proverbs (with images and pictures) about life to give you the right perspective on life.
These quotes are written by the world’s most famous philosophers, leaders, writers, actors, and more. which will make you think deeply. Philosophical quotes can change your point of view in life when you are depressed and need real motivation.
Philosophical quotes about life offer deep insights into the human experience, encouraging us to reflect on our existence, purpose, and nature of reality.
These insightful quotes often serve as sources of inspiration, reminding us to appreciate the beauty of life and the importance of living with intention.
We can get inspired by the wise words about the life of some of the greatest philosophers in history such as Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, and others.
Don’t forget to read our deep-thinking quotes and sayings about life.
Top 10 Philosophical Quotes
- “Everyone is a genius.” ― Albert Einstein
- “Only the dead have seen the end of the war.” ― Plato
- “Life without experience and suffering is not life.” ― Socrates
- “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” ― Dalai Lama
- “Don’t live your life through what-ifs, live it with I knows.” – Marco Zuniga
- “It’s strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death.” ― Jim Morrison
- “Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls.” ― Heraclitus
- “Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.” ― Bruce Lee
- “Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it.” ― Albert Einstein
Famous Philosophical Quotes About Life
- “The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it.” — Epictetus
- “If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to.” ― Lao Tzu
- “We do not describe the world we see. We see the world we can describe.” ― René Descartes
- “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
- “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” ― Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
- “There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” ― Aristotle
- “Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.” ― Bertrand Russell
- “Philosophy is written in that great book which ever lies before our eyes – I mean the universe.” ― Galileo
- “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” — Aristotle
- “A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it, is committing another mistake.” ― Confucius
- “The more man mediates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.” ― Confucius
Deep Philosophical Quotes
- “When it is obvious that goals can’t be reached, don’t adjust the goals, but adjust the action steps.” ― Confucius
- “Happiness is the feeling that power increases — that resistance is being overcome.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
- “To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do rather than what they say.” ― René Descartes
- “The one who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”― Steve Jobs
- “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” ― Alan Watts
- “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” — Aristotle
- “No valid plans for the future can be made can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.” ― Alan Watts
- “The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” ― Socrates
- “Give instructions only to those people who seek knowledge after they have discovered their ignorance.” ― Confucius
- “I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires, rather than in attempting to satisfy them.” ― John Stuart Mill
- “A ‘no’ uttered from deepest conviction is better than a ‘yes’ merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- “If you are depressed you are living in the past, if you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” ― Lao Tzu
- “The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.” ― Seneca
- “Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.” ― Henry David Thoreau
Inspirational Life Philosophy Quotes
Other meaningful quotes about life focus on the fleeting nature of our existence, and the importance of living in the present moment.
The ancient Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Life is long if you know how to use it,” encouraging us to make the most of our time on earth.
- “If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.” ― Leo Tolstoy
- “The frog in the pond knows little of the great ocean.” ― Zen Proverb
- “Mysteries abound where most we seek for answers.” ― Ray Bradbury
- “Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.” ― Socrates
- “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” ― C.G. Jung
- “The instant you speak about a thing, you miss the mark.” ― Zen Proverb
- “Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.” ― Margaret Mitchell
- “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” ― Lao Tzu
- “I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.” ― Franz Kafka
- “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” ― Søren Kierkegaard
Greek Philosopher Quotes
- “Thinking. The talking of the soul with itself.” — Plato
- “The worst of all deceptions is self-deception.”— Plato
- “An unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates
- “History is Philosophy teaching by example.” – Thucydides
- “There is nothing permanent except change.” – Heraclitus
- “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” — Aristotle
- “Time is the wisest of all things that are; for it brings everything to light.” ― Thales
- “It is hard to fight desire; but to control it is the sign of a reasonable man.”— Democritus
- “Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.” ― Plutarch
- “Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.” ― Democritus
- “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Socrates
- “I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.” ― Alexander the Great
Famous Philosopher Quotes
- “Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn’t calculate his happiness.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- “Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.” ― William S. Burroughs
- “When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you’d like them to be.” — Leo Tolstoy
- “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” ― Kurt Vonnegut
- “The truly faithless one is the one who makes love to only a fraction of you. And denies the rest.” ― Anaïs Nin
- “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” ― Ernest Hemingway
- “Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize.” — James Joyce
- “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” ― Alan W. Watts
- “If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.” ― Zen Proverb
- “When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you.” ― Lao Tzu
Philosophical Quotes
- “The longer I live, the more uninformed I feel. Only the young have an explanation for everything.” ― Isabel Allende
- “We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” ― Joseph Campbell
- “It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” ― Oscar Wilde
- “Art and love are the same thing: It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.” ― Chuck Klosterman
- “The more sand had escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” — Niccolo Machiavelli
- “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” ―Kahlil Gibran
- “If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it’s to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel.” ― Jim Morrison
- “Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin
- “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality.” ― Lao Tzu
- “What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits.” ― Carl Jung
- “Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.” ― Richard P. Feynman
- “You must let what happens happen. Everything must be equal in your eyes, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, foolish and wise.” ― Michael Ende
- “The wisest of all, in my opinion, is he who can, if only once a month, call himself a fool — a faculty unheard of nowadays.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky
- “It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.” ― Gabriel García Márquez
Short Philosophical Quotes and Sayings
- “Happiness depends upon ourselves.” ― Aristotle
- “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” ― Confucius
- “You could not step twice into the same river.” ― Heraclitus
- “When anger arises, think of the consequences.” ― Confucius
- “Prejudices are what fools use for reason.” ― Francois Voltaire
- “The madness of love the greatest of heaven’s blessings.” ― Plato
- “If you hate a person, then you’re defeated by them.“ ― Confucius
- “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” ― Confucius
- “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” ― Aristotle
- “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ― Lao Tzu
Rare Philosophical Quotes
- “I love those who yearn for the impossible.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- “Never form a friendship with a man who is not better than you.” ― Confucius
- “Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest.” ― Hermann Hesse
- “It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop.” ― Confucius
- “Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form.” ― Karl Marx
- “Truth, she thought. As terrible as death. But harder to find.” ― Philip K. Dick
- “It’s strange how simple things become, once you see them clearly.” ― Ayn Rand
- “If they spit at you behind your back it means you’re ahead of them.” ― Confucius
- “Dare to know! Have the courage to use your own intelligence.” ― Immanuel Kant
- “You only learn when you give your whole being to something.” ― J. Krishnamurti
Philosophical Quotes
- “I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do.” ― Haruki Murakami
- “Life is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be experienced.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
- “It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.” ― René Descartes
- “Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished.” ― Confucius
- “Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.” ― Alan W. Watts
- “I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.” ―Rumi
- “Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.” – Alan Watts
- “No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.” – Alan Watts
- “What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.” – Confucius
- “The oldest, shortest words – ‘yes’ and ‘no’ – are those which require the most thought.” – Pythagoras
Best Philosophical Quotes About Life
- “Life tip: Stop expecting.” ― Unknown
- “Tears are words that need to be written.” ― Paulo Coelho
- “It’s okay to live a life others don’t understand.” ― Jenna Woginrich
- “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” ― Mae West
- “Life is too deep for words, so don’t try to describe it, just live it.” ― C.S. Lewis
- “When you learn to survive without anyone, you can survive anything.” ― The Sculptress
- “When you start looking at people’s hearts instead of their face, life becomes clear.” ― Unknown
- “Happiness is a state of mind. It’s just according to the way you look at things.” ― Walt Disney
- “A hungry stomach, an empty pocket, and a broken heart can teach the best lessons of life”. Unknown
- “The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” ― Bob Marley
Best Philosophical Life Quotes and Sayings
Philosophical Quotes Life
In conclusion, philosophical quotes about life offer valuable insights into the human experience, encouraging us to reflect on our purpose and the nature of reality.
By reflecting on the wisdom of great thinkers, we can deepen our understanding of the world around us and cultivate a deeper appreciation for the beauty of life.
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Which is your favorite compromise quote? If we have missed some quotes, share them with us in the comment section below and we shall be happy to add them to the list.