Henri Bergson Quotes

Intuition does not in itself amount to knowledge, yet cannot be disregarded by philosophers and psychologists.

Intuition and concepts constitute... the elements of all our knowledge, so that neither concepts without an intuition in some way corresponding to them, nor intuition without concepts, can yield knowledge.

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.

We do not learn by inference and deduction and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy.

What is the meaning of the togetherness of the perceiving mind, in that peculiar modification of perceiving which makes it perceive not a star but a tree, and the tree itself, is a problem for philosophy.

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind

Some like to understand what they believe in. Others like to believe in what they understand.

Such a man, truly wise, creams off Nature leaving the sour and the dregs for philosophy and reason to lap up.

Every man feels that perception gives him an invincible belief of the existence of that which he perceives; and that this belief is not the effect of reasoning, but the immediate consequence of perception. When philosophers have wearied themselves and their readers with their speculations upon this subject, they can neither strengthen this belief, nor weaken it; nor can they shew how it is produced. It puts the philosopher and the peasant upon a level; and neither of them can give any other reason for believing his senses, than that he finds it impossible for him to do otherwise.

In what we really understand, we reason but little.

All philosophers should end their days at Pythia's feet. There is only one philosophy, that of unique moments.

After Gibbs, one the most distinguished [American scientists] was Langley, of the Smithsonian. ... He had the physicist's heinous fault of professing to know nothing between flashes of intense perception. ... Rigidly denying himself the amusement of philosophy, which consists chiefly in suggesting unintelligible answers to insoluble problems, and liked to wander past them in a courteous temper, even bowing to them distantly as though recognizing their existence, while doubting their respectibility.

The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence.

Truth is in all things, even partly, in error.

The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.

If you don't look at things through your concepts, you'll never be bored. Every single thing is unique.

It was the greatest sensation of existence: not to trust but to know.

What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.

Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish.

Sometimes you can't know until you know.

Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else.

The soul is the perceiver and revealer of truth. We know truth when we see it, let skeptic and scoffer say what they choose. Foolish people ask you, when you have spoken what they do not wish to hear, 'How do you know it is truth, and not an error of your own?' We know truth when we see it, from opinion, as we know when we are awake that we are awake.

Finding patterns is the essence of wisdom

Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.