Leo Strauss Quotes

Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.

Philosophy is in fact a quest for wisdom based in sophia; that quest for wisdom has everything to do with a love of wisdom.

I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavour to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God.

It is not the truth that a man possesses, or believes that he possesses, but the earnest effort which he puts forward to reach the truth, which constitutes the worth of a man.

The University conceives of itself as dedicated to the power of the intellect. Its commitment is to the way of reason.

The basic drive behind real philosophy is curiosity about the world, not interest in the writings of philosophers.

Education makes us more stupid than the brutes. A thousand voices call to us on every hand, but our ears are stopped with wisdom.

I don't see myself as a philosopher. That's awfully boring.

It is impossible to make people understand their ignorance, for it requires knowledge to perceive it; and, therefore, he that can perceive it hath it not.

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason.

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.

My mind is just a product of 50 years of being taught. I'm no smarter than anyone else, but I've been taught by some wonderful people.

It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth.

The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.

We must never forget that higher knowledge has to do with revering truth and insight and not with revering people.

I'm not an academic philosopher, and don't agree with the way the universities approach the subject. I'm a philosopher only in the very loose sense of someone interested in wisdom and well-being attained through reason. But I'm as interested in psychoanalysis and art as I am in philosophy.

There's simply no philosophizing without a love of wisdom, absolutely.

Doubt is often the beginning of wisdom.

One of the main reasons for the existence of philosophy is not that it enables you to find truth (it can never do that) but that it does provide you a refuge for definitions.

He that cannot reason is a fool.

What can give us more sure knowledge than our senses? How else can we distinguish between the true and the false?

With knowledge comes more doubt.

All reasoning ends in an appeal to self-evidence.