Elie Wiesel Quotes

In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth. A man would perish of hunger and thirst, if he refused to eat or drink, till he had obtained positive proof that food and drink would be good for him. But in philosophic reflection this is not so. On the contrary, we must take care not to admit as true anything, which is only probable. For when one falsity has been let in, infinite others follow.

Quite early on, and certainly since I started writing, I found that philosophical questions occupied me more than any other kind. I hadn't really thought of them as being philosophical questions, but one rapidly comes to an understanding that philosophy's only really about two questions: 'What is true?' and 'What is good?'

Science can give us knowledge, but it cannot give us wisdom. Nor can religion, until it puts aside nonsense and distraction and becomes itself again.

Philosophy is the opposite of fairy tales

To know, to get into the truth of anything, is ever a mystic art, of which the best logic's can but babble on the surface.

Many scientists think that philosophy has no place, so for me it's a sad time because the role of reflection, contemplation, meditation, self inquiry, insight, intuition, imagination, creativity, free will, is in a way not given any importance, which is the domain of philosophers.

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.

Philosophy has to be enquiring; it can take nothing on faith, and its methods are based not on the blind acceptance of authority, but on establishing truths by reason and argument.

All serious conversations gravitate towards philosophy.

The very essence of rationalism is that it assumes that the reason is the highest faculty in man and the lord of all the rest.

I'm not sure what theory is, unless it's the pursuit of fundamental questions.

Philosophy is a kind of journey, ever learning yet never arriving at the ideal perfection of truth.

It is the mission of the twentieth century to elucidate the irrational.

Human knowledge is dark and uncertain; philosophy is dark, astrology is dark, and geometry is dark.

History gives you insight of the same quality of truth as poetry or philosophy or a novel.

Faith is not contrary to reason.

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

In philosophy, it is not the attainment of the goal that matters, it is the things that are met with by the way.

There is no philosophy without the art of ignoring objections.

Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.

Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.

Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.

Truth is the object of philosophy, but not always of philosophers.

Logic is not a body of doctrine, but a mirror-image of the world. Logic is transcendental.

The specious figments of genius, and the erratic flights of philosophy, may excite our wonder, but they cannot stand the ordeal of scrutiny, or the Lydian touch of experiment.