Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

Nothing is too absurd to be said by some of the philosophers.

Sed nescio quo modo nihil tam absurde dici potest quod non dicatur ab aliquo philosphorum. (There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it.)

All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.

There is nothing so absurd or ridiculous that has not at some time been said by some philosopher. Fontenelle says he would undertake to persuade the whole public of readers to believe that the sun was neither the cause of light or heat, if he could only get six philosophers on his side.

It is, from another angle, an attack on requiring proof in philosophy. And it's also the case, I guess, that my temperament is to like interesting, new, bold ideas, and to try and generate them.

I've always thought things were absurd. It would take a lot more effort for me to see things as reasonable.

Not everything that exists today is reasonable; but this does not mean that everything that does not exist is sensible.

Whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities.

Credo quia absurdum – I believe because it is absurd.

Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself.

Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons - that's philosophy.

There are two threats to reason, the opinion that one knows the truth about the most important things and the opinion that there is no truth about them. Both of these opinions are fatal to philosophy; the first asserts that the quest for truth is unnecessary, while the second asserts that it is impossible. The Socratic knowledge of ignorance, which I take to be the beginning point of all philosophy, defines the sensible middle ground between two extremes.

What's a philosopher?' said Brutha. Someone who's bright enough to find a job with no heavy lifting,' said a voice in his head.

If this is philosophy it is at any rate a philosophy that is not in its right mind.

Since the time of Plato and Aristotle philosophers have had an interest in taking note of common fallacies in reasoning.

When I was 16 I started keeping a diary in which I recorded my disagreements with the famous philosophers. I didn't insist that they were wrong, that I was right and I had to prevail. I just agreed and disagreed with them. I thought there was a high degree of probability that I was right and some other thinkers were wrong. But I wasn't positive about it.

L'absurde est la notion essentielle et la premie' re ve? rite? . The absurd is the fundamental idea and the first truth.

As a philosopher, I have a right to ask for a rational explanation of religious faith.

Say, Not so, and you will out circle the philosophers.

I am only a philosopher, and there is only one thing that a philosopher can be relied on to do, and that is, to contradict other philosophers.

Nietzsche's my favorite. He's just insane.

Philosophers, for example, often fail to recognize that their remarks about the universe apply also to themselves and their remarks. If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so.

Philosophers are only men in armor after all.

The absolute has moved into the fortress of the absurd.

However good an argument in philosophy may happen to be, it is generally not good enough.