I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.

Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.

Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970), The Philosophy of Logical Atomism

This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities¹.

Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper² sticker.

Charles M. Schulz (1922 - 2000)

There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it.

Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), De Divinatione

Who you are isn't tied solely³ to what you say, even though it may feel that way to you now.

Diane Ackerman, One Hundred Names for Love: A Stroke, A Marriage, and the Language of Healing, 2011

I went off to college planning to major in math or philosophy-- of course, both those ideas are really the same idea.

Frank Wilczek (1951 - )

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.

H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951)

One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another.

Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650), 'Le Discours de la Methode,' 1637

Philosophers say a great deal about what is absolutely necessary for science, and it is always, so far as one can see, rather naive⁴, and probably wrong.

Richard Feynman (1918 - 1988)

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

Samuel Butler (1835 - 1902)

Leisure is the mother of philosophy.

Thomas Hobbes (1588 - 1679)

True philosophy invents nothing; it merely establishes and describes what is.

Victor Cousin (1792 - 1867)

There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers.

William James (1842 - 1910)

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Hamlet", Act 1 scene 5