#phil

We are not native. We have no generations of Americans behind us. We have roots elsewhere. We are looking in from the outside. To me, that seems to be perfectly natural. ↗

— Don DeLillo

#americans #paul-auster #philip-roth #robert-mccrum #nature

Now that science has helped us to overcome the awe of the unknown in nature, we are the slaves of social pressures of our own making. When called upon to act independently, we cry for patterns, systems, and authorities. If by enlightenment and intellectual progress we mean the freeing of man from superstitious belief in evil forces, in demons and fairies, in blind fate--in short, the emancipation from fear--then denunciation of what is currently called reason is the greatest service reason can render. ↗

— Max Horkheimer

#humanity #philosophy #progress #rationality #science

To recognize and comprehend what influences us and others is to function with purpose. ↗

— Mark David Henderson

#politics #relationships #sociology #world-views #relationship

You'd be surprised how easy some things can be, things you never thought you'd do, when you take self-respect out of the equation. ↗

— Sarah Addison Allen

#self-respect #wisdom #respect

Historically, philosophy does not have an impressive track record of answering questions about natural world in a decisive manner. ↗

— Christof Koch

#nature

The natural distribution is neither just nor unjust; nor is it unjust that persons are born into society at some particular position. These are simply natural facts. What is just and unjust is the way that institutions deal with these facts. ↗

— John Rawls

#distribution #justice #philosophy #society #nature

Independence is like a flower that nurtures itself in the light of another. ↗

— Zephyr A. McIntyre

#personal-growth #philosophy #nature

Have a religion but don't let religion have you! ↗

— Janina Lea Dela Peña

#life-philosophy #reality #religion-meaning #religion-philosophy #religion

But no matter what I do, it will always get me, bother me, and you know what this is, what gets me, and will continue to get me throughout my existence? It’s that we as humans will never know the results of the other choice. What would have happened if I chose that instead of this? Naturally, the results or consequences would probably be different, perhaps very different. More importantly, would the other option have been the better choice? We will never know. I will never know. And this will always get me. ↗

— Jack Serv

#nature

Perhaps we are like cells in the mind of God, contributing to celestial functions beyond our ken, just as our cells unknowingly fashion our thoughts and actions. Perhaps the laws of nature order and constrain even the living and eternal Deity from which they spring, and of which they are a part. ↗

— Robert Christian

#humanistic #philosophy-of-life #nature