#philosopher

If one's bowels move, one is happy, and if they don't move, one is unhappy. That is all there is to it. ↗

— Lin Yutang

#happiness #philosophy-of-life #life

Know this: I, Mercurius, have here set down a full, true and infallible account of the Great Work. But I give you fair warning that unless you seek the true philosophical gold and not the gold of the vulgar, unless you heart is fixed with unbending intent on the true Stone of the Philosophers, unless you are steadfast in your quest, abiding by God’s laws in all faith and humility and eschewing all vanity, conceit, falsehood, intemperance, pride, lust and faint-heartedness, read no farther lest I prove fatal to you. For I am the watery venomous serpent who lies buried at the earth’s centre; I am the fiery dragon who flies through the air. I am the one thing necessary for the whole Opus. I am the spirit of metals, the fire which does not burn, the water which does not wet the hands. If you find the way to slay me you will find the philosophical mercury of the wise, even the White Stone beloved of the Philosophers. If you find the way to raise me up again, you will find the philosophical sulphur, that is, the Red Stone and Elixir of Life. Obey me and I will be your servant; free me and I will be your friend. Enslave me and I am a dangerous enemy; command me and I will make you mad; give me life and you will die. ↗

— Patrick Harpur

#elixir-of-life #hermeticism #mercurius #mercury #philosopher-s-stone

All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher. ↗

— Ambrose Bierce

#called #delusions #his #lunatics #philosopher

It has always surprised me how little attention philosophers have paid to humor, since it is a more significant process of mind than reason. Reason can only sort out perceptions, but the humor process is involved in changing them. ↗

— Edward de Bono

#attention #changing #how #humor #involved

My instinct as a philosopher is that we are effectively approaching a multicentric world, which means we need to ask new, and for the traditional left, unpleasant questions. ↗

— Slavoj Zizek

#ask #effectively #instinct #left #means

For my future I have no concern, and as a true philosopher, I never would have any, for I know not what it may be: as a Christian, on the other hand, faith must believe without discussion, and the stronger it is, the more it keeps silent. ↗

— Giacomo Casanova

#believe #christian #concern #discussion #faith

No man was ever yet a great poet, without being at the same time a profound philosopher. ↗

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

#ever #great #man #philosopher #poet

When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man. ↗

— Diogenes

#contemptible #i #look #man #men

The myth that John Locke was the philosopher behind the American Republic, is easily refuted by examining how Locke's philosophy steered Thomas Jefferson, for example. ↗

— Robert Trout

#american republic #behind #easily #examining #example

A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is a vagabond. ↗

— Oliver Goldsmith

#country #curiosity #goes #guided #himself