Philosophical thoughts about life. Philosophical quotes. Short sayings about Life

05.04.2024 Recipes

Beautiful quotes from philosophers about the meaning of life and human existence

For For me, living means working.

I. K. Aivazovsky

Human is born not to drag out a sad existence in inaction, but to work on a great and grandiose cause.

L. Alberti

Struggle - this is the joy of life.

L. N. Andreev

Everyone a person individually and everyone together There is, one might say, a well-known goal, in pursuit of which they choose one thing and avoid another.

Aristotle

Good everywhere and everywhere depends on the observance of two conditions: 1) the correct establishment of the final goal of any kind of activity and 2) the search for appropriate means leading to the final goal.

Aristotle

To To reach the goal, you must first go.

O. Balzac

Facilities to action merge with its results.

O. Balzac

Enough going over the edge does not mean reaching the goal.

O. Balzac

Who does not move forward; he goes back: there is no standing position.

V. G. Belinsky

Find your path, to find out your place - this is everything for a person, this means for him to become himself.

V. G. Belinsky

Without There is no goal, there is no activity, without interests there is no goal, and without activity there is no life. The source of interests, goals and activities is the substance of social life.

V. G. Belinsky

That, Whoever understands that the meaning of human life lies in worry and anxiety will no longer be an ordinary person.

A. Blok

Impossible live peacefully and be happy while at least one unfortunate person still lives on earth. The purpose of life is the prosperity and happiness of all mankind.

Ya. Bolyai

For To achieve a set goal, efficiency is needed no less than knowledge.

P. Beaumarchais

In life one must strive to overtake not others, but oneself.

M. Babcock

Hobbling on a straight road he will get ahead of a runner who has lost his way.

F. Bacon

The word philosophy comes from two Greek words: phileo - “love”, and sophia - “wisdom”. It is a form of knowledge of the world. Its main tasks have always included the study of the laws of the whole world and society, as an integral part of it, the process of cognition itself, as well as the understanding of moral values, questions about life, freedom, love and other concepts that have puzzled more than one generation of people. Philosophical statements about life and its components have reached us: love, justice, good and evil, freedom, religion of the most prominent representatives of human society. In essence, philosophy is not so much a science, it is rather a worldview as one or another person sees the world.

About philosophical statements

Almost every person engages in philosophy in life, asking themselves questions and answering them to the best of their education, life experience, practical skills, and other things. If there is not enough experience and knowledge, then a person turns to the wisdom of people who have achieved certain achievements.

Such people are scientists, writers, outstanding public figures with certain knowledge and experience. They leave behind a legacy in the form of works, recorded thoughts, works from which people have extracted the most valuable philosophical statements, which often become their mottos and guidelines for life.

A person striving for certain achievements is necessarily inquisitive, tries to develop, improve, fully understanding that experience and knowledge are worth a lot, they make a person wise.

Life is purpose and action

Every person has thought about the meaning of life and how to live it. The writer J. London, known for his works filled with the power of spirit, said that the purpose of man is to live, not to exist. The concept of “life” includes not just living, providing for basic needs, but also something else, without which a person will not be happy, satisfied with fate, satisfied with the life he has lived, and will not find meaning in it.

To live, you need a goal - for what it is being done. It is well known that life without a goal is a waste of time. According to V. Belinsky, without a set goal there is no action, without interests there can be no goal, and without action there is no life itself.

Philosophical statements about the life of the ancient Greek thinker Aristotle contain the rule that the good of a person, which he strives for, depends on compliance with two conditions: the correctly set final goal of any activity and finding the right means that will lead him to this goal.

About the meaning of life

According to Freud, the question of the meaning of life has been asked by people countless times, but never has a satisfactory answer been given. This is partly because each person is different. He determines the meaning of life for himself. Therefore, many thinkers see it differently. It’s interesting that for most people, the meaning is to achieve certain goals that everyone sets for themselves in life. As the German philosopher W. Humboldt wrote, half the success in achieving a goal is the persistent pursuit of it.

Reading philosophical statements about the meaning of life, you understand that each of them is often the result of not only reflection, but also life experience. The German poet and philosopher F. Schiller wrote that a person grows as long as his goals grow. As soon as he comes to terms with everyday life and is satisfied with the results achieved, his growth as a person stops. Simple dreams lead nowhere. Honore de Balzac noted that to achieve your goal, you must first of all go.

So the great Russian writer M. Gorky sees the meaning in life, first of all, in the beauty and strength of striving for goals, he notes that every moment of life should have its own goal. You need to walk without stopping and without being distracted by obstacles and trifles. On this occasion, F. M. Dostoevsky wrote that if, while walking towards a goal, you stop in order to throw stones at all the dogs barking at you, then you will never reach it.

Statements about freedom

The most interesting and controversial are philosophical statements about freedom, because it is this important and complex concept that has worried thinkers and philosophers for many centuries. Freedom was and remains a mystery, since the concept carries the most unexpected content, which changes over time and depends on various factors. Hegel has such words about the idea of freedom that it is uncertain, multifaceted, and subject to great misunderstandings, which cannot be said about other philosophical concepts.

Philosophical statements on this matter vary. Justinian, the Byzantine emperor, defined freedom from the point of view of a politician and ruler as the natural ability of a person to do whatever he wants, unless force and right prohibit it. The ancient Greek philosopher Democritus considered a free person to be a person who fears no one and does not hope for anything. B. Shaw has a slightly different opinion. He presented freedom as a responsibility that everyone fears.

Philosophical concept of justice

In philosophy, it is customary to distinguish between two concepts of justice. The first is fairness of law, or, in other words, procedural justice. In this case, it is achieved through the correct functioning of the mechanism of the law. It is here that justice is a logical, one might say, mechanical assessment, according to the fixed provisions of the law. But is it always fair? In the second concept of justice, there is an appeal to higher values that are not reflected in the law and are called moral court.

It is this concept that introduces some confusion into the logic of justice of the law, which is not always consistent with morality. Well-known philosophical statements of wise thinkers speak about this. Plato also said that in many states it is believed that justice is what is necessary for the ruling power, which is presented by people and is not always consistent with the highest values. Or justice is perceived as the decision of the majority, which, according to I. Schiller, cannot be its measure.

The law does not always correspond to divine concepts of justice. On this occasion, T. Jefferson said that when he thinks that the Lord is justice, he is seized with fear for his country.

Religion in human life and philosophy

The philosophy of religion and its significance in human life belongs to a number of the most important philosophical disciplines; it is often separated into a separate part, as religious philosophy. It is aimed at knowledge of religion. Its appearance is associated with religious and mythological culture, since man explored not only external life, but also internal - spiritual life.

The philosophical statements of most thinkers confirm this. As F. Bacon said, with a superficial study of philosophy, a person tends to deny God; with a deep study of philosophy, a person’s mind turns to religion.

Nikolai Berdyaev argued that when science turns into philosophy, the latter turns into religion. Science cannot answer many questions in life, but religion answers all questions unambiguously.

About the truth in human life

Philosophy of life is impossible without truth, which goes back to ancient times. The goal of any knowledge is truth, but philosophy, in addition to this, explores it as an object. What is truth? All famous philosophers have thought about such a concept as “truth”. Plato believed that in the case when a person says about things what is true, this is the truth, otherwise he is lying. From the principle of what is affirmed by thought, that is, in reality, the concept of philosophy was developed. I. Kant introduced into it the concept of “adequacy” - the agreement of thinking with itself. In other words, an adequate description of objective reality by a person can be considered truth.

Philosophers about love

Love has been elevated by philosophers, writers, and poets to an omnipotent force that moves and transforms the world. The philosophy of love leads thinkers to thoughts that allow them to comprehend the nature of feeling and evaluate its role in the life of every person. Love personified the path to happiness. Philosophical statements about love reflect the depth of feelings full of passions. This was reflected in the words of G. Heine, who defined it as the most victorious and sublime passion, which, thanks to its all-conquering power, is contained in “... limitless generosity and supersensible unselfishness.”

O. Balzac said that love lives only in the present. This is the only passion that does not want to acknowledge the past and the future. Moreover, it was considered happiness to experience this feeling personally; this is evidenced by numerous philosophical statements about love. A. Camus wrote that not being loved is a failure, and not experiencing love yourself is a disaster.

Great ones about people's happiness

Along with love, which some people associate as the highest point of happiness, famous philosophers have not ignored the concept itself. A rather significant difficulty here is that each person understands happiness differently. Aristotle spoke about the various perceptions of happiness, while at the same time emphasizing that this concept represents well-being and the good life. O. Splenger associated it with kinship of souls and harmony. G. Andersen argued that only by bringing benefit to the world can one be happy.

Philosophers on Wealth

The two poles in human life - wealth and poverty - have not gone unnoticed by philosophers. This topic did not leave anyone indifferent. The question of why some people can make money out of nothing, while others, working around the clock, do not have a penny, is relevant at all times. In comprehending the concept of wealth, thinkers made their own conclusions; their interesting philosophical statements suggest that the point here is not in the highest justice, but in the person himself, in his attitude towards himself.

The ancient Greek philosopher Democritus wrote that greed for money is much worse than need, since the growth of desires also leads to an increase in needs. The ancient Greek philosopher B. Bion wrote that misers care about their wealth as if it were their own, but use it little, as if it were someone else’s.

good and evil

The philosophy of life has always paid great attention to the problems of good and evil, trying to help humanity understand their essence and help find ways to achieve good and avoid evil. There were various philosophical schools and movements that in their own way established the relationship between evil and good, sought and determined their own ways of establishing virtue and combating the generation of evil - vices. As with any subject of philosophical research, philosophers have different attitudes towards this concept. The philosophical statements of great people speak about this.

Good is always stronger than evil, and there is more of it. The latter can be unbearably painful, and goodness often goes unnoticed. As the Persian poet M. Saadi said, with the help of kindness and gentle words you can lead an elephant by a thread. The great L.N. Tolstoy said that people are loved for their goodness and not loved for the evil that was done to them. The question of how to distinguish good from evil is quite acute for people. On this occasion, M. Cicero wrote that the most alarming fact in human life is ignorance of good and evil.

Philosophy, the mother of all sciences, helps a person answer many questions concerning various spheres of life, relations between society and people, and knowledge of life moves humanity forward.

The meaning of life... This topic is eternal.

The constant questions that we ask ourselves “for what,” “why,” “why” accompany us throughout life and require each person to have their own answer. Let the data sayings about the meaning of life will help you understand this issue more deeply and at least slightly discover this very meaning for yourself...

These questions are probably much more important than the answers received. By asking ourselves questions like these, we discover the meaning of life in our own hearts. great people contribute to the creation of their own beliefs. And the beliefs that a person has come to on his own are very valuable and important. They are more valuable than all knowledge and theories. In my opinion, the meaning of life is in life itself. It is also about realizing one’s own capabilities, personal improvement, joy and pleasure. The meaning of life is also in its knowledge, completeness and awareness, in love and harmony, in happiness and joy.

So, statements about the meaning of life:

“The true purpose of man is to live, not to exist”

D. London

"What is a sense of life? Serve others and do good"

Aristotle

“Two meanings in life - internal and external,

for the external – family, business, success;

And the inner one is unclear and unearthly -

Everyone is responsible for everyone.”

I. Guberman

“Fill every moment with meaning

hours and days of inexorable running,

then you will take possession of the whole world

Then, my son, you will be a Man"

R. Kipling

“I am sure that the meaning of life for each of us is simply to grow in love.”

L.N. Tolstoy.

“The meaning of life is in the beauty and strength of striving for goals, and it is necessary that every moment of existence has its own high goal.”

M. Gorky

“Every person is a reflection of his inner world. As a person thinks, that is how he is (in life).”

Marcus Tulius Cicero.

“The meaning of life is self-expression. To manifest our essence in its entirety - that’s what we live for.”

Oscar Wilde

“The only happiness in life is a constant striving forward.”

Emile Zola

“There is no other meaning in life except what a person himself gives to it, revealing his strength, living fruitfully.”

Erich Fromm

"What is a sense of life?

More than once we suddenly ask ourselves

And like blind people we don’t notice at all,

That everything around is filled with meaning.”

Sergey Fetisov

“That’s the meaning of life, not to ask stupid questions.”

Mikhail Mamchits

“The life of an individual has meaning only to the extent that it helps to make the lives of others more beautiful and noble.”

Albert Einstein

“Strive not for success, but for your life to have meaning.”

Albert Einstein

“When You were born, You cried, and the World laughed - live so that when you die, You laugh, and the World cries.”

“You have to love life more than the meaning of life.”

F.M. Dostoevsky

“A wise man does not seek the meaning of life, he simply does not lose it.”

Mikhail Mamchits

“If you are looking for the meaning of life because you cannot express it in words, this is philosophy.
If you are looking for the meaning of life because you don’t feel that there is one, this is psychiatry.”

“Once you have taken the painkiller “life is a game”, stop looking for meaning in it, there is only sense in rushing to score points.”

Elena Ermolaeva

“If anyone knows the meaning of life, let him not frighten others with this meaning.”

“The meaning of life is to be happy. And the reasons for happiness are not important.”

“The meaning of life is to find your happiness. The happiness of life is not to lose its meaning.”

“It would be easy to understand the meaning of life if it weren’t so difficult to find...”

Mikhail Mamchits

“Understand Who You Are and don’t change yourself.”

K-F "Hurry to love"

“Your purpose is hidden in what you love to do more than anything else.”

Jonathan Zakarin

"In everything you see,

You are looking for yourself!

And even loving someone madly,

Everything you are looking for in him -

only yourself!”

Kira Borg

“The meaning of life is not to cry, not to laugh, but to understand.”

Dmitry Rubashkin

“I saw the meaning of my life in helping others find meaning in their lives.”

Victor Frankl

“What is the purpose of life? Reproduction of one's own kind? For what? Serve people? And what should we do for those whom we will serve? Serve God? Can't He do what He needs without us? If He orders us to serve ourselves, it is only for our good. Life cannot have any other purpose than goodness and joy.”

Lev Tolstoy

“Let one thing be our highest goal: to speak as we feel, and to live as we speak.”

“The meaning of life does not exist, I will have to create it myself.”

J.-P. Sartre

“Our main goal in this life is to help other people. If you are not able to help them, then at least do not harm them.”

T. Gyatso

The above statementsabout the meaning of life very different, sometimes contradictory. And this is understandable. As they say, there are so many people, so many opinions (so many statements about the meaning of life).

Parable about the meaning of life

One day a student asked the Teacher:
- Teacher, what is the meaning of life?
- Whose? – the Teacher was surprised.
The student thought for a while and replied:
- At all. Human life.
The teacher took a deep breath and then said to the students:
- Try to answer.
One student said:
- Maybe in love?
“Not bad,” said the Teacher, “but is love alone enough to say in one’s declining years, “I didn’t live in vain?”
Then another student said:
– In my opinion, the meaning of life is to leave something behind for centuries. Like you, Teacher.
“Wow,” the Teacher smiled, “if I knew you worse, I could take it for flattery.” Are you saying that most people live in vain?
The third student suggested hesitantly:
- Or maybe you don’t need to look for it, this very meaning?
“Come on, come on,” the Teacher became interested, “explain why you think so?”
“It seems to me,” said the student, “that if you ask this question, then, firstly, you still won’t find an exact and final answer, you will doubt it all the time, and, secondly, no matter what answer you find, you will still always there will be someone who will argue with him. So your whole life will pass in search of its meaning.
“That is,,” the Teacher smiled, “the meaning of life is...
- Live? - said the student.
- In my opinion, this is the answer! – and the Teacher gestured that classes were over for today.

Our life is a consequence of our thoughts; it is born in our heart, it is created by our thoughts. If a person speaks and acts with a good thought, joy follows him like a shadow that never leaves.

"Dhammapada"

Everything that changes our lives is not an accident. It is within us and awaits only an external reason for expression through action.

Alexander Sergeevich Green

Life is neither suffering nor pleasure, but a task that we must do and honestly complete it.

Alexis Tocqueville

Strive not to achieve success, but to ensure that your life has meaning.

Albert Einstein


The Mystery of God (Part 1)	The Mystery of God (Part 2)	The Mystery of God (Part 3)

To see all things in God, to make one's life a movement towards the ideal, to live with gratitude, concentration, gentleness and courage: this is the amazing point of view of Marcus Aurelius.

Henri Amiel

Every life creates its own destiny.

Henri Amiel

Life is a moment. It cannot be lived first in a draft and then rewritten into a white paper.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

The calling of every person in spiritual activity is a constant search for the truth and meaning of life.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

The meaning of life is only in one thing - struggle.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Life is a continuous birth, and you accept yourself as you become.

I want to fight for my life. They fight for the truth. Everyone always fights for the truth, and there is no ambiguity in this.

It is not necessary to look at where a person was born, but what his morals are, not in what land, but by what principles he decided to live his life.

Apuleius

Life - is a risk. Only by getting into risky situations do we continue to grow. And one of the biggest risks we can take is the risk of love, the risk of being vulnerable, the risk of allowing ourselves to open up to another person without fear of pain or hurt.

Arianna Huffington

What is a sense of life? Serve others and do good.

Aristotle

No one lived in the past, no one will have to live in the future; the present is the form of life.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Remember: only this life has value!

Aphorisms from literary monuments of ancient Egypt

We should not be afraid of death, but of empty life.

Bertolt Brecht

People seek pleasure, rushing from side to side, only because they feel the emptiness of their life, but do not yet feel the emptiness of that new fun that attracts them.

Blaise Pascal

The moral qualities of a person should be judged not by his individual efforts, but by his daily life.

Blaise Pascal

No, apparently death doesn’t explain anything. Only life gives people certain opportunities that they realize or are wasted; only life can resist evil and injustice.

Vasily Bykov

Life is not about living, but about feeling that you are living.

Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky

Life is not a burden, but wings of creativity and joy; and if anyone turns it into a burden, then he himself is to blame.

Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev

Our life is a journey, an idea is a guide. There is no guide and everything stops. The goal is lost, and the strength is gone.

Whatever we strive for, whatever the particular tasks that we set for ourselves, we ultimately strive for one thing: completeness and completeness... We strive to become eternal, complete, and all-encompassing life ourselves.

Victor Frankl

Finding your way, finding out your place in life - this is everything for a person, this means for him to become himself.

Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky

Whoever wants to accept the meaning of life as an external authority ends up accepting the meaning of his own arbitrariness as the meaning of life.

Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov

A person can have two basic behaviors in life: he either rolls or climbs.

Vladimir Soloukhin

Only you have the power to change your life for the better, simply by intending to do so.

Eastern wisdom

This is the meaning of our stay on earth: to think and search and listen to distant disappeared sounds, since behind them lies our true homeland.

Hermann Hesse

Life is a mountain: you go up slowly, you go down quickly.

Guy de Maupassant

Idleness and idleness entail depravity and ill health - on the contrary, the aspiration of the mind towards something brings with it vigor, eternally aimed at strengthening life.

Hippocrates

One task, constantly and strictly performed, organizes everything else in life, everything revolves around it.

Delacroix

Just as there is a disease of the body, there is also a disease of the lifestyle.

Democritus

There is no poetry in a serene and blissful life! You need something to move your soul and burn your imagination.

Denis Vasilievich Davydov

You cannot lose the meaning of life for the sake of life.

Decimus Junius Juvenal

True Light is the one that comes from within a person and reveals the secrets of the heart to the soul, making it happy and in harmony with life.

Man struggles to find life outside himself, not realizing that the life he seeks is within him.

A person who is limited in heart and thoughts tends to love what is limited in life. One whose vision is limited cannot see beyond the length of one cubit on the road he is walking on or on the wall he is leaning against with his shoulder.

Those who illuminate the lives of others will not be left without light themselves.

James Matthew Barry

Look at every dawn as the beginning of your life, and at every sunset as the end of it. Let each of these short lives be marked by some kind deed, some victory over oneself or acquired knowledge.

John Ruskin

It's hard to live when you haven't done anything to earn your place in life.

Dmitry Vladimirovich Venevitinov

The completeness of life, both short and long, is determined only by the purpose for which it is lived.

David Star Jordan

Our life is a struggle.

Euripides

You can't get honey without difficulty. There is no life without sadness and adversity.

Debt is what we owe to humanity, our loved ones, our neighbors, our family, and, above all, what we owe to all those who are poorer and more defenseless than us. This is our duty, and failure to fulfill it during life makes us spiritually bankrupt and leads to a state of moral collapse in our future incarnation.

A person's honor is not in the power of another; this honor is in himself and does not depend on public opinion; her defense is not a sword or a shield, but an honest and impeccable life, and a battle in such conditions is not inferior in courage to any other battle.

Jean Jacques Rousseau

The cup of life is beautiful! What stupidity it is to be indignant at her just because you see her bottom.

Jules Renan

Life is only wonderful for those who strive for a goal that is constantly achieved, but never achieved.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov

Two meanings in life - internal and external,
The external one has family, business, success;
And the inner one is unclear and unearthly -
Everyone is responsible for everyone.

Igor Mironovich Guberman

He who can fill every moment with deep content endlessly prolongs his life.

Isolde Kurtz

Truly, there is nothing better in life than the help of a friend and mutual joy.

John of Damascus

Everything that happens to us leaves one mark or another in our lives. Everything is involved in making us who we are.

Life is a duty, even if it were a moment.

Only he is worthy of life and freedom who goes to battle for them every day.

A person lives a real life if he is happy with the happiness of others.

Life, like the waters of the sea, is refreshing only when it rises to heaven.

Johann Richter

Human life is like iron. If you use it, it wears out, but if you don’t use it, rust eats it up.

Cato the Elder

It's never too late to plant a tree: even if you don't get the fruits, the joy of life begins with the opening of the first bud of the planted plant.

Konstantin Georgievich Paustovsky

What is more valuable - a glorious name or life? What is smarter - life or wealth? What is more painful - to achieve or to lose? This is why great passions inevitably lead to great losses. And indefatigable accumulation turns into a huge loss. Know when to stop and you won't have to feel ashamed. Know how to stop - and you will not encounter dangers and you will be able to live a long time.

Lao Tzu

Life should and can be unceasing joy

The shortest expression of the meaning of life can be this: the world moves and improves. The main task is to contribute to this movement, submit to it and cooperate with it.

Salvation does not lie in rituals, sacraments, or in the confession of this or that faith, but in a clear understanding of the meaning of one’s life.

I am sure that the meaning of life for each of us is simply to grow in love.

In nature, everything is wisely thought out and arranged, everyone should mind their own business, and in this wisdom lies the highest justice of life.

Leonardo da Vinci

The blessing is not in having a long life, but in how to manage it: it can happen, and it often happens, that someone who lives a long time lives short.