By Makena “I-Like-Philosophy” Behnke

as everyone knows, philosophy is super cool, but super broad, at least when you’re offered that topic to speak about [as Philosophy Editor James did to Makena]. where do you start? well, here’s some quick philosophical quotes and their philosophers–some little things to give us pause.

Plato- “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.”

Hippocrates- “Life is short, the art long.”

Isocrates- “It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement.”

Lucretius- “So potent was religion in persuading to evil deeds.”

Origen of Alexandria- “You yourself are even another little world and have within you the sun and the moon and also the stars.”

Socrates- “I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.”

Ogyū Sorai- “Mathematicians boast of their achievements, but in reality they are absorbed in mental acrobatics and contribute nothing to society.”

Ptolemy- “As material fortune is associated with the properties of the body, so honor belongs to those of the soul.”

Homer- “Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are today. We will never be here again.”

Yang Chu- “Dead people are not concerned whether their bodies are buried in coffins, cremated, dumped in water or in a ditch; nor whether the body is dressed in fine clothes. What matters most is that before death strikes one lives life to the fullest.”

Philosophy Editor: James Zheng