The Greek word for philosopher (philosophos) connotes a distinction from sophos. It signifies the lover of wisdom (knowledge) as distinguished from him who considers himself wise in the possession of knowledge. This meaning of the word still endures: the essence… — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
the essence of philosophy is not the possession of the truth but the search for truth. ... Philosophy means to be on the way. Its questions are more essential than its answers, and every answer becomes a new question. — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
The more determinedly I exist, as myself, within the conditions of the time, the more clearly I shall hear the language of the past,… — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
Nietzsche's ideas and plans: for example, the idea of giving up the whole wretched academic world to form a secular monastic community. — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
What is meaningful cannot in fact be isolated…. We achieve understanding within a circular movement from particular facts to the whole that includes them… — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
“But each one of us is guilty insofar as he remained inactive. The guilt of passivity is different. Impotence excuses; no moral law demands… — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
At the present moment, the security of coherent philosophy, which existed from Parmenides to Hegel, is lost. — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
The great philosophers and the great works are standards for the selection of what is essential. Everything that we do in studying the history… — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
We must learn to talk with each other, and we mutually must understand and accept one another in our extraordinary differences. — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
The Socratic teacher turns his students away from himself and back onto themselves; he hides in paradoxes, makes himself inaccessible. The intimate relationship between… — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
What makes us afraid is our great freedom in the face of the emptiness that has still to be filled. — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
To decide to become a philosopher seemed as foolish to me as to decide to become a poet. — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
Philosophy is tested and characterised by the way in which it appropriates its history. — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
“Tragedy occurs whenever awareness exceeds power; and particularly where awareness of a major need exceeds the power to satisfy it.” — Karl Jaspers Copy Share Image
