Walter Kaufmann Quotes

25 quotes in 466 categories

• When Hegel later became a man of influence' he insisted that the Jews should be granted equal rights because civic rights belong to man because…
• Mundus vult decipi: the world wants to be deceived. The truth is too complex and frightening; the taste for the truth is an acquired taste…
• Success is no proof of virtue. In the case of a book, quick acclaim is presumptive evidence of a lack of substance and originality.
• Man stands alone in the universe, responsible for his condition, likely to remain in a lowly state, but free to reach above the stars.
• Let people who do not know what to do with themselves in this life, but fritter away their time reading magazines and watching television, hope…
• Reason may not always tell us what to believe, but it can help us on what we shouldn't believe.
• No other German writer of comparable stature has been a more extreme critic of German nationalism than Nietzsche.
• The first function of a book review should be, I believe, to give some idea of the contents and character of the book.
• The problem of suffering is: why is there the suffering we know?
• Thirdly, even if we assume that the world is governed by purpose, we need only add that this purpose - or, if there are several,…
• Here an attempt is made to explain suffering: the outcaste of traditional Hinduism is held to deserve his fetched fate; it is a punishment for…
• In all three cases, and for most human beings, the problem of suffering poses no difficult problem at all: one has a world picture in…
• It is widely assumed, contrary to fact, that theism necessarily involves the two assumptions which cannot be squared with the existence of so much suffering,…
• The doctrine of original sin claims that all men sinned in Adam; but whether they did or whether it is merely a fact that all…
• It does not follow that the meaning must be given from above; that life and suffering must come neatly labeled; that nothing is worth while…
• Life ceases to be so oppressive: we are free to give our own lives meaning and purpose, free to redeem our suffering by making something…
• The great artist is the man who most obviously succeeds in turning his pains to advantage, in letting suffering deepens his understanding and sensibility, in…
• The deepest difference between religions is not that between polytheism and monotheism.
• To try to fashion something from suffering, to relish our triumphs, and to endure defeats without resentment: all that is compatible with the faith of…
• It was also Hegel who established the view that the different philosophic systems that we find in history are to be comprehended in terms of…

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