The great philosophers and the great works are standards for the selection of what is essential. Everything that we do in studying the history of philosophy ultimately serves their better understanding.
Karl JaspersRead
Only then, approaching my fortieth birthday, I made philosophy my life's work.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Philosophy can become a central focus of one's life, particularly as one grows older and seeks deeper understanding.
In this quote, Karl Jaspers reflects on the significance of philosophy in his life as he approached a milestone age. He emphasizes the idea that dedicating oneself to philosophical inquiry can provide a sense of purpose and direction, particularly in mid-life when individuals often reassess their goals and beliefs.
Themes
PhilosophyLifeUnderstandingPurposeReflection
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech about finding one's passion.
More from Karl Jaspers
All quotes →The community of masses of human beings has produced an order of life in regulated channels which connects individuals in a technically functioning organisation, but not inwardly from the historicity of their souls.
Karl JaspersRead
We must learn to talk with each other, and we mutually must understand and accept one another in our extraordinary differences.
Karl JaspersRead
The study of law left me unsatisfied, because I did not know the aspects of life which it serves. I perceived only the intricate mental juggling with fictions that did not interest me.
Karl JaspersRead
If philosophy is practice, a demand to know the manner in which its history is to be studied is entailed: a theoretical attitude toward it becomes real only in the living appropriation of its contents from the texts.
Karl JaspersRead
Reason is like an open secret that can become known to anyone at any time; it is the quiet space into which everyone can enter through his own thought
Karl JaspersRead
Similar quotes
Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.
George Bernard ShawRead
This kind of gaping inequality gives lie to the promise that’s at the very heart of America: that this is a place where you can make it if you try. We tell people - we tell our kids - that in this country, even if you’re born with nothing, work hard and you can get into the middle class. We tell them that your children will have a chance to do even better than you do. That’s why immigrants from around the world historically have flocked to our shores.
Barack ObamaRead
You don't need organized religion to connect with the universe. Often a church is the only place you can go to find peace and quiet... But it shouldn't be confused with connecting with one's spirit.
Alice WalkerRead
Physically there is nothing to distinguish human society from the farm-yard except that children are more troublesome and costly than chickens and calves and that men and women are not so completely enslaved as farm stock.
George Bernard ShawRead
Life is not about finding our limitations, it's about finding our infinity.
Herbie HancockRead
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
Oscar WildeRead