A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about.
Miguel De UnamunoRead
And usually [the philosopher] philosophizes either in order to resign himself to life, or to seek some finality in it, or to distract himself and forget his griefs, or for pastime and amusement.
Interpretation
Philosophy serves various purposes for individuals, including coping with life's challenges and seeking meaning.
In this quote, Miguel De Unamuno suggests that people engage in philosophy for a variety of reasons, such as to come to terms with life's difficulties, to find a sense of purpose, or simply to entertain themselves. Philosophy can be a tool for self-reflection, distraction from grief, or a pursuit of knowledge and understanding in the quest for meaning in existence.
In practice
During a lecture on existentialism, I quoted this passage to illustrate the diverse motivations behind philosophical thought.
A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about.
Suffering is the substance of life and the root of personality, for it is only suffering that makes us persons.
Only he who attempts the absurd is capable of achieving the impossible.
Only in solitude do we find ourselves; and in finding ourselves, we find in ourselves all our brothers in solitude.
If it is nothingness that awaits us, let us make an injustice of it, let us fight against destiny, even without hope of victory.
Spiritual Love is born of sorrow. . . . For men love one another with spiritual love only when they have suffered the same sorrow together, when through long days they have ploughed the stony ground buried beneath the common yoke of a common grief. It is then that they know one another and feel one another and feel with one another in their common anguish, and so they pity one another and love one another.
For all professional pilots there exists a kind of guild, without charter and without by-laws. it demands no requirements for inclusion save an understanding of the wind, the compass, the rudder, and fair fellowship.
You're water. We're the millstone. You're wind. We're dust blown up into shapes. You're spirit. We're the opening and closing of our hands. You're the clarity. We're the language that tries to say it. You're joy. We're all the different kinds of laughing.
To make someone an icon is to make him an abstraction, and abstractions are incapable of vital communication with living people.
Man has always been half-monster, half-dreamer.
In the lives of children, pumpkins turn into coaches, mice and rats turn into men. When we grow up, we realize it is far more common for men to turn into rats.
Everyone finds justification for his or her views in logic and analysis, but a personal philosophy often emerges from some archaic part of the mind, an early idea of how the world should be.
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