Quotes of Savant - somelinesforyou

“ The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers. ”

- Denis Diderot

“ He was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher... or, as his wife would have it, an idiot. ”

- Douglas Adams

“ If we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist… ”

- Stephen Hawking

“ One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid. ”

- James Watson

“ A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day… ”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“ Why is it the philosopher who is expected to be easier and not some scientist who is even more inaccessible? ”

- Jacques Derrida

“ What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books. ”

- Thomas Carlyle

“ There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers. ”

- William James

“ Whatever statesman or sage will effect reforms upon a gigantic or godlike scale must begin with the young. ”

- Horace Mann

“ Culture is an instrument wielded by professors to manufacture professors who when their turn comes, will manufacture professors. ”

- Simone Weil

“ I am my own Universe, I my own Professor. ”

- Sylvia Ashton Warner

“ There are now-a-days professors of philosophy but not philosophers. ”

- Henry David Thoreau

“ Theories of love are found in the works of scientists, philosophers, and theologians. ”

- Mortimer Adler

“ Philosophers are very severe towards other philosophers because they expect too much. ”

- George Santayana

“ So in the end, what can anyone... scholar, professor, student or biographer... really say about these angels and devils, who once walked among us, though maybe just a bit higher off the ground? ”

- Johnny Depp

“ The humblest painter is a true scholar; and the best of scholars the scholar of nature. ”

- William Hazlitt

“ I am not a philosopher. ”

- Hans Bethe

“ I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite. ”

- Bertrand Russell

“ The man of science is a poor philosopher. ”

- Albert Einstein

“ If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women. ”

- Abigail Adams

“ Now I know what a statesman is; he's a dead politician. We need more statesmen. ”

- Bob Edwards

“ Two half philosophers will probably never a whole metaphysician make. ”

- Gaston Bachelard

“ Bad philosophers may have a certain influence; good philosophers, never. ”

- Bertrand Russell

“ In the same way that we need statesmen to spare us the abjection of exercising power, we need scholars to spare us the abjection of learning. ”

- Jean Baudrillard

“ This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientists do, each in his own fashion. ”

- Albert Einstein

“ Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor. ”

- Soren Kierkegaard

“ What every genuine philosopher craves most is praise — although the philosophers generally call it "recognition"! ”

- William James

“ The success of great scholars and thinkers is commonly a courtier-like success, not kingly, not manly. ”

- Henry David Thoreau

“ Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all other philosophers are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself. ”

- H.L. Mencken

“ You can't get a real education if your professors are only giving you one side of the story. You also won't get an education if professors are blowing off leftist steam on the war in Iraq or the racist hurricane. ”

- David Horowitz
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