- My selections and interpretations -
Conny Johannesson
Thales (625 BC–545 BC), Greek philosopher.
Everything is water, including life itself.
Laozi (c. 6th century BC), Chinese philosopher.
He who loves the world as his own body may be entrusted with the empire.
Confucius (551 BC–479 BC), Chinese philosopher.
An educated person respects society's authorities and shows kindness to the poor.
Gautama Buddha (c. 500 BC), religious thinker in South Asia.
Life is full of suffering, which can be alleviated through wisdom and ethical conduct.
Protagoras (481 BC–420 BC), Greek philosopher.
Homo mensura: everything is relative.
Socrates (469 BC–399 BC), Greek philosopher.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Plato (428 BC–348 BC), Greek philosopher.
The world we perceive is like a shadow of a deeper reality, in which the Form of the Good has a central place.
Aristotle (384 BC–322 BC), Greek philosopher.
The goal of human beings is to be happy, and to achieve that goal, we must be good.
Mencius (c. 380 BC–289 BC), Chinese philosopher.
You can know what a person is like by looking into their eyes and listening to their words.
Cato (234 BC–149 BC), Roman politician.
Furthermore, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed.
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC–43 BC), Roman politician.
How long, Catiline, will you abuse our patience?
Pompey (106 BC–48 BC), Roman statesman.
To sail is necessary; to live is not necessary.
Julius Caesar (100 BC–44 BC), Roman statesman.
Et tu, Brute? A lost trust can never be recovered.
Pontius Pilate, Roman governor (26 AD–36 AD).
What is truth?
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), Italian theologian.
The virtues are wisdom, moderation, justice and courage.
Saint Birgitta (1303–1373), Swedish saint.
Believe, pray, wait and meet God.
Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492), Florentine statesman.
Be as happy as you can today; you know nothing for certain about tomorrow.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), Italian political thinker.
Power corrupts morality.
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), English philosopher.
Human beings are selfish and can accept the common good only through a binding social contract.
René Descartes (1596–1650), French philosopher.
I think, therefore I am.
Anne Conway (1631–1679), English philosopher.
Body and soul are two aspects of the same reality.
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), Dutch philosopher.
The goal of life is to understand God intellectually.
John Locke (1632–1704), English philosopher.
We learn from our mistakes.
Louis XIV (1638–1715), French king.
L'État, c'est moi. (I am the state.)
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), German philosopher.
God created the world and sustains it. Within this framework, human beings exercise free will.
George Berkeley (1685–1753), Irish bishop and philosopher.
Things exist as objects of perception.
Montesquieu (1689–1755), French political philosopher.
To prevent the abuse of power, political power must be divided among different institutions.
Voltaire (1694–1778), French philosopher.
The best political system is one in which an educated ruler is advised by philosophers.
David Hume (1711–1776), Scottish philosopher.
You cannot logically derive what ought to be from what is.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), French philosopher.
Return to nature and our origins.
Frederick II of Prussia (1712–1786), Prussian king.
You may think and say what you like, as long as you obey me.
Denis Diderot (1713–1784), French philosopher.
The laws of nature do not require supernatural explanations.
Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764), French courtier.
Après nous, le déluge. (After us, the deluge.)
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), German philosopher.
Duty above all.
Catharine Macaulay Graham (1731–1791), English historian and political thinker.
A person's sex does not determine their moral worth.
Grigory Potemkin (1739–1791), Russian statesman.
You can never know what lies behind the façade. It may be a myth.
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), English philosopher.
The greatest happiness of the greatest number.
Axel von Fersen (1755–1810), Swedish count.
Tutto a te mi guida — everything leads me to you, dear M. A.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), English feminist philosopher.
No rights without duties.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), German philosopher.
Every system of thought must begin with an absolute I, independent of external reality.
Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), French zoologist.
Every age has had its own characteristic flora and fauna. Species have disappeared, and new ones have emerged.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), German philosopher.
The history of the world expresses the development of reason and freedom.
Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854), German philosopher.
A benevolent God permeates nature and the human soul.
Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843), Japanese thinker.
The emperor derives his authority from the gods, demanding absolute obedience.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860), German philosopher.
The world as an object cannot exist without a subject.
Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886), German historian.
To see what is actually happening behind what seems to happen.
Auguste Comte (1798–1857), French philosopher.
The highest moral ideal is service to humanity.
John Stuart Mill (1806–1873), English philosopher.
Happiness depends not only on social structures but also on personal feelings.
Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist.
All development requires adaptation and time.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865), French philosopher.
Ethics must address justice for the working class.
Margaret Fuller (1810–1850), American feminist and writer.
The soul has no sex.
Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), Danish philosopher.
Find your own truth and your own relationship with God.
Karl Marx (1818–1883), German philosopher and economist.
Economic power generates moral and ideological power.
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), English philosopher.
Every system develops through stages of birth, growth and decline.
Pyotr Lavrov (1823–1900), Russian philosopher.
Human beings are governed not only by natural forces but also by social and ethical principles.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), German philosopher.
Atheism challenges traditional moral authority.
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), Austrian neurologist.
The ego mediates between instinct, reality and the demands of the superego.
Anna Sterky (1856–1939), Danish-Swedish labour movement activist.
We must fight for equality in the home, at work and in society.
Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), French sociologist.
Every society socialises its members and encourages conformity.
Edmund Husserl (1859–1938), German philosopher.
There is an essential difference between the fact that something exists and how it appears as a phenomenon.
John Dewey (1859–1952), American philosopher.
Knowledge should be useful to human beings.
Henri Bergson (1859–1941), French philosopher.
Our personal history influences every observation we make.
Max Weber (1864–1920), German sociologist.
The development of rationality has advanced technology but may also have deprived human life of existential meaning.
Benedetto Croce (1866–1952), Italian philosopher.
History cannot be understood solely through the norms of the present. Historical events must be understood in the context of their own time.
Axel Hägerström (1868–1939), Swedish philosopher.
Moral statements express values rather than objectively verifiable facts.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948), Indian political leader.
Civil disobedience can be a form of active resistance against injustice.
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), Welsh philosopher.
Our observations shape how we understand reality.
Winston Churchill (1874–1965), British statesman.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Edward Thorndike (1874–1949), American psychologist.
People tend to repeat behaviours that produce satisfying consequences.
Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961), Swiss psychiatrist.
The self represents a deeper unity within the human psyche.
Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938), South Asian philosopher and poet.
Spirituality can provide individuals with emotional strength and a sense of belonging.
Martin Buber (1878–1965), Austrian-Israeli philosopher.
Relationships are difficult. One way to approach them is through an authentic I–Thou relationship.
Albert Einstein (1879–1955), German-born physicist.
It is easier to split an atom than to break a prejudice.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), American president.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Jacques Maritain (1882–1973), French philosopher.
Modern natural science has challenged the traditional position of classical philosophy.
José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955), Spanish philosopher.
The cultural elite has a responsibility to resist the negative effects of mass culture.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), Austrian-British philosopher.
Human beings understand the world through the limits and possibilities of language.
Martin Heidegger (1889–1976), German philosopher.
The modern world can alienate human beings and make them forget what it means to be.
Edith Stein (1891–1942), German philosopher.
See things as they are, with an open mind.
Kirpal Singh (1894–1974), Indian spiritual teacher.
There is only one God, shared by all religions.
Max Horkheimer (1895–1973), German philosopher.
Common sense and rational thought require a free and critical environment.
Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002), German philosopher.
Our consciousness is shaped by our history and culture.
Henri Lefebvre (1901–1991), French sociologist.
Democracy has a natural home at the local level, in our own communities.
Jacques Lacan (1901–1981), French psychoanalyst.
The unconscious is structured like a language.
Lon L. Fuller (1902–1978), American legal philosopher.
Important laws rest on fundamental principles of legality and morality.
Karl Popper (1902–1994), Austrian-British philosopher.
A scientific hypothesis must be open to falsification.
Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974), American aviator.
America First.
Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989), Austrian ethologist.
Animals defend their territory against outsiders and may also bully members of their own group who are perceived as abnormal.
Viktor Frankl (1905–1997), Austrian psychiatrist.
Discover meaning in your life by listening to what matters most to you.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), French philosopher.
Every nonconformist act can be interpreted as an expression of existential freedom.
Ayn Rand (1905–1982), Russian-American novelist and philosopher.
Individual reason and personal judgement are central to understanding reality.
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961), Swedish diplomat.
Freedom from fear is central to the philosophy of human rights.
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), German-American political thinker.
An excessively powerful bureaucracy can undermine personal responsibility.
Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995), French philosopher of Lithuanian-Jewish origin.
Empathetic face-to-face encounters with others can build bridges between people.
Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002), Swedish author.
Some things you must do, even if they are dangerous. Otherwise, you are not a human being, but just a little dirt.
Gustav Jonsson (1907–1994), Swedish psychiatrist.
It is difficult to escape the influence of your social background.
Hans Selye (1907–1982), Hungarian-Canadian endocrinologist.
Excessive demands create stress, to which the body responds through physiological regulation.
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009), French anthropologist.
Human beings in every culture classify reality into structures to make sense of the world.
W. V. Quine (1908–2000), American philosopher.
No statement can be fully understood independently of the wider theory to which it belongs.
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986), French philosopher and feminist.
There is no predetermined fate; our choices help shape our lives.
Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997), British philosopher.
Negative freedom means freedom from external obstacles; positive freedom means the capacity for self-direction.
Rollo May (1909–1994), American psychologist.
Freedom always involves freedom from some form of constraint.
Simone Weil (1909–1943), French philosopher.
Even an atheist can kneel.
Arne Næss (1912–2009), Norwegian philosopher.
Positive thinking can help foster a more positive attitude towards life.
Chaïm Perelman (1912–1984), Polish-Belgian philosopher.
Justice cannot be derived from logic alone; it also involves values and practical reasoning.
Albert Camus (1913–1960), French philosopher and author.
Human beings search for meaning in a world that does not provide clear answers.
David Truman (1913–2003), American political scientist.
Society is a mosaic of different groups engaged in ongoing interaction and conflict.
Paul Ricœur (1913–2005), French philosopher.
Identity is shaped by both personal agency and the structures of our environment.
Robert Dahl (1915–2014), American political scientist.
A good democracy requires human rights and active interaction among diverse political groups.
Herbert Simon (1916–2001), American economist and political scientist.
Human beings have bounded rationality.
C. Wright Mills (1916–1962), American sociologist.
The power elite, comprising political, corporate and military leaders, strongly influences the public agenda.
David Easton (1917–2014), Canadian-American political scientist.
Politics is a system in which citizens provide demands and support, while institutions produce decisions and outcomes.
Edward Lorenz (1917–2008), American mathematician and meteorologist.
In a chaotic system, a very small change can eventually produce a very large effect: the butterfly effect.
Paul de Man (1919–1983), Belgian-born literary theorist.
Deconstruction examines the cultural context and underlying assumptions of a text.
Mary Midgley (1919–2018), English philosopher.
Human beings are more than the products of selfish genes; they are also shaped by their environment, culture, emotions and imagination.
Elizabeth Anscombe (1919–2001), English philosopher.
Choose the action that causes the least harm.
Iris Murdoch (1919–1999), Irish-British novelist and philosopher.
Religious prayer can be a way of overcoming egocentrism.
John Rawls (1921–2002), American political philosopher.
Justice cannot be defined by common sense alone; it requires careful moral reasoning.
Thomas Kuhn (1922–1996), American philosopher of science.
Scientific knowledge develops through revolutions in which one paradigm gives way to another.
Imre Lakatos (1922–1974), Hungarian-British philosopher of science.
Scientific theories develop through research programmes that are continually tested and revised.
Stephen Toulmin (1922–2009), British philosopher.
We persuade others most effectively by presenting clear facts and appealing to shared principles.
Jean-François Lyotard (1924–1998), French philosopher.
Modern science and other forms of knowledge cannot claim an absolute monopoly on truth.
Ernest Gellner (1925–1995), British-Czech philosopher and social anthropologist.
Nations developed partly because modern industrial societies needed new forms of social and political organisation.
Zygmunt Bauman (1925–2017), Polish-British sociologist.
Individualism in postmodern society can lead to consumerism and alienation.
Michel Foucault (1926–1984), French philosopher.
Authoritarian and punitive structures can suppress individual motivation.
Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962), American film star.
Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.
Berit Ås (1928–2024), Norwegian social psychologist and politician.
Men can use subtle forms of communicative power to dominate women.
Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007), French philosopher.
In modern media society, reality can be replaced by hyperreality: a world of signs and symbols.
Jürgen Habermas (1929–2026), German philosopher and sociologist.
The lifeworld is often threatened by the systems that organise modern society.
Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), French philosopher.
There is no completely pure present; our history and language shape how we understand it.
Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002), French sociologist.
Economic and cultural capital are among the most important resources in modern society.
Anthony Downs (1930–2021), American economist.
Voters often have incomplete political information and may make choices based on their perceived personal interests.
Johan Galtung (1930–2024), Norwegian sociologist and peace researcher.
A free-market economy can contribute to structural violence and social injustice.
Richard Rorty (1931–2007), American philosopher.
The human sciences and natural sciences study reality in different ways.
Charles Taylor (1931–), Canadian philosopher.
In a diverse society, recognition is essential to human dignity and social inclusion.
Paul Virilio (1932–2018), French philosopher.
Rapid technological development also affects slower, more conservative societies.
Thomas Mathiesen (1933–2021), Norwegian sociologist.
Forms of hidden power are embedded in social structures.
Tenzin Gyatso (1935–), the 14th Dalai Lama.
The goal is not to be better than the other person, but to be better than your previous self.
Gianni Vattimo (1936–2023), Italian philosopher.
Truth is not always straightforwardly rational; understanding may require us to think beyond established frameworks.
Ian Hacking (1936–2023), Canadian philosopher.
Some aspects of reality are shaped by social practices and classifications.
Hugo A. Meynell (1936–2021), British philosopher.
Test your Christian beliefs through reason, and remain critical of academic fashions in postmodern society.
Thomas Nagel (1937–), American philosopher.
Consciousness involves both physical processes in the brain and subjective experience.
Joseph Nye (1937–2025), American political scientist.
In modern information society, power can be exercised through attraction, norms, symbols and ideas.
Lennart Lundquist (1938–2014), Swedish political scientist.
If public officials lack an explicit professional ethic, they risk unconsciously substituting their private morality for their professional responsibilities.
Robert Nozick (1938–2002), American philosopher.
The ideal state is a minimal state that allows individuals to develop their own talents.
Leonardo Boff (1938–), Brazilian theologian and philosopher.
Modern Christian theology should help create social justice for poor and oppressed people.
Joseph Raz (1939–2022), Israeli-British legal philosopher.
Justice and political legitimacy require careful consideration of autonomy, pluralism and social institutions.
Jon Elster (1940–), Norwegian political scientist.
Competition between different ideas can create cognitive dissonance, leading people to adapt their preferences.
John Finnis (1940–), Australian legal philosopher.
Human nature provides a basis for fundamental moral and legal principles.
Michael Lipsky (1940–), American political scientist.
Democracy depends not only on free elections but also on citizens' everyday encounters with public officials.
Steven Lukes (1941–), British political sociologist.
Power has three dimensions: decision-making, agenda-setting and the shaping of people's perceptions and preferences.
Julia Kristeva (1941–), Bulgarian-French philosopher and psychoanalyst.
Language connects signs, meaning and the human subject.
Robert D. Putnam (1941–), American political scientist.
Participation in local organisations builds social capital, which can strengthen democracy.
Richard Dawkins (1941–), British evolutionary biologist.
Genes are replicated through organisms whose behaviour can contribute to their survival and reproduction.
Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), British theoretical physicist.
We do not need to invoke God to explain the development of the universe.
Giorgio Agamben (1942–), Italian philosopher.
Political elites may undermine democracy by invoking a state of emergency.
Lars Tornstam (1943–2016), Swedish sociologist.
Gerotranscendence describes changes in later life, including greater emotional maturity, a broader understanding of relationships and a more holistic perspective.
Roger Scruton (1944–2020), English philosopher.
Protect and care for your country and its cultural heritage.
Martha Nussbaum (1947–), American philosopher.
A good life involves developing human capabilities and achieving meaningful fulfilment.
Colin McGinn (1950–), British philosopher.
Human consciousness may be fundamentally difficult for human beings to understand.
Judith Butler (1956–), American philosopher and gender theorist.
Sex and gender are shaped, in important ways, by social norms, language and cultural practices.
Andy Clark (1957–), British philosopher.
Thinking depends not only on the brain and memory but also on the body and our interaction with the environment.
Thomas Metzinger (1958–), German philosopher.
The distant light in your ego tunnel might be the headlamp of an express train. Always leave an emergency exit ajar, and keep hoping.
Byung-Chul Han (1959–), South Korean-born German philosopher.
Modern information technology can create closed environments in which people lose sight of the world beyond them.
Michael Hardt (1960–), American political philosopher.
Empires in postmodern society generate local resistance and new forms of democratic mobilisation from below.
Svend Brinkmann (1975–), Danish psychologist and philosopher.
The modern emphasis on the self and personal fulfilment can become a passing trend. What matters most in life are our relationships.