List of Karl Jaspers Quotes

Even Scientific Knowledge, If There Is Anything To It, Is Not A Random Observation Of Random Objects; For The Critical Objectivity Of Significant Knowledge Is Attained As A Practice Only Philosophically In Inner Action.

Philosophy Is Tested And Characterised By The Way In Which It Appropriates Its History.

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.

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.

I Began The Study Of Medicine, Impelled By A Desire For Knowledge Of Facts And Of Man. The Resolution To Do Disciplined Work Tied Me To Both Laboratory And Clinic For A Long Time To Come.

Philosophy Can Only Be Approached With The Most Concrete Comprehension.

My Own Being Can Be Judged By The Depths I Reach In Making These Historical Origins My Own.

As A Universal History Of Philosophy, The History Of Philosophy Must Become One Great Unity.

The History Of Philosophy Is Not, Like The History Of The Sciences, To Be Studied With The Intellect Alone. That Which Is Receptive In Us And That Which Impinges Upon Us From History Is The Reality Of Man's Being, Unfolding Itself In Thought.

To Decide To Become A Philosopher Seemed As Foolish To Me As To Decide To Become A Poet.

Nietzsche's Ideas And Plans: For Example, The Idea Of Giving Up The Whole Wretched Academic World To Form A Secular Monastic Community.

It Has Become Obligatory To Fulfil A Function Which Shall In Some Way Be Regarded As Useful To The Masses...even An Articulated Mass Always Tends To Become Unspiritual And Inhuman. It Is Life Without Existence, Superstition Without Faith. It May Stamp All Flat; It Is Disinclined To Tolerate Independence And Greatness, But Prone To Constrain People To Become As Automatic As Ants.