理性与激情
“理性是，且只应是激情的奴隶，除了服务和服从激情之外，不能假装有任何其他职能。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”
— 大卫·休谟, A Treatise of Human Nature
“Sapere aude！敢于求知！要有勇气运用你自己的理智！”
所收录版本的文本 · 德语
“Sapere aude! Habe Mut, dich deines eigenen Verstandes zu bedienen! — "Dare to know! Have courage to use your own understanding!"”
— Kant, Beantwortung der Frage Was ist Aufklärung
“我思，故我在。”
所收录版本的文本 · 法语
“Je pense, donc je suis — "I think, therefore I am."”
— 笛卡尔, Discours de la méthode
“让他视理性为坐在他心灵宝座上的君主。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Let him look upon reason as a monarch sitting on the throne of his heart.”
— 安萨里, Some religious and moral teachings of Al-Ghazzali Being brief extracts from his
“真理是全能的。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Truth is omnipotent.”
— 威廉·葛德文, Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions, and Discoveries
“心有其理，而理性一无所知。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.”
— Pascal, Pascal's Pensées
“智者根据证据来衡量他的信念。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.”
— 大卫·休谟, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
“知之甚少者通常夸夸其谈，而博学之士则言语寥寥。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.”
— Rousseau, Emile
“阅读使人充实；交谈使人敏捷；写作使人严谨。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”
— 弗朗西斯·培根, Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
“有些书可以浅尝，有些可以囫囵吞下，少数则需要咀嚼和消化。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
— 弗朗西斯·培根, Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
“它们的存在即被感知 ——“它们的存在就是被感知。””
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Their esse is percipi — "their being is to be perceived."”
— 乔治·贝克莱, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
“心灵不是一个需要填满的容器，而是一堆需要引火物来点燃原创思想渴望之火的柴薪。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“The mind is not a vessel which calls for filling. It is a pile, which simply requires kindling-wood to start the flame of eagerness for original thought.”
— 普鲁塔克, Selected Essays of Plutarch, Vol. I.
“白纸可以接受任何字符。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“White paper receives any characters.”
— Locke, An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1
“不知道自己出生前发生了什么，就等于终生是个孩子。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Not to know what happened before one was born, is to be a boy all one's life.”
— 西塞罗, The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4
“有两样东西，人们越是经常持久地思考，就越会以不断更新、与日俱增的赞叹和敬畏充满心灵：头顶的星空和心中的道德律。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe: the starry heavens above and the moral law within.”
— Kant, Critique of Practical Reason
“知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it — this is knowledge.”
— 孔子, The Analects of Confucius (from the Chinese Classics)
“一个无法想象出比它更伟大的存在。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“A being than which nothing greater can be conceived.”
— 坎特伯雷的安瑟伦, Proslogium, Monologium, and Cur Deus Homo (Deane)
“人的自由仅在于此：他服从自然法则，因为他自己已经认识到它们就是自然法则。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“The liberty of man consists solely in this: that he obeys natural laws because he has himself recognized them as such.”
— 米哈伊尔·巴枯宁, God and the State
“愚蠢的固执是小人物的妖魔。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
— 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生, Essays — First Series
“良知是世间分配得最均匀的东西。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed.”
— 笛卡尔, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth
“心灵坚定地确信梵（Brahman）是真实的，而宇宙是不真实的，这被称为对真实与不真实的辨别。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“A firm conviction of the mind to the effect that Brahman is real and the universe unreal, is designated as discrimination between the Real and the unreal.”
— Adi Shankara, Vivekachudamani
“观念的真理性并非其固有的停滞属性。真理发生在观念上。它变得真实，是由事件使其成为真实的。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“The truth of an idea is not a stagnant property inherent in it. Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events.”
— 威廉·詹姆斯, Pragmatism A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking
“信念是比谎言更危险的真理之敌。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.”
— 尼采, Human, All-Too-Human A Book for Free Spirits, Part 1
“每个人都把自己的视野极限当作世界的极限。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.”
— 阿图尔·叔本华, The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Studies in Pessimism
“岁月教给我们的东西，是日子永远无法知晓的。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“The years teach much which the days never know.”
— 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生, Essays — Second Series
“我们对具体事物理解得越多，我们就越理解上帝。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“The more we understand particular things, the more do we understand God.”
— Spinoza, Ethics
“天堂的合唱团和大地上的陈设……如果没有心灵，就没有任何存在。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“All the choir of heaven and furniture of the earth... have not any subsistence without a mind.”
— 乔治·贝克莱, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
“哲学始于惊异。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Philosophy begins in wonder.”
— 柏拉图, Theaetetus
“总的来说，宗教上的错误是危险的；哲学上的错误仅仅是荒谬的。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.”
— 大卫·休谟, A Treatise of Human Nature
“固执是意志强行取代理智的结果。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.”
— 阿图尔·叔本华, The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Religion, a Dialogue, Etc.
“世界不过是一所审讯学校：重要的不是谁进入竞技场，而是谁能跑出最好的成绩。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“The world is but a school of inquisition: it is not who shall enter the ring, but who shall run the best courses.”
— 米歇尔·德·蒙田, Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete
“谁能使浑水变清？让它静止，它就会逐渐变清。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Who can make the muddy water clear? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear.”
— 老子, The Tao Teh King, or the Tao and its Characteristics
“这些无限空间的永恒沉默使我恐惧。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.”
— Pascal, Pascal's Pensées
“宇宙要么是混乱的拆解与重组，要么是秩序与远见的统一体。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“The Universe is either a confusion ravelled and unravelled again, or else a unity compact of order and forethought.”
— 马可·奥勒留, The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
“天文学迫使灵魂向上看，并引导我们从这个世界走向另一个世界。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.”
— 柏拉图, The Republic
“在强迫下获得的知识无法在心灵中扎根。”
所收录版本的文本 · 英语
“Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.”
— 柏拉图, The Republic