Sidney Hook Quotations

Russell's prose has been compared by T.S. Eliot to that of David Hume's. I would rank it higher, for it had more color, juice, and humor. But to be lucid, exciting and profound in the main body of one's work is a combination of virtues given to few philosophers. Bertrand Russell has achieved immortality by his philosophical writings.

Philosophy, most broadly viewed, is the critical survey of existence from the standpoint of value.

[A]nti-Semitism was rife in almost all varieties of socialism.

Idealism, alas, does not protect one from ignorance, dogmatism, and foolishness.

Life has meaning for anyone who takes an interest in it.

If one shoots at a king, one must not miss.

Those who say that life is worth living at any cost have already written an epitaph of infamy, for there is no cause and no person that they will not betray to stay alive.

The mob that hails the man on horseback, the Caesars and conquering heroes, does not retain its freedoms for long.

Everyone recognizes a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. . . Wisdom is a kind of knowledge. It is knowledge of the nature, career, and consequences of human values. Since these cannot be separated from the human organism and the social scene, the moral ways of man cannot be understood without knowledge of the ways of things and institutions.

A liberal education will impart an awareness of the amazing and precious complexity of human relationships. Since those relationships are violated more often out of insensitiveness than out of deliberate intent, whatever increases sensitiveness of perception and understanding humanizes life.