Philosophy Quote by Robert Penn Warren — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“In the last analysis, be always of whatever truth you would live.”

“Politics is action and all action is but a flaw in the perfection of inaction, which is peace, just as all being is but a flaw in the perfection of nonbeing. Which is God. For if God is perfection and the only perfection is in nonbeing, then God is nonbeing. Then God is nothing. Nothing can give no basis for the criticism of Thing in its thingness. Then where do you get anything to say? Then where do you get off?”

“I thought God cannot be Fullness of Being. For Life is Motion.----- For Life is Motion toward Knowledge. If God is Complete Knowledge then He is Complete Non-Motion, which is Non-Life, which is Death. Therefore, if there is such a God of Fullness of Being, we would worship Death, the Father.”

“For the truth is a terrible thing. You dabble your foot in it and it is nothing. But you walk a little farther and you feel it pull you like an undertow or a whirlpool. First there is the slow pull so steady and gradual you scarcely notice it, then the acceleration, then the dizzy whirl and plunge into darkness. For there is a blackness of truth, too. They say it is a terrible thing to fall into the Grace of God. I am prepared to believe that.”

“The poem is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful.”

“Don't fear the gods,”

“Acting Rear Admiral Gillet said, “Captain Scultetus, please try to understand that Britain and Germany are at war! The HMS Armadale Castle has been ordered to wipe the Swakop River Radio station off the map!”

“First impressions are rarely worth preserving. Men typically fall short of our expectations.”

“If you're going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet.”

“Why is female vulnerability still only acceptable when it's neuroticised and personal; when it feeds back on itself? Why do people still not get it when we handle vulnerability like philosophy, at some remove?”

“In life man commits himself and draws his own portrait, outside of which there is nothing. No doubt this thought may seem harsh to someone who has not made a success of his life. But on the other hand, it helps people to understand that reality alone counts, and that dreams, expectations and hopes only serve to define a man as a broken dream, aborted hopes, and futile expectations.”