Philosophy Quote by Gaston Bachelard — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

“We must listen to poets.”

“Here is Menard's own intimate forest: 'Now I am traversed by bridle paths, under the seal of sun and shade...I live in great density...Shelter lures me. I slump down into the thick foliage...In the forest, I am my entire self. Everything is possible in my heart just as it is in the hiding places in ravines. Thickly wooded distance separates me from moral codes and cities.”

“To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry.”

“A poet or philosopher should have no fault to find with his age if it only permits him to do his work undisturbed in his own corner; nor with his fate if the corner granted him allows of his following his vocation without having to think about other people.”

“Think of me as an impetuous Hegel, drunk with power, and also, regular drunk.”

“Philosophy ought to question the basic assumptions of the age. Thinking through, critically and carefully, what most of us take for granted is, I believe, the chief task of philosophy, and the task that makes philosophy a worthwhile activity.”

“Philosophers' Syndrome: mistaking a failure of the imagination for an insight into necessity.”

“The menu is not the meal.”

“What is the world of the spirits? It is nothing I know about. I don't know what spirit is.”