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Much of the content of so-called Pythagorean teaching appears to be a mix of mystical gobble-de-gook and adulatory veneration of the genius of the founder.

— Catherine Rowett Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004)

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Intelligence

More quotes by Catherine Rowett

Often, when thinking about Socrates (or about Plato’s depiction of Socrates), we need to remember that he is reacting to the Presocratics, but the reverse is never true.

Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004)

Philosophy asks for a reason, not just a scientific fact.

Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004)

Xenophanes might be saying that we have only superficial understanding, and we never get to knowledge of the clear truth.

Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004)

Are these good reasons for worrying about the apparent contradiction? Should either make us feel the need of an explanation?

Socrates in the Platonic Dialogues (2006)

For Heraclitus, the logos is something that we need to learn to notice if we are to understand the true significance of the world. It manifests itself all around us but, Heraclitus suggests, only a few intelligent people ever realize what is going on.

Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (2004)

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Each of these private teachers who work for pay ... inculcates nothing else than these opinions of the multitude which they opine when they are assembled and calls this knowledge wisdom.

Socrates

Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël De l’Allemagne [Germany (1813)

Like every 'intellectual', a philosophy teacher is a petty bourgeois. When he opens his mouth, it is petty-bourgeois ideology that speaks: its resources and ruses are infinite.

Louis Althusser Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (1968)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Catherine Rowett (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.