Philosophers have actually devoted themselves, in the main, neither to perceiving the world, nor to spinning webs of conceptual theory, but to interpreting the meaning of the civilizations which they have represented, and to attempting the interpretation of whatever minds in the universe, human or divine, they believed to be real.
Josiah RoyceI teach at Harvard that the world and the heavens, and the stars are all real, but not so damned real, you see.
Josiah RoyceReligious faith, indeed, relates to that which is above us, but it must arise from that which is within us.
Josiah RoyceOnly the more uncompromising of the mystics still seek for knowledge in a silent land of absolute intuition, where the intellect finally lays down its conceptual tools, and rests from its pragmatic labors, while its works do not follow it, but are simply forgotten, and are as if they never had been.
Josiah RoyceI never felt a feeling that I knew or could know to be unlike the feelings of other people. I never consciously thought, except after patterns that the world or my fellows set for me.
Josiah Royce