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 RoyceIf usually the "present age" is no very long time, still, at our pleasure, or in the service of some such unity of meaning as thehistory of civilization, or the study of geology, may suggest, we may conceive the present as extending over many centuries, or over a hundred thousand years.
Josiah RoyceMen accept without questioning that this world is real and important and worthwhile. This is faith. Philosophy is the ongoing questioning of this faith.
Josiah RoyceReligious faith, indeed, relates to that which is above us, but it must arise from that which is within us.
Josiah Royce