When language is used without true significance, it loses its purpose as a means of communication and becomes an end in itself.

When in our isolation we see our lives seeping away as a mere succession of moments, tossed meaninglessly about by accidents and overwhelming events; when we contemplate a history that seems to be at an end, leaving only chaos behind it, then we are impelled to raise ourselves above history.

My own being can be judged by the depths I reach in making these historical origins my own.

Only then, approaching my fortieth birthday, I made philosophy my life's work.

Only as an individual can man become a philosopher.

The great philosophers and the great works are standards for the selection of what is essential. Everything that we do in studying the history of philosophy ultimately serves their better understanding.

Reason is like an open secret that can become known to anyone at any time; it is the quiet space into which everyone can enter through his own thought