Even scientific knowledge, if there is anything to it, is not a random observation of random objects; for the critical objectivity of significant knowledge is attained as a practice only philosophically in inner action.

Man is always something more than what he knows of himself. He is not what he is simply once and for all, but is a process; he is not merely an extant life, but is, within that life, endowed with possibilities through the freedom he possesses to make of himself what he will by the activities on which he decides.

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

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

The soul of a landscape, the spirits of the elements, the genius of every place will be revealed to a loving view of nature.

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