Like mathematics and music and cosmology and philosophy, poetry, too, can "infinitize" us, granting us what immortality there is to be had in this mortal life. And all those who vibrate in harmony to language that itself vibrates to the harmonies of the infinite are entitled to inclusion among the "small group of people.

Plato dramatically puts the detachment of the philosopher from his time this way: to philosophize is to prepare to die.

What was tortuously secured by complex argument becomes widely shared intuition, so obvious that we forget its provenance. We don’t see it, because we see with it.

That's one of the compensations for being mediocre. One doesn't have to worry about becoming mediocre.

The philosophers talk across the centuries exclusively to one another, hermetically sealed from any influences derived from non-philosophical discourse.

What is play and delightful one kind of child is coercion and torture for another, and will not take no matter how much coercion is applied.

Philosophy addresses, in a systematic and progress-making way, questions of deep concern to everyone.