Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus Quotes

“Când însă se produce catastrofa, când asupra lui se abate nedreptatea, când propriul polis îl nimiceşte, el se comportă după principiul: mai bine să înduri decât să comiţi o nedreptate. Socrate nu trăieşte nici o pornire de revoltă împotriva statului său, împotriva lumii şi a Divinităţii. Pentru el nenorocirea nu ajunge să constituie un obiect de discuţie în sensul că Divinitatea ar avea nevoie de o justificare. Merge la moarte fără revoltă sau înverşunare. Pentru el nu există nici deznădejdea legată de problema teodiceei, şi nici soluţia ei consolatoare. Dimpotrivă, el trăieşte cu calmul senin întemeiat pe certitudinea necircumstanţială pe care o are în privinţa dreptăţii. E indiferent cum sunt repartizate în lume bunurile fericirii, esenţială nu e decât viaţa trăită după norma adevărului, normă care ţi se limpezeşte prin procesul de gândire. Dacă omul vrea o garanţie, o ştiinţă, cunoştinţe religioase despre Divinitate, nemurire, despre sfârşitul tuturor lucrurilor, Socrate îi refuză toate acestea. Rostul omului este să îndrăznească să mizeze pe faptul că binele este. Neştiinţa pozitivă trimite tot mereu înspre acel punct unde eu sunt eu însumi, pentru că recunosc binele ca fiind adevărul, şi ştiu unde depinde de mine să-l şi fac.”
― Karl Jaspers, Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus

“Schematically, we may say that Socrates, in the world, goes the way of thought, of human reason; this is the way that distinguishes man, his characteristic potentiality. Buddha strives to annul the world by extinguishing the will to existence. Confucius aspires to build a world. Jesus is the world’s crisis.”
― Karl Jaspers, Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus: From The Great Philosophers, Volume I by Jaspers, Karl(March 23, 1966) Paperback

“All four know silence and lay stress on it. They conceal nothing, but their profoundest truth can be communicated only indirectly even to themselves. They speak in parables, fall silent at certain times, expressly decline to answer questions they regard as inappropriate. None of them is interested in metaphysical speculation or the science of nature. There are large realms that they have no desire to know.
All come to a point where they insist on their nonknowledge. Where knowledge is not attainable, time should not be wasted on fruitless pondering. Even in great questions knowledge is not necessary unless the salvation of the soul depends on it. The many traditional orders and modes of life are sufficient in the world; it is just as well to observe them if they do not come into conflict with the fundamental aim.”
― Karl Jaspers, Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus: From The Great Philosophers, Volume I

“The tao which Lao-tzu puts before and above everything else is for Confucius the One. But Lao-tzu immerses himself in it, while Confucius lets himself be guided by his awe of the One as he moves among the things of the world. At times Confucius also shows a tendency to shun the world; at the limits he too discloses the notion of acting by inaction and so keeping the world in order. Though the two philosophers look in opposite directions, they stand on the same ground. Their unity has been embodied by great historic figures, not in a philosophy that systematically embraced both sets of teachings, but in the Chinese wisdom of a life illumined by thought.”
― Karl Jaspers, Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus: From The Great Philosophers, Volume I by Jaspers, Karl(March 23, 1966) Paperback

“...in examining the past, Confucius distinguishes between the good and the bad; he selects facts that are worth remembering as models to be emulated or examples to be avoided. Moreover, he knows that in restoring what was good in the past one should not try to make something outwardly identical. “A man born in our days who returns to the ways of antiquity is a fool and brings misfortune upon himself.” What he advocates is not imitation of the past but repetition of the eternally true. The eternal ideas were merely more clearly discernible in antiquity. Now, in his own dark times, he wishes to restore them to their old radiance by fulfilling himself through them.”
― Karl Jaspers, Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus: From The Great Philosophers, Volume I by Jaspers, Karl(March 23, 1966) Paperback

“Because the norms and impulses come from the root or source, from something so deep and wide as to defy definitive formulation, the rules by which we reckon what should be done can never suffice. Truth and reality can never be embodied once and for all in any unchanging state or dogmatic statements. Confucius “had no opinions, no bias, no obstinacy.” “The superior man is not absolutely for or against anything in the world. He supports only what is right.” He is “not partisan but for all.” He preserves his openness. “When he does not understand something, he is reticent.” He is “firm in character, but not obstinate,” “congenial without stooping to vulgarity,” “self-confident but not self-righteous.” The absolute appears in the relative. Confucius regards all calculable things as relative—this does not mean that they cease to exist, but that they are guided by a higher principle.”
― Karl Jaspers, Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus: From The Great Philosophers, Volume I by Jaspers, Karl(March 23, 1966) Paperback

“Past realities are transformed by present reflection. The translation of tradition into conscious principles gives rise to a new philosophy which identifies itself with the old. The philosopher does not advance his ideas as his own. The Jewish Prophets proclaimed God’s revelation, Confucius the voice of antiquity. He who submits to the old is saved from the presumption of basing great demands on his own infinitesimal self. He improves his chances of being believed and followed by those who still live in the substance of their origins. Independent thought, springing from the nothingness of mere reason, is futile...”
― Karl Jaspers, Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus: From The Great Philosophers, Volume I by Jaspers, Karl(March 23, 1966) Paperback

“When asked about death, nature, and the world order, he gave answers that left the question open—not because he was given to secretiveness (“There is no thing that I would withhold from you”), but because the matter itself imposed such answers. Often men are led to the ultimate questions by false motives (curiosity, desire to circumvent present necessities, to evade the road into life). Not only had Confucius no desire to satisfy such motives; still more important was the impossibility of discoursing objectively about what can never, properly speaking, become an object. This is why Confucius refrains from all direct statement on metaphysical questions. Though such an attitude may be put down as agnosticism, it does not signify indifference to the unknowable, but rather a reverence which is unwilling to transform intimation into pseudo knowledge or lose it in words. In Confucius, at all events, the impulse toward the boundless and unknowable, the consuming question of the great metaphysicians, is scarcely discernible; but we do discern the presence of the last things in his pious observance of customs and in maxims which, without explicitly saying much, suggest a way in critical situations.”
― Karl Jaspers, Socrates Buddha Confucius Jesus - From The Great Philosophers, Volume I