Here is a brief excerpt from an article by LordZB for the Listverse website, “a place for explorers. Together we seek out the most fascinating and rare gems of human knowledge. We write, we read, we learn—and in the process, we have fun. Every day we publish three amazing lists packed with as many new facts as possible. You will always leave Listverse smarter than when you arrived. Guaranteed.”

Here are last three of the ten philosophical one liners. To read the complete article, please click here.

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Philosophy is no more or less than the search for wisdom. It deals with all manner of problems which everyone faces in their lives, and by thought and logic attempts to solve them. Since we live in a terrifically complex universe lots of philosophy is itself, very complex. Modern academic philosophy can be almost impenetrable to an outsider, and anything not couched in the terms of the academic philosopher is considered simple musing. However, philosophy has thankfully provided lots of short, pithy philosophical statements to ponder. Here are [Numbers 10, 9, and 8] of the best ten one-liners drawn from Western philosophy.

#10 Heraclitus: “You cannot step in the same river twice.”

Heraclitus of Ephesus, also known as the Weeping Philosopher and Heraclitus the Obscure, has left us only a few philosophical sentences. Due to this lack of original writing, Heraclitus’ philosophy remains hard to characterize. His belief seems to have been that the universe is in a constant state of flux, as this famous quote indicates. By the time that you attempt to step into the river a second time, the waters of the river will have moved on and so, the river will not be the same one you stepped into the first time. The sentence also has a second meaning; you cannot step into the same river again because you are no longer the same as the person who took the first step. The question of how identity is preserved over time is one which still animates philosophers today.

#9 Epicurus: “Death need not concern us because when we exist death does not, and when death exists we do not.”

Epicurus and Epicureanism, has suffered for many years from a misapprehension about what his philosophy teaches. Epicureanism is a hedonistic philosophy in that it teaches that pleasure is to be sought, but only to the extent that pleasure is the freedom from pain and fear. Epicurus also taught on the gods and death. Epicurus is famous today for his questions regarding the problem of evil existing if there are gods and for this statement about death. Because death, being dead rather than dying, involves no pain, for Epicurus the state of death is a good thing (or at least not to be feared). Epicurus is well beloved of atheists and humanists today because of his rational outlook. In the Roman period, tombs of Epicureans would have this carved on their tombs- I was not. I was. I am not. I do not care.

#8 Nietzsche: “God is dead.”

Poor Friedrich Nietzsche has suffered from misconceptions quite as much as Epicurus. After his death, Nietzsche’s sister took control of his writings and edited them to fit in with Nazi ideology. This association with the Nazis – which was no fault of his own – has harmed his reputation ever since. This three word aphorism is perhaps Nietzsche’s most famous. It should not be taken to mean that God is literally dead, for Nietzsche does not believe God ever existed. As with many short sentences, this one can bear many contradicting interpretations. Nietzsche suggests that it is the inability of humans to live up to a moral code which has destroyed God, but it is equally possible to see it as a statement that God has no place in the modern world.

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To read the complete article, please click here.