FILSAFAT (Philosophy) berasal dari kata latin, Philia (Cinta), danSophia (Kebijaksanaan), jadi artinya Pencinta Kebijaksanaan/Ilmu. Filsafat bertujuan menjawab 4 pertanyaan besar :
1. Apa itu hidup.
2. Untuk apa kita hidup.
3. Bagaimana kita bisa membuat hidup jadi lebih baik.
4. Dan bagaimana kita bisa membuat dunia jadi lebih baik.
Ini, adalah kumpulan kata-kata bijak dari para Bapak Filsafat Dunia.
Socrates, Plato, Aristoteles, Rene Descartes, dan beberapa filsuf besar lain.
SOCRATES (470-399 SM)
Socrates adalah guru dari Plato, dan Plato adalah guru dari Aristoteles. (SPA)
Steve Jobs, pendiri Apple Computer, penemu iPod, iPhone, pernah bilang, "I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates." (Newsweek, Oct. 29, 2001)
"The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being".
Bad men live that they may eat and drink, good men eat and drink that they may live (hidup jangan untuk makan, tapi makan untuk hidup).
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
There is only one good, Knowledge, and one evil, Ignorance.
All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.
(Semua manusia akan mati, tapi jiwanya orang baik akan hidup selamanya)
An honest man, is always a child.
Be of good cheer about death and know this as a truth — that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. (Orang baik, tidak perlu khawatir apapun)
By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. (haha)
Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.
(Pendidikan itu adalah seperti menyalakan api, bukan mengisi teko. Artinya pendidikan seharusnya menyalakan inspirasi dan semangat untuk belajar, bukan memenuhi otak dengan hapalan!!)
Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.(Baca dong, belajar dari pengalamannya orang besar. Jadinya pengalaman besar mereka akan jadi pengalamanmu. Dan hidupmu akan jadi lebih mudah karena kamu tahu jalannya).
Envy is the ulcer of the soul. (Iri hanya merugikan diri sendiri)
He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.
(Orang yang paling kaya dan bahagia, adalah orang yang paling bersyukur.)
He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.
(Dia yang tidak pernah puas, tidak akan pernah puas dengan apapun juga)
Beware the barrenness of a busy life. (Orang yang terlalu sibuk hidupnya akan kering)
If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.
(Jangan pernah memuja orang kaya, sampai kamu tahu darimana dia mendapatkannya).
Could I climb to the highest place in Athens, I would lift my voice and proclaim, "Fellow citizens, why do you turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth, and take so little care of your children to whom one day you must relinquish it all?"(Mengejar kekayaan untuk keluarga, tapi kok keluarganya malah terlupakan?)
Let him that would move the world, first move himself.(Mau merubah dunia? Rubah diri kamu sendiri dulu).
PLATO (427 – 347 SM)
And we must beg Homer and the other poets not to be angry if we strike out these and similar passages, not because they are unpoetical, or unattractive to the popular ear, but because the greater the poetical charm in them, the less are they meet for the ears of boys and men who are meant to be free, and who should fear slavery more than death.
(Terlalu bergantung pada seorang pemimpin besar yang pinter ngomong bisa bahaya)
The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.
Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils - no, nor the human race, as I believe - and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day.
( Sebuah bangsa hanya akan jadi besar bila dipimpin oleh seorang yang mempunyai jiwa besar seorang pemimpin, dan kebijaksanaan seorang filsuf)
The good are not willing to rule either for the sake of money or of honor. (Orang yang baik tidak akan mau berkuasa semata demi uang dan kehormatan)
Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.You are young, my son, and, as the years go by, time will change and even reverse many of your present opinions. Refrain therefore awhile from setting yourself up as a judge of the highest matters.
(Jangan pernah cepat menilai orang lain dan duniamu, karena waktu akan berubah dan bisa membuat pandanganmu juga berubah)
Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil. (Kebodohan adalah akar semua kejahatan).
I would teach the children music, physics and philosophy, but the most important is music, for in the patterns of the arts are the keys to all learning.
The beginning is the most important part of the work.
ARISTOTELES (347 – 322SM)
Aristoteles adalah murid dari Plato. Aristoteles juga adalah guru dari
Alexander the Great.
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
(Di alam, sesungguhnya kita bisa melihat banyak keajaiban).
Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
It is Simplicity, that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.(Kesederhanaan, yang membuat orang biasa bisa lebih ngetopdaripada orang pinter!)
Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all.
For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing.
Any one can get angry — that is easy — or give or spend money; but to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for every one, nor is it easy. (Marah itu gampang, tapi…)
Without friends, no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.(Kalau anda tidak punya sahabat, walaupun anda punya semua harta, apa artinya hidup?)
Hope is a waking dream.
Courage, is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
(Kebahagiaan itu bergantung dari kita sendiri, bukan dari orang lain)
Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.
The educated differ from the uneducated, as much as the living from the dead.
Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well.
The greatest virtues, are those which are most useful to other persons.
Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love.
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
RENE DESCARTES (1596 - 1650)
Descartes adalah "Bapak Filsafat Modern".
Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am.
Doubt is the origin of wisdom.
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
(Jangan cuma jadi orang pinter, do something!)
The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
In order to improve the mind, we ought less learn than to contemplate.
It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.
Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it
The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.(Baca buku seperti ngobrol dengan orang-orang besar itu sendiri, dan mendapatkan pemikiran besar mereka!)
THOMAS AQUINAS ( 1225 - 1274 )
The Prime Author and Mover of the Universe, is Intelligence.
FRANCIS BACON (1561 - 1626 )
Knowledge is Power (et ipsa scientia potestas est).
ISAAC NEWTON (1643 - 1727 )