Theme

Meaning philosophy quotes

Philosophy quotations on meaning, gathered from verified English renderings across traditions.

Why this theme matters

This theme page collects 10 English passages that touch meaning as a philosophical concern—whether as a concept to define, a value to pursue, or a problem to examine.

In the history of philosophy

Related discussions appear across Greek, Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and modern European traditions. Use the quotations below as entry points, then follow thinker pages for fuller context.

Thinkers in this collection

Aristotle , Albert Camus , Viktor Frankl , Ludwig Wittgenstein , Liang Shuming , Zhu Xi

Frequently asked questions

What did philosophers say about meaning?

They approached meaning from ethics, metaphysics, politics, and lived practice. The passages below show several of those angles in compact form.

Where can I find philosophy quotes about meaning?

This archive page is organized for that search intent: verified English quotations, with links to thinkers and related themes.

How should I read these quotations?

Read the sentence first, then check school and source. A quotation is a doorway into an argument, not a substitute for the surrounding text.

  1. Virtue is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us.
  2. There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.
  3. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
  4. Those who have a 'why' to live can bear with almost any 'how'.
  5. We feel that even if all possible scientific questions are answered, the problems of life have still not been touched at all.
  6. The meaning of a word is its use in the language.
  7. The meaning of human life lies in creation.
  8. It is possible to fail in many ways…but to succeed in only one.
  9. Not leaning is called the Mean; not changing is called Constancy. The Mean is the right Way of the world; Constancy is its settled principle.
  10. Virtue lies in a mean.