According to our social science, we can be or become wise i… - Leo Strauss

" "
According to our social science, we can be or become wise in all matters of secondary importance, but we have to be resigned to utter ignorance in the most important respect: we cannot have any knowledge regarding the ultimate principles of our choices, i.e. regarding their soundness or unsoundness... We are then in the position of beings who are sane and sober when engaged in trivial business and who gamble like madmen when confronted with serious issues.

Leo Strauss

Sources available for members. Sign up free to see where this quote comes from

English

Collect this quote

About Leo Strauss

Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973) was a German-born American philosopher who specialized in the study of classical political philosophy.

Biography information from Wikiquote

All quotes from Leo Strauss Similar Quotes by other Originators

Originators like Leo Strauss:

Karl Popper Richard M. Weaver Bertrand Russell Alfred North Whitehead Immanuel Kant

Additional quotes by Leo Strauss

Even by proving that a certain view is indispensable for living well, one proves merely that the view in question is a salutary myth: one does not prove it to be true.

It is safer to try to understand the low in the light of the high than the high in the light of the low. In doing the latter one necessarily distorts the high, whereas in doing the former one does not deprive the low of the freedom to reveal itself as fully as what it is.

Machiavelli is not concerned with how men do live merely in order to describe it; his intention is rather, on the basis of knowledge of how men do live, to teach princes how they ought to rule and even how they ought to live.

According to our social science, we can be or become wise in all matters of secondary importance, but we have to be resigned to utter ignorance in th… - Leo Strauss

About Leo Strauss

Limited Time Offer

Additional quotes by Leo Strauss

Works in ChatGPT, Claude, or Any AI