Nihilism, Absurdism and Solipsism Explained: Where Each Word Comes From and What It Means
Nihilism says that something we count on, such as meaning, morals or knowledge, has no real basis.
Section · 40 articles
Philosophy
Stoicism, Epicurus, Confucius, the Buddha, the existentialists and the famous lines people quote: what the texts actually say, and how to use the ideas in an ordinary week.
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Philosophy began as a love of knowing, and Socrates, as Plato reports him, made it a daily habit of questioning with other people.
Read it →Schools of philosophy, one line each
A quick map of the schools we have pages on. Each line comes from that page; follow the link for the sources.
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Stoicism
Stoicism is an ancient Greek philosophy, founded in Athens around 300 BC, which holds that virtue alone is good and is enough for happiness.
Stoicism Life Hacks ∙ What is Stoicism? How can I be Stoic? → -
Epicureanism
Epicurus did say pleasure is the goal of life, but he defined it as "the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul", not feasting.
Epicurus: What He Actually Taught About Pleasure, Death and the Gods → -
Cynicism
The ancient Cynics attacked conventions and hypocrisy; the modern cynic distrusts everyone's motives.
Diogenes and the Cynics: The Famous Stories, Checked → -
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
"The unexamined life is not worth living" is genuine, and Socrates says it at his trial, explaining why he cannot simply stop questioning people.
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle Quotes, Checked: What They Actually Said → -
Confucianism
Confucius did not write the Analects. It is a collection of his sayings put together by later hands, and scholars disagree about how early.
Confucius Quotes, Checked: What the Analects Say and What They Don't → -
Taoism
Wu wei does not mean doing nothing. The Stanford Encyclopedia describes it as used broadly as a contrast to action driven by self-serving desire; some translators render it "non-coercive" or "effortless" action.
Laozi and the Tao Te Ching: 9 Popular Claims, Checked → -
Buddhism
The traditional first teaching names suffering as a problem with a cause and a way out, and the Pali word is broader than pain.
Buddha Quotes, Checked: What the Early Texts Say and What They Don't → -
Existentialism
Existentialism was never a school the famous names all joined.
Existentialism, Checked: What Kierkegaard, Sartre and Camus Actually Wrote → -
Nihilism
Nihilism says that something we count on, such as meaning, morals or knowledge, has no real basis.
Nihilism, Absurdism and Solipsism Explained: Where Each Word Comes From and What It Means → -
Absurdism
Absurdism is Albert Camus's answer to the clash between our search for meaning and a world that gives no reply.
Nihilism, Absurdism and Solipsism Explained: Where Each Word Comes From and What It Means → -
Solipsism
Solipsism says only my own mind can be known to exist. It is studied more as a problem than held as a belief.
Nihilism, Absurdism and Solipsism Explained: Where Each Word Comes From and What It Means →
40 articles, newest first
10 Thought Experiments Explained Simply: What Each One Tests and Where It Comes From
A thought experiment is an imagined situation used to test an idea. You follow what would happen, instead of running a real experiment.
12 Famous Paradoxes Explained Simply: Zeno, the Liar, the Heap and Fermi
A paradox is reasoning that looks sound at every step but reaches a conclusion that seems false.
Quotes That Change When You Read the Next Sentence, Part 2: 12 More Lines in Context
Many famous lines change when you read the lines around them, which add a speaker, a moment or a condition.
Fables and Parables Traced to Their Sources: What 11 Famous Teaching Stories Really Say
Many famous teaching stories say something different in their oldest versions.
Myths Used as Life Lessons: What the Ancient Texts Say About Icarus, Pandora, Achilles, Midas and More
Many myths quoted as life lessons say more than the lesson they are used for.
Quotes That Change When You Read the Next Sentence: 12 Famous Lines in Context
Many famous lines read differently with the next sentence, which can add a condition, a speaker or a reply.
Sayings That Used to Mean the Opposite: Where 12 Common Phrases Came From and How They Flipped
Some everyday sayings now mean nearly the opposite of what they first meant.
Shakespeare Lines That Mean Something Different in the Play: 11 Famous Quotes in Context
Many famous Shakespeare lines belong to a character with a purpose, and some use words that meant something else in his day.
Stoicism vs Epicureanism: What's the Difference?
Stoicism says only virtue is good, while Epicureanism makes pleasure the goal, meaning no pain in the body and no trouble in the soul.
Quotes That Get Cut Short: 15 Sayings and How They End in the Original
Some famous sayings are halves of longer lines, and the missing half can change the meaning.
Letters from a Stoic Summary: The Key Ideas, What Holds Up, and How to Use Them
Letters from a Stoic is the English title of a selection from Seneca's 124 surviving letters to Lucilius, written in his last years, 62 to 65.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Summary: The Key Ideas, What Holds Up, and How to Use Them
Meditations is a set of private notes that the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote to himself, in Greek, in the second century AD.
Self-Reliance by Emerson Summary: The Key Ideas, What Holds Up, and How to Use Them
Emerson's 1841 essay Self-Reliance asks readers to trust their own thinking over custom, crowds and even their own past words.
The Art of War Summary: The Key Ideas, What Holds Up, and How to Use Them
The Art of War is a 13-chapter Chinese book on strategy, traditionally credited to Sun Tzu; who wrote it, and when, is debated.
The Enchiridion by Epictetus Summary: The Key Ideas, What Holds Up, and How to Use Them
The Enchiridion is a short handbook of the teaching of Epictetus, a once-enslaved Stoic teacher, put together, on the usual account, by his student Arrian.
The Prince by Machiavelli Summary: The Key Ideas, What Holds Up, and How to Use Them
The Prince is a short guide to how rulers, above all new ones, win, keep and lose power.
Buddha Quotes, Checked: What the Early Texts Say and What They Don't
Several of the most shared "Buddha quotes" are not in the early Buddhist texts, including "The mind is everything".
Confucius Quotes, Checked: What the Analects Say and What They Don't
Many famous "Confucius says" lines are not in the Analects, including "It does not matter how slowly you go" and "dig two graves".
Diogenes and the Cynics: The Famous Stories, Checked
Almost everything we know about Diogenes comes from anecdotes written down centuries after he died, mostly by Diogenes Laertius.
Epicurus: What He Actually Taught About Pleasure, Death and the Gods
Epicurus did make pleasure the goal of life, but he defined it as "the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul", not feasting.
Existentialism, Checked: What Kierkegaard, Sartre and Camus Actually Wrote
Kierkegaard wrote about a "leap", but not a "leap of faith", and scholars disagree about whether the phrase is still a fair summary.
Famous Latin Phrases, Checked: 15 Sayings and Where They Really Come From
Several famous tags, such as in vino veritas and si vis pacem, para bellum, are not in the ancient texts we checked in that form, though each has an older, differently worded relative.
Laozi and the Tao Te Ching: 9 Popular Claims, Checked
Nobody knows for certain who Laozi was, or whether he existed; even the earliest biography hedges with "some say".
Machiavelli: What The Prince Actually Says, and 8 Claims Checked
"The ends justify the means" is not in The Prince; the nearest passage is practical advice built on how people judge rulers by the outcome, not a moral rule.
Mental Models from Philosophy: 11 Thinking Tools Checked Against the Texts
Several tools say less than their popular versions: Hume asked that "a reason should be given" for moving from is to ought.
Nietzsche Quotes, Checked: What He Wrote and What He Never Did
Most famous Nietzsche lines are real but trimmed: "What does not kill me makes me stronger" is about "me".
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle Quotes, Checked: What They Actually Said
Several famous lines are genuine: Socrates says "the unexamined life is not worth living" at his trial, in Plato's Apology.
Where the Trolley Problem Comes From: 10 Claims, Checked
Philippa Foot wrote the version everything descends from in 1967, in a paper about abortion; Judith Jarvis Thomson named it the trolley problem.
Did They Really Say That? 22 Famous Quotes, Checked Against the Source
Of twenty-two famous quotations, two hold up as quoted, six have drifted, three come from stage or screen and eleven belong to somebody else.
Did They Really Say That? Part 2: Einstein, Roosevelt, Ford and the Films
Of fifteen famous lines, six belong to somebody else, two are genuine, six are real but trimmed or misquoted, and one is an origin story with no source.
Older Than You Think: 12 Modern Life Rules and Where They Actually Come From
Of twelve pieces of modern advice, nine are older than they look and three are much newer.
Your Fears, Answered by the Stoics — With the Actual Passages
Six of the eight Stoic answers to common fears are in the texts; two popular ones are not Stoic.
Carpe Diem: Seizing the Day, One Moment at a Time
Carpe diem comes from Horace, Odes 1.11, published around 23 BC, and the rest of the line changes its meaning: "trusting as little as possible in the next one".
Stoicism vs. Mindfulness: What's the Difference and How Can They Complement Each Other?
Our reading: mindfulness asks you to notice a thought without judging it; Epictetus asks you to examine it.
18 Timeless Stoicism Quotes to Navigate Life's Challenges with Wisdom and Grace
These 18 lines, from Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Zeno, each come with a named translation, book and section.
Finding Meaning in Life: Unraveling 'Media Vita in Morte Sumus'
Media vita in morte sumus is Latin for "In the midst of life we are in death".
3 Mind Blowing Quotes by Alan Watts
All three lines trace back to Watts's own work: two to books he wrote, one to a lecture recorded in 1971 and published after his death.
The Ripple Effect: Gandhi's Principles in Creating Positive Change in the World
Gandhi's method was satyagraha: hold firmly to truth and love, disobey an unjust law openly, and accept the penalty.
Stoicism Life Hacks ∙ What is Stoicism? How can I be Stoic?
Stoicism is an ancient Greek philosophy, founded in Athens around 300 BC, which holds that virtue alone is good and is enough for happiness.