My definition [of a philosopher] is of a man up in a balloon, with his family and friends holding the ropes which confine him to earth and trying to haul him down. – Louisa May Alcott, in Life, Letters, and Journals, ed. E.D. Cheney, 1889

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics. – Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary

You philosophers are sages in your maxims, and fools in your conduct. – Madame Gout to Mr. Benjamin Franklin, “Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout,”

Religion is a man using a divining rod. Philosophy is a man using a pick and shovel. – Author Unknown