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

Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct; but to find these reasons is no less an instinct. – Francis H. Bradley

Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils; but present evils triumph over it. – La Rochefoucauld, Maxims, 1678