Only as an individual can man become a philosopher.

To decide to become a philosopher seemed as foolish to me as to decide to become a poet.

Philosophy can only be approached with the most concrete comprehension.

As a universal history of philosophy, the history of philosophy must become one great unity.

Only then, approaching my fortieth birthday, I made philosophy my life's work.

I discovered that the study of past philosophers is of little use unless our own reality enters into it. Our reality alone allows the thinker's questions to become comprehensible.