Martin Heidegger, an exponent of famous philosophical movements like existentialism and phenomenology, was one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century.
One of the essential theories of this German philosopher is the ontological difference, where he talks about the difference between specific entities and being as such. Heidegger was also a critic of the Western tradition of philosophy, which, according to him, had forgotten this crucial difference.
Apart from that, the German philosopher also influenced renowned philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre, Ludwig Binswanger, Merleau-Ponty, and Rudolf Bultmann. He also inspired Kenneth Maly to write a book on him, known as 'Heidegger's Possibility'.
Insightful Quotes By Heidegger
Martin Heidegger, a seminal thinker in the field of Continental tradition and philosophical hermeneutics, changed the world with his thoughts forever. Here are some of his quotes that might inspire you.
"What was Aristotle’s life?’ Well, the answer lay in a single sentence: ‘He was born, he thought, he died.’ And all the rest is pure anecdote."
"In everything well-known something worthy of thought still lurks."
"We still by no means think decisively enough about the essence of action."
"If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life - and only then will I be free to become myself."
“Making itself intelligible is suicide for philosophy” - 'Contributions To Philosophy: From Enowning'.
“Why are there beings at all, instead of Nothing?” - 'Introduction To Metaphysics: Second Edition', Yale University Press.
"Thinking only begins at the point where we have come to know that Reason, glorified for centuries, is the most obstinate adversary of thinking."
"In order to remain silent Da-sein must have something to say."
"The possible ranks higher than the actual."
"We do not "have" a body; rather, we "are" bodily." - 'Nietzsche: The Will To Power As Art'.
"Only if we are capable of dwelling, only then can we build."
"Being-alone is a deficient mode of being-with; its possibility is a proof for the latter."
“From our human experience and history, at least as far as I am informed, I know that everything essential and great has only emerged when human beings had a home and were rooted in a tradition.
Today’s literature is, for instance, largely destructive.” - 'The Heidegger Controversy: A Critical Reader', translated by John D. Caputo and Maria P. Alter; edited by Richard Wolin.
“The human being is not the lord of beings, but the shepherd of Being.” - 'Letter On Humanism'.
"What seems natural to us is probably just something familiar in a long tradition that has forgotten the unfamiliar source from which it arose. And yet this unfamiliar source once struck man as strange and caused him to think and to wonder."
"Transcendence constitutes selfhood."
"How one encounters reality is a choice."
“Everyone is the other, and no one is himself. The they, which supplies the answer to the who of everyday Da-sein, is the nobody to whom every Da-sein has always already surrendered itself, in its being-among-one-another.” - 'Being And Time', 1927.
“The human body is essentially something other than an animal organism.” - 'Letter On Humanism'.
"Tell me how you read and I'll tell you who you are."
“The grandeur of man is measured according to what he seeks and according to the urgency by which he remains a seeker.” - 'Basic Questions Of Philosophy: Selected 'Problems' Of 'Logic'', translated by André Schuwer and Richard Rojcewicz.
"A man's first bond is that which ties him into the national community."
“To think is to confine yourself to a single thought that one day stands still like a star in the world's sky.” - 'Basic Writings: Martin Heidegger'.
“Man dies constantly until the moment of his demise.” - 'Being And Time'.
"The small are always dependent on the great; they are "small" precisely because they think they are independent. The great thinker is one who can hear what is greatest in the work of other "greats" and who can transform it in an original manner."
"We are too late for the gods and too early for Being."
“Philosophy will not be able to effect an immediate transformation of the present condition of the world. This is not only true of philosophy, but of all merely human thought and endeavor.” - 'Der Spiegel', May 13, 1976.
"Longing is the agony of the nearness of the distant."
"Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man."
"We should never allow our fears or the expectations of others to set the frontiers of our destiny"
"Only where leader and led together bind each other in one destiny … does true order grow."
"We make a space inside ourselves so that being can speak."
"Even in expecting, one leaps away from the possible and gets a footing in the real. It is for its reality that what is expected is expected. By the very nature of expecting, the possible is drawn into the real, arising from it and returning to it."
"Mere anxiety is the source of everything."
"The will to mastery becomes all the more urgent the more technology threatens to slip from human control".
Heidegger Quotes On Planets
(In this article, learn some of the most popular quotes from the legendary philosopher, Martin Heidegger.)
Heidegger has described the world in four ways: it can be seen as an ontical concept, it can be understood as an ontological term, it can possess a pre-ontological existential significance, and it can an ontological-existential concept.
"The world, in resting upon the earth, strives to surmount it. As self-opening it cannot endure anything closed. The earth, however, as sheltering and concealing, tends always to draw the world into itself and keep it there."
"As long as it is, Dasein always has understood itself and always will understand itself in terms of possibilities."
"Is the earth in our head? Or do we stand on the earth?"
“The special character of space must show forth space itself.” - 'Rethinking Architecture'.
"Because it is more essential and older, the destiny of Being is less familiar than the lack of God."
"The relationship between man and space is none other than dwelling, strictly thought and spoken."
"I see the situation of man in the world of planetary technicity not as an inextricable and inescapable destiny, but I see the task of thought precisely in this, that within its own limits it helps man as such achieve a satisfactory relationship to the essence of technicity."
“Expelled from the truth of Being, man everywhere circles around himself as the animal rationale.” - 'Letter On Humanism'.
"Pessimism negates the existing world. Yet its negation is ambiguous. It can simply will decay and nothingness, but it can also renounce what exists and thus open a path for a new formation of the world."
"To dwell is to garden."
"Dwelling is not primarily inhabiting but taking care of and creating that space within which something comes into its own and flourishes."
Heidegger Quotes On Art
Heidegger's thinking was not solely confined to the realm of philosophy; rather, it also ventured into the fields of art and language. Here, you will find some Heidegger quotes related to the latter.
“Truth, as the clearing and concealing of what is, happens in being composed, as a poet composes a poem.” - 'The Origin Of The Work Of Art'.
"Nietzsche did track down Platonism in its most covert form: Christianity and its secularizations are thoroughly "Platonism for the people". - 'Contributions To Philosophy'.
"Language speaks and not the human."
“The word “art” does not designate the concept of a mere eventuality; it is a concept of rank.” - 'Nietzsche', 1961.
"The relation of feeling toward art and its bringing-forth can be one of production or one of reception and enjoyment."
“Enjoyment of the work consists in participation in the creative state of the artist.” - 'Nietzsche' (p. 117).
“For words and language are not wrappings in which things are packed for the commerce of those who write and speak. It is in words and language that things first come into being and are.” - 'Introduction To Metaphysics'.
“Understanding of being is itself a determination of being of Da-sein.” - 'Being And Time'
"Let us try to listen to language."
"In its essence, language is not the utterance of an organism; nor is it the expression of a living thing. Nor can it ever be thought in an essentially correct way in terms of its symbolic character, perhaps not even in terms of the character of signification. Language is the clearing-concealing advent of Being itself."
"Nevertheless, the ultimate business of philosophy is to preserve the force of the most elemental words in which Dasein expresses itself, and to keep the common understanding from levelling them off to that unintelligibility which functions in turn as a source of pseudo-problems."
“The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.” - 'What Is Called Thinking?', translated by J. Glenn Gray and Fred F. Wieck.
"Language is the house of Being. In its home man dwells. Those who think and those who create with words are the guardians of this home."
“Nothing religious is ever destroyed by logic; it is destroyed only by the god's withdrawal” - 'What Is Called Thinking', translated by J. Glenn Gray and Fred F. Wieck.
"All works have this thingly character…There is something stony in a work of architecture, wooden in a carving, colored in a painting, spoken in a linguistic work, sonorous in a musical composition."
"Nobody will deny that there is an interest in philosophy today. But – is there anything at all left today in which man does not take an interest, in the sense in which he understands “interest”?"
"To say philosophy originates in wonder means philosophy is wondrous in its essence and becomes more wondrous the more it becomes what it really is."
“We never come to thoughts. They come to us.” - 'What Is Called Thinking', translated by J. Glenn Gray and Fred F. Wieck.
"Art – this is nothing more than a word to which nothing real any longer corresponds."
Time Quotes By Martin Heidegger
In this section, you will get some quotes from this great philosopher that will give you an insight into his concept of time.
"True time is four-dimensional."
"We do not say: Being is, time is, but rather: there is Being and there is time."
“Time-space as commonly understood, in the sense of the distance measured between two time-points, is the result of time calculation.” - 'On Time And Being'.
“Eternity, not as a static “now,” nor as a sequence of “nows” rolling off into the infinite, but as the “now” that bends back into itself. … Thinking the most difficult thought of philosophy means thinking being as time.” - 'Nietzsche' (p. 20).
"We name time when we say: every thing has its time. This means: everything which actually is, every being comes and goes at the right time and remains for a time during the time allotted to it. Every thing has its time."
“Only he who already understands can listen.” - 'Being And Time'.
“But what is great can only begin great.” - 'Introduction To Metaphysics'.
"Being is an issue for one."
"Nothing is everything that doesn’t happen at this very moment."
“Time is not a thing, thus nothing which is, and yet it remains constant in its passing away without being something temporal like the beings in time.” - 'On Time And Being'.
"Being and time determine each other reciprocally, but in such a manner that neither can the former – Being – be addressed as something temporal nor can the latter – time – be addressed as a being."
