Who's your favorite philosopher?

So that this thread has more philosophical depth than a simple list of names, perhaps the writer might give us a quote from their favorite philosopher, or a statement as to why they like that particular philosopher.

The textbook for my World Mythology course this past semester was overpriced, heavy and bulky, and it's chapter organization and overall structure confusing. So, from the textbook of another class, Philosophy of Religion, I decided to replace that World Mythology textbook with Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces and Mircea Eliade's The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History . So that my students have a better grasp of Campbell I will open the course with an introduction to Freud and Jung. Eliade has been very influential to my own understanding of religion, and the book noted above, as well as, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion: The significance of religious myth, symbolism, and ritual within life and culture I believe would benefit any Jedi-in-Training here.

"If we observe the general behavior of archaic man, we are struck by the following fact: neither the objects of the external world or human acts, properly speaking, have any autonomous intrinsic value. Objects or acts acquire a value, and in so doing become real, because they participate, after one fashion or another, in a reality that transcends them" (Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return, page 3-4).

The reality that transcends the physical object or act is not separate from the world or from human action. The value is not, as Eliade states, either intrinsic or autonomous, he continues, "The object appears as the receptacle of an exterior force that differentiates it from its milieu and gives it meaning and value. The force may reside in the substance of the object or its form; (any object, for example, a standing stone) reveals itself to be sacred because its very existence is a hierophany: incompressible, invulnerable, it is that which man is not" (ibid).

WOW!

"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one."
"Swiftly each particle of matter vanishes into the universal Substance; swiftly each item of causation is reassumed into the universal Reason; swiftly the rememberance of all things is buried in the gulf of eternity."
"Let not the future disturb you. You will meet, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."

Marcus Aurelius

Epicurus ... but I also like Nietzche and Sartre, and to some extent Sam Harris, although I have disagreements with all of them

Mine would be Lao Tzu. He was a man of peace and love. He also wrote the book "Tao Te Ching" which is a fantastic book on the way of peace and harmony.

Chunky, please give us one of your favorite quotes. Tell us why you like it. Thanks.

"there i have caught you, nihilist! the sedentary life is the very sin against the holy spirit. only thoughts reached by walking have value"

Meister Eckhart for me (not Eckhart Tolle - although he is great too!)

"God gives birth to the Son as you, as me, as each one of us. As many beings - as many gods in God. In my soul, God not only gives birth to me as his son, he gives birth to me as himself, and himself as me. I find in this divine birth that God and I are the same: I am what I was and what I shall always remain now and forever. I am transported above the highest angels; I neither decrease or increase, for in this birth I have become the motionless cause of all that moves. I have won back what has always been mine. Here in my own soul, the greatest of miracles has taken place - God has returned to God!"

That one got him excommunicated in 1323 but his rehabilitation now seems complete. In 1992 the Vatican described him as "a good and orthodox theologian"!!

I also love Aldous Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy. Like Alan Watts, he doesn't claim to bring anything new to the table but demonstrates with wide references how many people through time, and from all over the world have reached the same conclusion. I strongly recommend it!

OB1: attribution?

when i saw this thread i was all excited until i read EVERYONE said nietzsche
not really everyone everyone but from my perspective id rather keep my mouth shut than say what eveyone else was saying but then i saw a way to say nietzsche and still be original so my favorite philosopher is mr syphyllufflekiss aka

"nietzsche is dead"
GOD

but beyond good and evil ecce homo human all to human spake zarathustra were all more fun than most of the bible imo

edit

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you know after i wrote the above
i got to thinking
i really enjoyed ecclasiasties - it was very eastern philosophy i thought (and why does thr bible say sooo little about mammon when its obviously so integral of a concept? not that i expect an answer im just blabbery right now) and the gospelsof course - why doesnt anyone one preaching on tv ever talk about jesus said you are gods and the children of gods to whom the scripture was given ?
and sirach was really really insightful and of course daniel and joseph and how david seemed to have spent more time hiding fro kings than being one and i have this sort of bias thatchristians almost seem to prefer paul to jesus and none of this is relevant to this thread but no ones said anything else ina while and oh yeah i dont want to forget ruth she was really a badash (she was the one that chopped off the kings head right? or wasthat esther?) but samson wss a moron but im kind of that dumb about womentoo so i cant blame him BUT COME ON DUDE SHES OBVIOUSLY NOT THE ONE TRY CRAIGSLIST OR SOMETHING i dont know i guess e bible was pretty fun too now that i get to thinking about it