The 20 best quotes by Martin Heidegger

We review great famous quotes from the German philosopher.

Martin Heidegger (1889 - 1976) is one of the essential philosophers of the 20th century. Born in Messkirch, Germany, he studied Catholic theology, natural sciences and philosophy at the University of Freiburg, and developed philosophical theories that influenced different scientific and academic disciplines.

Along with Ludwig Wittgenstein, Heidegger is considered one of the most important thinkers of the last century.

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• "Martin Heidegger's existentialist theory".
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Martin Heidegger's famous phrases.

In this article we will delve into the thought and reflections of this German philosopher through a tour of the best phrases of Martin Heidegger.. Concepts such as "Dasein" are the leitmotiv of a philosophical work at the height of very few.

• You may also be interested in: "75 philosophical phrases uttered by great thinkers".

1. Transcendence constitutes individuality.

An ambiguous phrase from his work "Being and Time".

2. Anguish is the fundamental disposition that places us before nothingness.

A psychological reflection about anguish and its look at the infinite void.

3. The human body is something essentially different from an animal organism.

In this phrase of Martin Heidegger we discover his anthropocentric positioning.

4. Very soon television, in order to exert its sovereign influence, will run through all the machinery and all the bustle of human relations in every way.

As George Orwell would say, the media make us prisoners of hegemonic thinking. A premonitory reflection of the German philosopher.

5. Paths, not works.

Thought to be freely interpreted by the reader.

6. Mortals dwell to the extent that they receive the sky as sky; to the extent that they let the sun and the moon take their journey, the stars their route, the seasons their blessing and their injury; to the extent that they do not turn night into day, nor make the day a race without rest.

Here he shows us the fragility of human action. In acceptance is the way.

7. The distinctive feature of metaphysical thinking -which seeks the foundation of the entity- is that, starting from the present, it represents it in its presence and shows it, from its foundation, as founded.

A look at the current of metaphysical thought.

8. Philosophy implies a free mobility in thought, it is a creative act that dissolves ideologies.

Thinking and reflecting quickly destroy apriorisms and dogmas.

9. The true, whether it be a true thing or a true proposition, is that which agrees, the concordant.

Defining truth in a nutshell.

10. To poeticize is properly to let inhabit. Now, by what means do we come to have a dwelling? By means of building. To poeticize, like letting inhabit, is to build.

Whoever writes poetry builds a shelter for his own consciousness.

11. Singing and thinking are the close trunks of poeticizing. They grow from being and rise up to touch its truth.

Another phrase of Heidegger about poetry.

12. Who thinks big has to make big mistakes.

Great projects also imply great risks.

13. The common sense of man has its own necessity; it asserts its legitimacy with the only weapon at its disposal, that is, the invocation of the "obvious" of its aspirations and reflections.

At times, the concept of "common sense" can be a way of legitimizing projects and desires that are socially well regarded, "normal".

14. Everything great is in the midst of the storm.

There is no triumph without sacrifices and permanent obstacles.

15. When time is only speed, instantaneity and simultaneity, while the temporal, understood as historical events, has disappeared from the existence of all peoples, then, precisely then, the questions will come back to haunt this whole coven like ghosts: what for, where to, and then what?

Is there an "end" to the history of the development of our societies?

16. The great tragedy of the world is that it does not cultivate memory, and therefore forgets the masters.

Forgetting the past condemns us to make mistakes again and again.

17. Nothing can be proved in the realm of thought; but thought can explain many things.

Great reflection of Heidegger about the limitations and potentialities of rational thought.

18. The most ancient of the ancient comes from behind to our thinking and, nevertheless, goes ahead of us. That is why thinking stops at the appearance of what was, and is memory.

On the paradox of memories and experience.

19. The Arts become manipulated and manipulative instruments of information.

Because of the media and hegemonic thinking, even artistic disciplines tend to homogenize and standardize their forms and content.

20. There is only a world where there is language.

A philosophical phrase that defines language as the creator of realities, according to Martin Heidegger.