1001Philosophers

Max Scheler Quotes

Max Ferdinand Scheler was a German phenomenologist and the most important phenomenological ethicist of the early twentieth century. Drawing on but moving beyond Husserl, he argued in Formalism in Ethics and the Non-Formal Ethics of Values that values are objective, intuited objects of feeling rather than constructions of rational will, and that they are arranged in a hierarchy rooted in the person. The quotes below are attributed to Max Scheler, organized by topic.

Max Scheler on Life

  • Attributed to Max Scheler:

    “Man is the only being whose existence is a problem to himself.”

Max Scheler on Love

  • Attributed to Max Scheler:

    “Love is the discovery of higher worth in another being.”

Max Scheler on Mind

  • Attributed to Max Scheler:

    “The person is not a thing; the person is the bearer of acts.”

Read all Max Scheler quotes on Mind

Max Scheler on Virtue

  • Attributed to Max Scheler:

    “Values are objective and given to feeling.”

  • Attributed to Max Scheler:

    “Ressentiment is the poisoning of the moral life by suppressed envy.”

  • Attributed to Max Scheler:

    “The hierarchy of values is intuited, not deduced.”

Read all Max Scheler quotes on Virtue