The fascinating thing about philosophers is that when you can understand what they’re saying between all the extra words, you’ll often find peace of mind or be spiraling into a deep depression, questioning reality.

Before things get a little too real and these philosophers hurt your feelings, be sure to take a toke and maybe meditate to calm any prior nerves or jitters to capture the essence of the wise words below. Now that you’re ready, here are ten quotes by philosophers that, quite honestly, could have been said by a contemplative, pondering stoner.

“It is the obvious which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say ‘It’s as plain as the nose on your face.’ But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?”

― Isaac Asimov, I, Robot

“Too lazy to be ambitious, I let the world take care of itself. Ten days’ worth of rice in my bag; a bundle of twigs by the fireplace. Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment? Listening to the night rain on my roof, I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.”

― Ryokan

“I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.”

― Hippolyte A. Taine

“And usually [the philosopher] philosophizes either in order to resign himself to life, or to seek some finality in it, or to distract himself and forget his griefs, or for pastime and amusement.”

― Miguel de Unamuno, Tragic Sense of Life

“An honest religious thinker is like a tightrope walker. He almost looks as though he were walking on nothing but air. His support is the slenderest imaginable. And yet it really is possible to walk on it.”

― Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings?”

― Diogenes of Sinope

“Some philosophers can’t bear to say simple things, like ‘Suppose a dog bites a man.’ They feel obliged instead to say, “Suppose a dog d bites a man m at time t,” thereby demonstrating their unshakable commitment to logical rigor, even though they don’t go on to manipulate any formulae involving d, m, and t.”

― Daniel C. Dennett, Freedom Evolves

“They say philosophers and wise men are indifferent. Wrong. Indifference is a paralysis of the soul, a premature death.”

― Anton Chekhov, Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov

“For in this Case, we are not to give Credit to the Many, who say, that none ought to be educated but the Free; but rather to the Philosophers, who say, that the Well-educated alone are free.”

― Epictetus, All the Works of Epictetus

“Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.”

― Diogenes of Sinope