# The words of the philosophers are written on the bathroom walls **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 10, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526 "2007-04-10T19:10:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/1 "2007-04-10T19:10:32Z")
Inspired by [post=8448974]this post[/post], I remembered this epigram that struck me when as a young man I first saw it in a toilet stall (no, not the “here I sit all broken-hearted” phrase): “To be is to do” - Philosopher A. “To do is to be” - Philosopher B. “Do be do be do” - Sinatra. In my case, I saw it with A = Socrates and B = Sartre. But a quick internet search this morning showed many variations, with the names Socrates, Sartre, Nietzsche, Kant, Descartes, Voltaire appearing as either philosopher A or philosopher B. Which would be the most appropriate for A, and which for B? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/2 "2007-04-10T21:35:01Z")
“To be is to do” might be a decent match for Aristotle. One of his key ideas was to define what an object is in terms of what it does, and a good object by how well it does it. For instance, a knife is a thing which cuts, and a good knife is a thing which cuts well. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/3 "2007-04-10T22:14:57Z")
My two cents: “To do is to be” sounds an awful lot like Descartes’ “I think therefore I am”, at least to my ears. It is just stated in more general terms. ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/4 "2007-04-10T23:18:16Z")
I thought the words of the PROPHETS were written on the SUBWAY walls and tenement halls…or is it studio walls and concert halls… Hmmm. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/5 "2007-04-10T23:27:49Z")
“Religion is the opiate of the masses.” Karl Marx “Get high on Jesus.” Billy Graham “I think, therefore I am.” Rene Decartes “I don’t think so.” Jimmy Hoffa ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/6 "2007-04-11T00:08:04Z")
According to a magnet I saw for sale today, it was Nietzche for the first and Kant for the second. Of course, I’m not sure which order the two phrases were in. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/7 "2007-04-11T00:12:42Z")
[Wikiquote](http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant) gives “to be is to do” as attributed to Kant. Nothing on Nietzche’s page. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/8 "2007-04-11T02:12:47Z")
but I do know that Mme. Descartes would sing that Cole Porter song whenever she refused her husband’s affections: “Descartes, take that away from me.” ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/9 "2007-04-11T15:33:13Z")
Thank you waterj2. I wonder what wikiquote’s source is for assigning “to be is to do” to Kant. Could it be from a bathroom wall graffito? ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/10 "2007-04-11T15:41:24Z")
1. Know thyself 2. Nothing in excess 3. Why seekest thou here? They joke lies in thine hands! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/11 "2007-04-11T15:56:36Z")
For a good time call Mme. Descartes, 555-3877. ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/12 "2007-04-11T18:35:44Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] For a good time call Mme. Descartes, 555-3877. [/QUOTE] No, for a good time call [(303) 499-7111](http://tf.nist.gov/general/broadcast.htm#20) ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/13 "2007-04-11T18:55:58Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] “To be is to do” might be a decent match for Aristotle. One of his key ideas was to define what an object is in terms of what it does, and a good object by how well it does it. For instance, a knife is a thing which cuts, and a good knife is a thing which cuts well. [/QUOTE] I know this is not a philosophy 099 course, but I wonder about this. Was there something inherently wrong in that idea? It seems so self-evident that I think I must be missing something. I can’t conceive of another way to say what a good knife is. What am I not seeing? If it doesn’t cut well, it can’t be considered a good knife, can it? How would Aristotle have defined a box cutter? ``` "*Assistants! Assistants!*": Ed Wynn ``` ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/14 "2007-04-11T22:49:05Z")
> [@](#): > > I know this is not a philosophy 099 course, but I wonder about this. Was there something inherently wrong in that idea? Not that I know of, and I didn’t mean to imply that there was. What’s perhaps more controvertial is the extension of the idea to us: Aristotle defined a “person” as a thing which thinks, which would make a “good person” one who thinks well. Which then, of course, raises the question of what constitutes “thinking well”, and whether a psychopathic genius is a “good person”. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/15 "2007-04-12T02:54:07Z")
How old is this piece of grafitti? I first saw it about 1972 or 1973. It can’t be older than 1966, since that’s when the Frank Sinatra song came out. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-words-of-the-philosophers-are-written-on-the-bathroom-walls/399526/16 "2007-04-12T04:01:28Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] How old is this piece of grafitti? I first saw it about 1972 or 1973. It can’t be older than 1966, since that’s when the Frank Sinatra song came out. [/QUOTE] I recall it in a bathroom in a college dorm I lived in which might put it as early as 1970 or 1971, though it could have been later.