The article introduces the complex relation, between approval and rejection, that Maria Zambrano had to philosophy. It argues that this relation was unorthodox, because, on the one hand, she questioned the relation of philosophy to life -particularly, the way in which philosophical knowledge lost touch with life itself-; and, on the other, she questioned -like Nietzsche- the idea of philosophical system as the prevailing mean for philosophical expression, accusing it of hiding other ways in which philosophy had been developed throughout history. Such tension with philosophy led her to develop a relation of her own, that is, a flexible attitude towards philosophical trends, in which the relevant feature was not the coherence within philosophical ideas, but that which they could provide to life itself.