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Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
5 months 2 weeks ago
Confession should be only in secret...

Confession should be only in secret before God, who knows everything anyway, and thus it could remain hidden in one's innermost being. But at a dinner and a woman! A dinner-it is not some hidden, remote place, nor is the lighting dim, nor is the mood like that among graves, nor are the listeners silent or invisibly present.

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Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
3 months 1 week ago
By bourgeoisie is meant the class...

By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor. By proletariat, the class of modern wage laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live.

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The Communist Manifesto, footnote
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
4 months 2 weeks ago
'God!' said the Ghost, glancing around...

God!' said the Ghost, glancing around the landscape. 'God what?' asked the Spirit. 'What do you mean, "God what"?' asked the Ghost. 'In our grammar God is a noun' said the Spirit.

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Ch. 9
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
4 months 3 weeks ago
I shall not have it judged...

I shall not have it judged by any man, not even by any angel. For since I am certain of it, I shall be your judge and even the angels' judge through this teaching (as St. Paul says [1 Cor. 6:3]) so that whoever does not accept my teaching may not be saved - for it is God's teaching and not mine.

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Against the Spiritual Estate of the Pope and the Bishops Falsely So Called, July 1522. Luther's Works, Church and Ministry I, Eric W. Gritsch, Helmut T. Lehman eds., Concordia Publishing House, 1986, ISBN 0800603397, ISBN 9780800603397, vol. 39, p. 249.
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 months 2 days ago
We reason deeply...
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Main Content / General
Antisthenes
Antisthenes
4 months 6 days ago
You want a new book….

Antisthenes ... said once to a youth from Pontus who was on the point of coming to him to be his pupil, and was asking him what things he wanted, "You want a new book, and a new pen, and a new tablet;"

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meaning a new mind. § 4
Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
4 months 2 weeks ago
I maintain that in every special...

I maintain that in every special natural doctrine only so much science proper is to be met with as mathematics; for... science proper, especially of nature, requires a pure portion, lying at the foundation of the empirical, and based upon à priori knowledge of natural things. ...the conception should be constructed. But the cognition of the reason through construction of conceptions is mathematical. A pure philosophy of nature in general, namely, one that only investigates what constitutes a nature in general, may thus be possible without mathematics; but a pure doctrine of nature respecting determinate natural things (corporeal doctrine and mental doctrine), is only possible by means of mathematics; and as in every natural doctrine only so much science proper is to be met with therein as there is cognition à priori, a doctrine of nature can only contain so much science proper as there is in it of applied mathematics.

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Preface, Tr. Ernest Belfort Bax, 1883
Philosophical Maxims
Lucretius
Lucretius
5 months ago
If you well apprehend…

If you well apprehend and keep in mind these things, nature free at once and rid of her haughty lords is seen to do all things spontaneously of herself without the meddling of the gods.

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Book II, lines 1090-1092 (tr. Munro)
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
4 months 2 weeks ago
The Hudson's Bay Company, before their...

The Hudson's Bay Company, before their misfortunes in the late war, had been much more fortunate than the Royal African Company.

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Chapter I, Part III, p. 806.
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 1 day ago
A good judge…

A good judge condemns wrongful acts, but does not hate them.

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De Ira (On Anger): Book 1, cap. 16, line 6.
Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
3 months 2 weeks ago
The arbitrary rule of a just...

The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.

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Refutation of Helvétius
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
4 months 2 weeks ago
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in...

We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.

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As attributed in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899) by James Wood, p. 624
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
4 months 3 weeks ago
We can be knowledgeable with other...

We can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.

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Book I, Ch. 25
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
2 months 2 weeks ago
God is the infinite ALL. Man...

God is the infinite ALL. Man is only a finite manifestation of Him. Or better yet: God is that infinite All of which man knows himself to be a finite part. God alone exists truly. Man manifests Him in time, space and matter. The more God's manifestation in man (life) unites with the manifestations (lives) of other beings, the more man exists. This union with the lives of other beings is accomplished through love. God is not love, but the more there is of love, the more man manifests God, and the more he truly exists... We acknowledge God only when we are conscious of His manifestation in us. All conclusions and guidelines based on this consciousness should fully satisfy both our desire to know God as such as well as our desire to live a life based on this recognition.

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Entry in Tolstoy's Diary
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 months 1 week ago
Heroes abound at the dawn of...

Heroes abound at the dawn of civilizations, during pre-Homeric and Gothic epochs, when people, not having yet experienced spiritual torture, satisfy their thirst for renunciation through a derivative: heroism.

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Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
5 months 2 weeks ago
A robot may not injure a...

A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

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Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
3 months 2 days ago
Shall we not perhaps be told,...

Shall we not perhaps be told, on the other hand, that if the sinner suffers an eternal punishment, it is because he does not cease to sin? - for the damned sin without ceasing. This however is no solution to the problem, which derives all its absurdity from the fact that punishment has been conceived as vindictiveness or vengeance, not as correction, and has been conceived after the fashion of barbarous peoples. And in the same way hell has been conceived as a sort of police institution, necessary in order to put fear into the world. And the worst of it is that it no longer intimidates, and therefore will have to be shut up.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 months 1 week ago
Though we may prefer ourselves to...

Though we may prefer ourselves to the universe, we nonetheless loathe ourselves much more than we suspect. If the wise man is so rare a phenomenon, it is because he seems unshaken by the aversion which, like all beings, he must feel for himself.

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Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
3 months 2 days ago
Stars and blossoming fruit-trees: utter permanence...

Stars and blossoming fruit-trees: utter permanence and extreme fragility give an equal sense of eternity.

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p. 277
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
1 week 6 days ago
It's unfortunate that this has happened....

It's unfortunate that this has happened. No. It's fortunate that this has happened and I've remained unharmed by it-not shattered by the present or frightened of the future. It could have happened to anyone. But not everyone could have remained unharmed by it.

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IV, 49a
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month 1 week ago
Sarcasm I now see to be,...

Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the Devil; for which reason I have, long since, as good as renounced it.

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Bk. II, ch. 4.
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
3 months 1 week ago
Democracy means the belief that humanistic...

Democracy means the belief that humanistic culture should prevail.

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Democracy and Human Nature, Freedom and Culture
Philosophical Maxims
Isaiah Berlin
Isaiah Berlin
3 months 1 week ago
The simple point which I am...

The simple point which I am concerned to make is that where ultimate values are irreconcilable, clear-cut solutions cannot, in principle, be found. To decide rationally in such situations is to decide in the light of general ideals, the overall pattern of life pursued by a man or a group or a society.

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Philosophical Maxims
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
1 month 1 day ago
But now persecution is good, because...

But now persecution is good, because it exists; every law which originated in ignorance and malice, and gratifies the passions from whence it sprang, we call the wisdom of our ancestors: when such laws are repealed, they will be cruelty and madness; till they are repealed, they are policy and caution.

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Peter Plymley's Letters (1808), Letter V
Philosophical Maxims
Peter Singer
Peter Singer
4 months 6 days ago
Ethics is inescapable…

Ethics is inescapable.

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Preface, p. xv
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
4 months 2 weeks ago
The fact that labour is external...

The fact that labour is external to the worker, i.e., it does not belong to his intrinsic nature; that in his work, therefore he does not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and his mind. The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself.

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Estranged Labour, p. 30.
Philosophical Maxims
bell hooks
bell hooks
3 months ago
I have wanted them to have...

I have wanted them to have this simple definition to read again and again so they know: Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.

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Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (2014), p.XII
Philosophical Maxims
Plato
Plato
5 months 2 weeks ago
Wonder is the feeling of a...

Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

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Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2 months 3 weeks ago
Man can acquire accomplishments or he...

Man can acquire accomplishments or he can become an animal, whichever he wants. God makes the animals, man makes himself.

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F 49
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2 months 3 weeks ago
If countries were named after the...

If countries were named after the words you first hear when you go there, England would have to be called Damn It.

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F 33
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 months 1 week ago
What anxiety when one is not...

What anxiety when one is not sure of one's doubts or wonders: are these actually doubts?

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Philosophical Maxims
Leszek Kołakowski
Leszek Kołakowski
1 month 1 week ago
Carnap made a detailed analysis of...

Carnap made a detailed analysis of Heidegger's statement, "Nothing nihilates," in order to show that it is purely verbal, devoid of empirical meaning. (Incidentally, this is the only sentence from existentialist philosophy the majority of contemporary positivists appear familiar with.)

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Chapter Eight, Logical Empiricism, p. 187
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
2 months 2 days ago
Within the last fifty years, the...

Within the last fifty years, the extraordinary growth of every department of physical science has spread among us mental food of so nutritious and stimulating a character that a new ecdysis seems imminent.

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Ch.2, p. 73
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
1 week 6 days ago
There is no nature which is...

There is no nature which is inferior to art, the arts imitate the nature of things.

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XI, 10
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
4 months 3 weeks ago
I prefer the company of peasants...

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

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Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 months 4 weeks ago
He alone is aware of the...

He alone is aware of the truth, and if all men were aware of it, there would be an end of life. In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. But his kingship is kingship over nothing. It brings no powers and privileges, only loss of faith and exhaustion of the power to act. Its world is a world without values.

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Chapter one, The Country of the Blind, referencing a quote by Desiderius Erasmus.
Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
4 months 6 days ago
Those who have a well-ordered character...

Those who have a well-ordered character lead also a well-ordered life.

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Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
4 months 2 weeks ago
The second is the partiality for...

The second is the partiality for unity proper to the philosophical mind, whence this wide-spread canon has flown forth: principles are not to be multiplied beyond supreme necessity, to which we give in our adhesion, not because we have insight into causal unity in the world either by reason or experience, but as seeking it by an impulse of the intellect which seems to itself to have by thus much advanced in the explication of phenomena, by as much as it is granted to it to descend from the same principle to a greater number of consequences,

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 months 1 week ago
Tolerance - the function of an...

Tolerance - the function of an extinguished ardor - tolerance cannot seduce the young.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
4 months 1 week ago
When I am furious about something,...

When I am furious about something, I sometimes beat the ground or a tree with my walking stick. But I certainly do not believe that the ground is to blame or that my beating can help anything... And all rites are of this kind.

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Ch. 7 : Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough, p. 131
Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
2 weeks 2 days ago
The assumption of a Final Cause...

The assumption of a Final Cause in the structure of each part of animals and plants is as inevitable as the assumption of an Efficient Cause for every event. The maxim that in organized bodies nothing is 'in vain', is as necessarily true as the maxim that nothing happens 'by chance'.

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Philosophical Maxims
Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann
1 month 1 week ago
In places where men are used...

In places where men are used to differences they inevitably become tolerant.

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Ch. IV: "The Line of Least Resistance", p. 52
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 1 week ago
Verily I say unto you, I...

Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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8:10-12 (KJV) Said about the officer.
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
4 months 2 weeks ago
There is no worse lie than...

There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.

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Lectures XIV and XV, "The Value of Saintliness"
Philosophical Maxims
Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach
3 months 1 week ago
:...Vienna is the origin of so...

:...Vienna is the origin of so many schools of its own which were dominant in the 1920s. And one of the most fundamental and influential, in which we all were partially caught, was logical positivism. In fact, Mises' brother, Richard von Mises, became one of the leading figures. Now he and I all grew up in this Ernst Mach philosophy that ultimately everything must be rationally justified...

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Friedrich Hayek, in 1985 interview, quoted in Alan Ebenstein, Hayek's Journey: The Mind of Friedrich Hayek (2003), Ch. 10. Epistemology, Psychology, and Methodology
Philosophical Maxims
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
2 months 2 weeks ago
I was taught in the sixth...

I was taught in the sixth grade that we had a standing army of just over a hundred thousand men and that the generals had nothing to say about what was done in Washington. I was taught to be proud of that and to pity Europe for having more than a million men under arms and spending all their money on airplanes and tanks. I simply never unlearned junior civics. I still believe in it. I got a very good grade.

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As quoted by James Lundquist in Kurt Vonnegut
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
2 months 4 weeks ago
What is generally regarded as success...

What is generally regarded as success - acquisition of wealth, the capture of power or social prestige - I consider the most dismal failures. I hold when it is said of a man that he has arrived, it means that he is finished - his development has stopped at that point. I have always striven to remain in a state of flux and continued growth, and not to petrify in a niche of self-satisfaction. If I had my life to live over again, like anyone else, I should wish to alter minor details. But in any of my more important actions and attitudes I would repeat my life as I have lived it. Certainly I should work for Anarchism with the same devotion and confidence in its ultimate triumph.

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Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 months 4 weeks ago
The history of the Romanovs is...

The history of the Romanovs is an Elizabethan tragedy that lasts for three centuries. Its keynote is cruelty, a barbaric, pointless kind of cruelty that has always been common in the East, but that came to Europe only recently, in the time of Hitler.

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pp. 61-62
Philosophical Maxims
L.P. Jacks
L.P. Jacks
1 week 6 days ago
I had been virtually a Unitarian...

I had been virtually a Unitarian (as I still am) but without knowing it. The experience of being among Unitarians who did know what they were, and attached much importance to it, was entirely novel to me, but I soon fell into their ways and found it easy to go forward on their road, the more so because the other roads became closed to me.

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The Confession of an Octogenarian (1942), p. 99.
Philosophical Maxims
Melissus of Samos
Melissus of Samos
1 week 5 days ago
What was was ever....

What was was ever, and ever shall be. For, if it had come into being, it needs must have been nothing before it came into being. Now, if it were nothing, in no wise could anything have arisen out of nothing.

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Philosophical Maxims
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