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Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
1 month 1 week ago
To explain all nature is too...

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. 'Tis much better to do a little with certainty, & leave the rest for others that come after you, than to explain all things by conjecture without making sure of any thing.

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Statement from unpublished notes for the Preface to Opticks (1704) quoted in Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (1983) by Richard S. Westfall, p. 643
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months ago
If a man has not, by...

If a man has not, by the time he is 30, yielded to the fascination of every form of extremism, I don't know if he is to be admired or scorned - a saint or a corpse.

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Philosophical Maxims
Judith Butler
Judith Butler
1 month 6 days ago
Nonviolence is perhaps best described as...

Nonviolence is perhaps best described as a practice of resistance that becomes possible, if not mandatory, precisely at the moment when doing violence seems most justified and obvious. In this way, it can be understood as a practice that not only stops a violent act, or a violent process, but requires a form of sustained action, sometimes aggressively pursued. So, one suggestion I will make is that we can think of nonviolence not simply as the absence of violence, or as the act of refraining from committing violence, but as a sustained commitment, even a way of rerouting aggression for the purposes of affirming ideals of equality and freedom.

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p. 27
Philosophical Maxims
Epictetus
Epictetus
3 months 2 weeks ago
It is the act of an...

It is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition; it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay the blame on himself; and of one whose instruction is completed, neither to blame another, nor himself.

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(5) [tr. George Long (1888)].
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
3 months 4 days ago
All that the conscious ego can...

All that the conscious ego can do is to formulate wishes, which are then carried out by forces which it controls very little and understands not at all.

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Philosophical Maxims
Zoroaster
Zoroaster
2 months 3 weeks ago
Indulge in no wrathfulness, for a...

Indulge in no wrathfulness, for a man when he indulges in wrath becomes then forgetful of his duty and good works . . . and sin and crime of every kind occur unto his mind, and until the subsiding of the wrath he is said to be just like Ahareman.

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Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
3 months 1 week ago
Nobody ever saw a dog make...

Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog.

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Chapter II, p. 14.
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
4 months 1 week ago
Without art we would be nothing...
Without art we would be nothing but foreground and live entirely in the spell of that perspective which makes what is closest at hand and most vulgar appear as if it were vast, and reality itself.
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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
3 months 3 days ago
Science does not rest upon solid...

Science does not rest upon solid bedrock. The bold structure of its theories arises, as it were, above a swamp. It is like a building erected on piles. The piles are driven down from above into the swamp, but not down to any natural or 'given' base; and if we stop driving the piles deeper, it is not because we have reached firm ground. We simply stop when we are satisfied that the piles are firm enough to carry the structure, at least for the time being.

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Ch. 5 "The Problem of the Empirical Basis", Section 30: Theory and Experiment, p. 94.
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
4 months 5 days ago
If the ethical, that is,...

If the ethical, that is, social morality is the highest ... then no categories are needed other than the Greek philosophical categories.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
3 months 1 week ago
It is the principle of antipathy...

It is the principle of antipathy which leads us to speak of offences as deserving punishment. It is the corresponding principle of sympathy which leads us to speak of certain actions as meriting reward. This word merit can only lead to passion and error. It is effects good or bad which we ought alone to consider.

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MSS 29, 32, University College Collection
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
3 months 1 week ago
Do not wonder…

Do not wonder, if the common people speak more truly than those of high rank; for they speak with more safety.

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Exempla Antithetorum, IX. Laus, Existimatio (Pro.)
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
4 months 1 day ago
A fate is not a punishment.

A fate is not a punishment.

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Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
1 month 2 weeks ago
Today, tattoos lack symbolic power. All...

Today, tattoos lack symbolic power. All they do is point toward the uniqueness of the bearer. The body is neither a ritual stage nor a surface of projection; rather, it is an advertising space.

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Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
3 months 3 days ago
We are not necessarily doubting that...

We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.

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Letters of C. S. Lewis (29 April 1959), para. 1, p. 285 - as reported in The Quotable Lewis (1989), p. 469
Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
1 month 2 weeks ago
If you have had your attention...

If you have had your attention directed to the novelties in thought in your own lifetime, you will have observed that almost all really new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced.

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Ch. 3: "The Century of Genius", pp. 67-68
Philosophical Maxims
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
2 months 4 days ago
We cannot hope to give here...

We cannot hope to give here a final clarification of the essence of fact, judgement, object, property; this task leads into metaphysical abysses; about these one has to seek advice from men whose name cannot be stated without earning a compassionate smile-e.g.

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Fichte. Hermann Weyl, Das Kontinuum. Kritische Untersuchungen uber die Grundlagen der Analysis (1918)
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
3 months 5 days ago
I trust that some may be...

I trust that some may be as near and dear to Buddha, or Christ, or Swedenborg, who are without the pale of their churches. It is necessary not to be Christian to appreciate the beauty and significance of the life of Christ. I know that some will have hard thoughts of me, when they hear their Christ named beside my Buddha, yet I am sure that I am willing they should love their Christ more than my Buddha, for the love is the main thing, and I like him too.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
3 months 5 days ago
Among human beings, the subjection of...

Among human beings, the subjection of women is much more complete at a certain level of civilization than it is among savages. And the subjection is always reinforced by morality.

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Ch. 15: Power and moral codes
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
3 months 6 days ago
Let us cultivate our garden.

Let us cultivate our garden.

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Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
4 months 2 days ago
Well, it was healthy to miss...

Well, it was healthy to miss once in a while. It kept self-confidence balanced at a point safely short of arrogance.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 month 3 weeks ago
The Kingdom is like a wise...

The Kingdom is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of small fish. Among them the wise fisherman found a fine large fish. He threw all the small fish back into the sea and chose the large fish without difficulty. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
3 months 5 days ago
Man differs from other animals in...

Man differs from other animals in one very important respect, and that is that he has some desires which are, so to speak, infinite, which can never be fully gratified, and which would keep him restless even in Paradise. The boa constrictor, when he has had an adequate meal, goes to sleep, and does not wake until he needs another meal. Human beings, for the most part, are not like this.

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Philosophical Maxims
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
2 months 2 days ago
All exercise of authority perverts, and...

All exercise of authority perverts, and submission to authority humiliates.

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As quoted in Michael Bakunin (1937), E.H. Carr, p. 453
Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
2 months 2 weeks ago
It is not proper either to...

It is not proper either to have a blunt sword or to use freedom of speech ineffectually. Neither is the sun to be taken from the world, nor freedom of speech from erudition.

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As quoted in the translation of Thomas Taylor
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
1 month 3 weeks ago
More than a century ago, in...

More than a century ago, in 1804, in Letter XC of that series that constitutes the immense monody of his Obermann, Sénancour wrote the words which I have put at the head of this chapter - and of all the spiritual descendants of the patriarchal Rousseau, Sénancour was the most profound and intense; of all the men of heart and feeling that France has produced, not excluding Pascal, he was the most tragic. "Man is perishable. That may be; but let us perish resisting, and if it is nothingness that awaits us, do not let us so act that it shall be a just fate." Change this sentence from it negative to the positive form - "And if it is nothingness that awaits us, let us so act that it shall be an unjust fate" - and you get the firmest basis of action for the man who cannot or will not be a dogmatist.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 weeks 4 days ago
Life is a business...
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Main Content / General
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
3 months 3 days ago
I believe in Christianity as I...

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

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"Is Theology Poetry?", 1945
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
4 months 2 days ago
I get a certain pleasure in...

I get a certain pleasure in knowing that I live not merely in a city but in Manhattan, the center of New York City, a region so unique in many ways that I honestly believe that Earth is divided into halves: Manhattan and non-Manhattan.

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Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
2 months 2 weeks ago
Holding fast to these things, you...

Holding fast to these things, you will know the worlds of gods and mortals which permeates and governs everything. And you will know, as is right, nature similar in all respects, so that you will neither entertain unreasonable hopes nor be neglectful of anything.

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As quoted in Divine Harmony: The Life and Teachings of Pythagoras by John Strohmeier and Peter Westbrook.
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
2 months 1 day ago
I know every numbskull will babble...

I know every numbskull will babble on about "black man," "maneater," "chance," and "retrospective interpretation," in order to banish something terribly inconvenient that might sully the familiar picture of childhood innocence. Ah, these good, efficient, healthy-minded people, they always remind me of those optimistic tadpoles who bask in a puddle in the sun, in the shallowest of waters, crowding together and amiably wriggling their tails, totally unaware that the next morning the puddle will have dried up and left them stranded. On a phallic dream he had as a young child.

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p. 14
Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
2 months 3 weeks ago
Being summoned by the Athenians out...

Being summoned by the Athenians out of Sicily to plead for his life, Alcibiades absconded, saying that that criminal was a fool who studied a defence when he might fly for it.

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51 Alcibiades
Philosophical Maxims
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2 months 5 days ago
To kill someone for committing murder...

To kill someone for committing murder is a punishment incomparably worse than the crime itself. Murder by legal sentence is immeasurably more terrible than murder by brigands.

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Part 1, Chapter 2
Philosophical Maxims
Walter Kaufmann
Walter Kaufmann
4 days ago
I agree with Paul that love...

I agree with Paul that love is more important than faith and hope; but so are honesty, integrity, and moral courage. The world needs less faith and more love and nobility.

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Preface
Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
3 months 1 week ago
The mind intent upon resolving as...

The mind intent upon resolving as well as compounding the concept of a composite demands and presumes boundaries in which it may acquiesce in the former as well as in the latter direction.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months ago
Since the only things we remember...

Since the only things we remember are humiliations and defeats, what is the use of all the rest?

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Philosophical Maxims
Martin Buber
Martin Buber
1 month 3 weeks ago
God ... demands everything, in order...

God ... demands everything, in order to give everything anew to him who loves Him, after that loving has truly given up all.

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p. 45
Philosophical Maxims
Robert Owen
Robert Owen
4 weeks ago
The advantage of pure, and the...

The advantage of pure, and the disadvantage of impure air are experienced each time we breathe, and all who understand the causes of disease know that an impure atmosphere is most unfavourable to the enjoyment of health, and an efficient cause to shorten human existence within the natural life of man. It is therefore most desirable that decisive measures should be devised and generally adopted to ensure to all a pure atmosphere, in which to live during their lives.

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3rd Part
Philosophical Maxims
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
2 months 4 weeks ago
A text is not a text...

A text is not a text unless it hides from the first comer, from the first glance, the law of its composition and the rules of its game. A text remains, moreover, forever imperceptible. Its law and its rules are not, however, harbored in the inaccessibility of a secret; it is simply that they can never be booked, in the present, into anything that could rigorously be called a perception.

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Plato's Pharmacy, intro
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3 months 4 days ago
Pass in, pass in, the angels...

Pass in, pass in, the angels say, In to the upper doors; Nor count compartments of the floors, But mount to Paradise By the stairway of surprise.

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Merlin, I, st. 2
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
3 months 5 days ago
The utilitarian doctrine is, that happiness...

The utilitarian doctrine is, that happiness is desirable, and the only thing desirable, as an end; all other things being only desirable as means to that end.

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Ch. 4
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
3 months 5 days ago
The most violent, mean and malignant...

The most violent, mean and malignant passions of the human breast, the Furies of private interest.

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Author's prefaces to the First Edition.
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months ago
In our fear, we are victims...

In our fear, we are victims of an aggression of the Future.

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Philosophical Maxims
Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
1 month 2 weeks ago
The Text is plural. Which is...

The Text is plural. Which is not simply to say that it has several meanings, but that it accomplishes the very plural of meaning: an irreducible (and not merely an acceptable) plural. The Text is not a co-existence of meanings but a passage, an overcrossing; thus it answers not to an interpretation, even a liberal one, but to an explosion, a dissemination.

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Proposition 4
Philosophical Maxims
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
3 months 3 days ago
Man's urge for change and his...

Man's urge for change and his need for stability have always balanced and checked each other, and our current vocabulary, which distinguishes between two factions, the progressives and the conservatives, indicates a state of affairs in which this balance has been thrown out of order. No civilization - the man-made artifact to house successive generations - would ever have been possible without a framework of stability, to provide the wherein for the flux of change. Foremost among the stabilizing factors, more enduring than customs, manners and traditions, are the legal systems that regulate our life in the world and our daily affairs with each other.

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"Civil Disobedience"
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
3 months 3 days ago
What seem our worst prayers may...

What seem our worst prayers may really be, in God's eyes, our best. Those, I mean, which are least supported by devotional feeling. For these may come from a deeper level than feeling. God sometimes seems to speak to us most intimately when he catches us, as it were, off our guard.

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Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
1 month 3 weeks ago
In fact, for a voluntarist like...

In fact, for a voluntarist like Schopenhauer, a theory so sanely and cautiously empirical and rational as that of Darwin, left out of account the inward force, the essential motive, of evolution. For what is, in effect, the hidden force, the ultimate agent, which impels organisms to perpetuate themselves and to fight for their persistence and propagation? Selection, adaptation, heredity, these are only external conditions. This inner, essential force has been called will on the supposition that there exists also in other beings that which we feel in ourselves as a feeling of will, the impulse to be everything, to be others as well as ourselves yet without ceasing to be what we are.

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Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
3 months 4 days ago
Of course I base my characters...

Of course I base my characters partly on the people I know-one can't escape it-but fictional characters are oversimplified; they're much less complex than the people one knows.

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Interview, The Paris Review, 1960
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
1 month 1 week ago
Yet sometimes vegetables and animals are,...

Yet sometimes vegetables and animals are, by certain epithets or circumstances, extended to other significations; as a Tree, when called the tree of life or of knowledge; and a Beast, when called the old serpent, or worshiped. When a Beast or Man is put for a kingdom, his parts and qualities are put for the analogous parts and qualities of the kingdom; as the head of a Beast, for the great men who precede and govern; the tail for the inferior people, who follow and are governed; the heads, if more than one, for the number of capital parts, or dynasties, or dominions in the kingdom, whether collateral or successive, with respect to the civil government; the horns on any head, for the number of kingdoms in that head, with respect to military power...

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Vol. I, Ch. 2: Of the Prophetic Language
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
3 months 4 days ago
Act as if what you do...

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

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Correspondence with Helen Keller, 1908, in The Correspondence of William James: April 1908-August 1910, Vol. 12
Philosophical Maxims
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