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Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
3 months 4 weeks ago
Quietism is the attitude of people...

Quietism is the attitude of people who say, "let others do what I cannot do." The doctrine I am presenting before you is precisely the opposite of this, since it declares that there is no reality except in action. It goes further, indeed, and adds, "Man is nothing else but what he purposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is." Hence we can well understand why some people are horrified by our teaching.

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p. 41
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
4 months 3 weeks ago
One recognizes one's course by discovering...

One recognizes one's course by discovering the paths that stray from it.

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Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 months 1 week ago
I began with a strong bias...

I began with a strong bias toward skepticism. Besides, to tell the truth, I still find occult phenomena a little preposterous and irrelevant. What do they really matter if you place them against the truly great human achievements - against the creative genius of a Michaelangelo, a Beethoven, an Einstein? In that context they seem almost trivial.

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p. 120
Philosophical Maxims
Auguste Comte
Auguste Comte
3 months 4 days ago
Foreknowledge is power....

Foreknowledge is power.

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As quoted in A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (1991) by Alan Lindsay Mackay
Philosophical Maxims
Epictetus
Epictetus
4 months 2 weeks ago
The propositions which are true and...

The propositions which are true and evident must of necessity be employed even by those who contradict them.

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Book II, ch. 20, 1
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
2 months 3 weeks ago
"Fact be vertuous, or vicious, as...

Fact be vertuous, or vicious, as Fortune pleaseth.

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The Second Part, Chapter 27, p. 153
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
3 months 4 weeks ago
I mistrust illuminations: what we take...

I mistrust illuminations: what we take for a discovery is very often only a familiar thought that we have not recognized.

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p. 439
Philosophical Maxims
Hilary Putnam
Hilary Putnam
2 months 1 week ago
On another possible world or another...

On another possible world or another planet a word might be associated with much the same stereotype and much the same criteria as our term 'water', but it might designate XYZ and not H₂O. At least this could happen in a prescientific era. And it would not follow that XYZ was water; it would only follow that XYZ could look like water, taste like water, etc. What 'water' refers to depends on the actual nature of the paradigms, not just on what is in our heads.

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Language and Reality
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
3 weeks 4 days ago
Therefore tolerance of diversity, of people...

Therefore tolerance of diversity, of people that don't believe the same thing that you do, has always been at the core of this pragmatic project to enable diverse populations to live with one another.

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9:00
Philosophical Maxims
Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
2 months 1 week ago
Man's life cannot "be lived" by...

Man's life cannot "be lived" by repeating the pattern of his species; he must live. Man is the only animal that can be bored, that can be discontented, that can feel evicted from paradise. Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape. He cannot go back to the prehuman state of harmony with nature; he must proceed to develop his reason until he becomes the master of nature, and of himself.

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Ch. 3 "Human Nature and Character
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
4 months 3 weeks ago
What must be remembered in any...

What must be remembered in any case is that secret complicity that joins the logical and the everyday to the tragic.

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Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
4 months 2 weeks ago
So the Church too, like Mary,...

So the Church too, like Mary, enjoys perpetual virginity and uncorrupted fecundity.

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195:2
Philosophical Maxims
Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton
1 month 3 weeks ago
Faith exalts the human heart, by...

Faith exalts the human heart, by removing it from the market-place, making it sacred and unexchangeable. Under the jurisdiction of religion our deeper feelings are sacralized, so as to become raw material for the ethical life: the life lived in judgement.

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"Avant-garde and Kitsch" (p. 91)
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 3 weeks ago
Music is everything. God himself is...

Music is everything. God himself is nothing more than an acoustic hallucination.

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Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
2 months 2 weeks ago
Suffering is a spiritual thing. It...

Suffering is a spiritual thing. It is the most immediate revelation of consciousness, and it may be that our body was given us simply in order that suffering might be enabled to manifest itself. A man who had never known suffering, either in greater or less degree, would scarcely possess consciousness of himself. The child first cries at birth when the air, entering into his lungs and limiting him, seems to say to him: You have to breathe me in order to live!

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Philosophical Maxims
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
4 months 4 days ago
He who seeks equality between unequals...

He who seeks equality between unequals seeks an absurdity.

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Ch. 9, Of Aristocracy, Continuation
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
3 weeks ago
Consider how, even in the meanest...

Consider how, even in the meanest sorts of Labour, the whole soul of a man is composed into a kind of real harmony, the instant he sets himself to work! Doubt, Desire, Sorrow, Remorse, Indignation, Despair itself, all these like helldogs lie beleaguering the soul of the poor dayworker, as of every man: but he bends himself with free valour against his task, and all these are stilled, all these shrink murmuring far off into their caves. The man is now a man. The blessed glow of Labour in him, is it not as purifying fire, wherein all poison is burnt up, and of sour smoke itself there is made bright blessed flame!

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Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
4 months 2 days ago
Though the Earth, and all inferior...

Though the Earth, and all inferior Creatures be common to all Men, yet every Man has a Property in his own Person. Thus no Body has any Right to but himself.

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Second Treatise of Government, Ch. V, sec. 27
Philosophical Maxims
Emperor Julian
Emperor Julian
1 week 2 days ago
The end and aim of the...

The end and aim of the Cynic philosophy, as indeed of every philosophy, is happiness, but happiness that consists in living according to nature, and not according to the opinions of the multitude.

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Oration to the Uneducated Cynics
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
2 months 3 weeks ago
Consider what effects that might conceivably...

Consider what effects that might conceivably have practical bearings you conceive the objects of your conception to have. Then, your conception of those effects is the whole of your conception of the object.

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Vol. V, par. 438
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
4 months 1 week ago
For my own part, I cannot...

For my own part, I cannot without grief see so much as an innocent beast pursued and killed that has no defence, and from which we have received no offence at all.

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Ch. 11, tr. Cotton, 1685
Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
3 months 4 days ago
Poetry must have something in it...

Poetry must have something in it that is barbaric, vast and wild.

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Philosophical Maxims
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
1 month 3 weeks ago
For my part, I travel not...

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.

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Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1878).
Philosophical Maxims
David Wood
David Wood
1 month 1 week ago
Nietzsche's problem is how to be...

Nietzsche's problem is how to be a philosopher once he has grasped the finitude of philosophy.

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Chapter 5, Nietzsche's Styles, p. 96
Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
3 months 1 week ago
If he is not Nature herself,...

If he is not Nature herself, he is certainly the nature of Nature, and is the soul of the Soul of the world, if he is not the soul herself.

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As translated by Arthur Imerti
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
4 months 1 week ago
Dear rulers ... I maintain that...

Dear rulers ... I maintain that the civil authorities are under obligation to compel the people to send their children to school. ... If the government can compel such citizens as are fit for military service to bear spear and rifle, to mount ramparts, and perform other martial duties in time of war, how much more has it a right to compel the people to send their children to school, because in this case we are warring with the devil, whose object it is secretly to exhaust our cities and principalities of their strong men.

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letter to the German rulers (1524), as quoted in The History of Compulsory Education in New England, John William Perrin, 1896
Philosophical Maxims
John Gray
John Gray
1 month 1 week ago
No doubt markets transmit information in...

No doubt markets transmit information in the way that Hayek claimed. But what reason is there to believe that - unlike any other social institution - they have a built-in capacity to correct their mistakes? History hardly supports the supposition. Moods of irrational exuberance and panic can, and often do, swamp the price-discovery functions of markets.

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Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
2 months 2 weeks ago
I too have a growing inner...

I too have a growing inner certainty that there is a deposit of pure gold in me which ought to be passed on. The trouble is that I am more and more convinced by my experience and observation of my contemporaries that there is no one to receive it.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 month ago
How close men....
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Main Content / General
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
2 months 3 weeks ago
The preposterous distinction of rank, which...

The preposterous distinction of rank, which render civilization a curse, by dividing the world between voluptuous tyrants and cunning envious dependents, corrupt, almost equally, every class of people, because respectability is not attached to the discharge of the relative duties of life, but to the station, and when the duties are not fulfilled, the affections cannot gain sufficient strength to fortify the virtue of which they are the natural reward. Still there are some loop-holes out of which a man may creep, and dare to think and act for himself; but for a woman it is an herculean task, because she has difficulties peculiar to her sex to overcome, which require almost super-human powers.

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Ch. 9
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
2 months ago
My reason will still not understand...

My reason will still not understand why I pray, but I shall still pray, and my life, my whole life, independently of anything that may happen to me, is every moment of it no longer meaningless as it was before, but has an unquestionable meaning of goodness with which I have the power to invest it.

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Pt. VIII, ch. 19
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
4 months 4 days ago
If the importation of foreign cattle,...

If the importation of foreign cattle, for example, were made ever so free, so few could be imported, that the grazing trade of Great Britain could be little affected by it. Live cattle are, perhaps, the only commodity of which the transportation is more expensive by sea than by land.

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Chapter II
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
2 months 3 weeks ago
The discussion of the sexual problem...

The discussion of the sexual problem is only a somewhat crude prelude to a far deeper question, and that is the question of the psychological relationship between the sexes. In comparison with this the other pales into insignificance, and with it we enter the real domain of woman. Woman's psychology is founded on the principle of Eros, the great binder and loosener, whereas from ancient times the ruling principle ascribed to man is Logos.

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P.254
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
4 months 3 weeks ago
I believe that every human being...

I believe that every human being with a physically normal brain can learn a great deal and can be surprisingly intellectual. I believe that what we badly need is social approval of learning and social rewards for learning.We can all be members of the intellectual elite and then, and only then, will a phrase like "America's right to know" and, indeed, any true concept of democracy, have any meaning.

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Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
2 months 3 weeks ago
For lack of empirical data I...

For lack of empirical data I have neither knowledge nor understanding of such forms of being, which are commonly called spiritual. ...Nevertheless, we have good reason to suppose that behind this veil there exists the uncomprehended absolute object which affects and influences us-and to suppose it even, or particularly, in the case of psychic phenomena about which no verifiable statements can be made.

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p.351
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months 1 day ago
In democratic countries, the most important...

In democratic countries, the most important private organizations are economic. Unlike secret societies, they are able to exercize their terrorism without illegality, since they do not threaten to kill their enemies, but only to starve them.

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Ch. 12: Powers and forms of governments
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
2 months 3 days ago
Our design, not respecting arts, but...

Our design, not respecting arts, but philosophy, and our subject, not manual, but natural powers, we consider chiefly those things which relate to gravity, levity, elastic force, the resistance of fluids, and the like forces, whether attractive or impulsive; and therefore we offer this work as mathematical principles of philosophy; for all the difficulty of philosophy seems to consist in this - from the phenomena of motions to investigate the forces of nature, and then from these forces to demonstrate the other phenomena...

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Preface
Philosophical Maxims
Emperor Julian
Emperor Julian
1 week 2 days ago
But how many are the final...

But how many are the final causes of union, the most beautiful, which this deity contains within himself? The Sun, that is, Apollo, is "Leader of the Muses;" and inasmuch as he completes our life with good order, he produces in the world Æsculapius; for even before the world was, he had the latter by his side. But were one to discuss the numerous other qualities belonging to this god, he would never arrive to the end of them.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months 1 day ago
"I don't want to! Why should...

"I don't want to! Why should I?" "Because more people will be happier if you do than if you don't." "So what? I don't care about other people." "You should." "But why?" "Because more people will be happier if you do than if you don't."

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Dialogue between Russell and his daughter Katharine, as quoted in My Father - Bertrand Russell, 1975
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
4 months 2 days ago
I cannot guess what may be...

I cannot guess what may be the fate of Quakerism in America; but I perceive it loses ground daily in England. In all countries, where the established religion is of a mild and tolerating nature, it will at length swallow up all the rest.

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Philosophical Maxims
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
2 months 3 weeks ago
I am a strange compound of...

I am a strange compound of weakness and resolution! However, if I must suffer, I will endeavour to suffer in silence. There is certainly a great defect in my mind - my wayward heart creates its own misery - Why I am made thus I cannot tell; and, till I can form some idea of the whole of my existence, I must be content to weep and dance like a child - long for a toy, and be tired of it as soon as I get it.

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Undated letter to Joseph Johnson (October? 1792), published in The Collected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft (2004), edited by Janet Todd, p. 206.
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2 months 1 week ago
It is almost impossible to bear...

It is almost impossible to bear the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard. G 4 Variant translations: It is almost impossible to carry the torch of wisdom through a crowd without singeing someone's beard. It is virtually impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd, without singeing someone's beard

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 3 weeks ago
Someday the old shack we call...

Someday the old shack we call the world will fall apart. How, we don't know, and we don't really care either. Since nothing has real substance, and life is a twirl in the void, its beginning and its end are meaningless.

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Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
4 months ago
Nothing is so fatiguing as the...

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

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To Carl Stumpf, 1 January 1886
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
2 months 3 weeks ago
Equally there is no rhythm when...

Equally there is no rhythm when variations are not placed. There is a wealth of suggestions in the phrase "takes place". The change not only comes but it belongs; it had its definite place in a larger whole.

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p. 160
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
4 months 1 week ago
The thing I fear….

The thing I fear most is fear.

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Ch. 18. That Men are not to judge of our Happiness till after Death (tr. Donald M. Frame)
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert A. Simon
Herbert A. Simon
2 months 1 week ago
Organizations and institutions permit stable expectations...

Organizations and institutions permit stable expectations to be formed by each member of the group as to the behavior of the other members under specified conditions.

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p. 100.
Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
Just now
[W]e can ascend to remote periods...

[W]e can ascend to remote periods by a chain of causes, but in none can we ascend to a 'beginning' of the chain.

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Philosophical Maxims
Max Stirner
Max Stirner
2 weeks 1 day ago
Every love to which there clings...

Every love to which there clings but the smallest speck of obligation is an unselfish love, and, so far as this speck reaches, a possessedness. He who believes that he owes the object of his love anything loves romantically or religiously.

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Cambridge 1995, p. 260
Philosophical Maxims
Max Stirner
Max Stirner
2 weeks 1 day ago
If one awakens in men the...

If one awakens in men the idea of freedom then the free men will incessantly go on to free themselves; if on the contrary, one only educates them, then they will at all times accommodate themselves to circumstance in the most highly educated and elegant manner and degenerate into subservient cringing souls.

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p. 23
Philosophical Maxims
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