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C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
4 months 2 weeks ago
Love may forgive all infirmities and...

Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month 1 week ago
Enjoying things which are pleasant; that...

Enjoying things which are pleasant; that is not the evil: it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.

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Philosophical Maxims
Susan Neiman
Susan Neiman
2 months 1 week ago
The picture of modern philosophy as...

The picture of modern philosophy as centered in epistemology and driven by the desire to ground our representations is so tenacious that some philosophers are prepared to bite the bullet and declare the effort simply wasted. Rorty, for example, finds it easier to reject modern philosophy altogether than to reject the standard accounts of its history. His narrative is more polemical than most, but it's a polemical version of the story told in most philosophy departments in the second half of the twentieth century. The story is one of tortuously decreasing interest. Philosophy, like some people, was prepared to accept boredom in exchange for certainty as it grew to middle age.

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Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
3 months 2 weeks ago
Third, consider the insistency of an...

Third, consider the insistency of an idea. The insistency of a past idea with reference to the present is a quantity which is less, the further back that past idea is, and rises to infinity as the past idea is brought up into coincidence with the present.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
3 weeks ago
There are extraordinary situations which require...

There are extraordinary situations which require extraordinary interposition. An exasperated people, who feel that they possess power, are not easily restrained within limits strictly regular.

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Philosophical Maxims
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
1 month 6 days ago
Life is to be fortified by...

Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love, and to be loved, is the greatest happiness of existence. If I lived under the burning sun of the equator, it would be a pleasure to me to think that there were many human beings on the other side of the world who regarded and respected me; I could and would not live if I were alone upon the earth, and cut off from the remembrance of my fellow-creatures. It is not that a man has occasion often to fall back upon the kindness of his friends; perhaps he may never experience the necessity of doing so; but we are governed by our imaginations, and they stand there as a solid and impregnable bulwark against all the evils of life.

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Vol. I, ch. 6, "Of Friendship", p. 178
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
5 months 3 weeks ago
When one merely states that one...

When one merely states that one has many subscribers and keeps on saying it, then one gets many; just as when one sheep goes to water, the next one also goes, and when it is continually said of a large flock of sheep that they go hither and yon to water, then the rest must also go, so people believe that it must be the demand of the times, that for the sake of use and custom, they must also subscribe.

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Philosophical Maxims
Alan Watts
Alan Watts
1 month 2 days ago
Doctors try to get rid of...

Doctors try to get rid of their patients - clergymen try to get them hooked on the medicine so that they will become addicts to the church.

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Philosophical Maxims
Robert Owen
Robert Owen
2 months 2 weeks ago
All the measures now proposed are...

All the measures now proposed are only a compromise with the errors of the present systems; but as these errors now almost universally exist, and must be overcome solely by the force of reason; and as reason, to effect the most beneficial purposes, makes her advance by slow degrees, and progressively substantiates one truth of high import after another, it will be evident, to minds of comprehensive and accurate thought, that by these and similar compromises alone can success be rationally expected in practice. For such compromises bring truth and error before the public; and whenever they are fairly exhibited together, truth must ultimately prevail.

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Philosophical Maxims
Avicenna
Avicenna
5 months 1 week ago
God, the supreme being, is neither...

God, the supreme being, is neither circumscribed by space, nor touched by time; he cannot be found in a particular direction, and his essence cannot change. The secret conversation is thus entirely spiritual; it is a direct encounter between God and the soul, abstracted from all material constraints.

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Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
2 weeks 4 days ago
Whatsoever any man either doth or...

Whatsoever any man either doth or saith, thou must be good; not for any man's sake, but for thine own nature's sake; as if either gold, or the emerald, or purple, should ever be saying to themselves, Whatsoever any man either doth or saith, I must still be an emerald, and I must keep my colour.

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VII, 12
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 weeks 1 day ago
For no fact...
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Main Content / General
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean Jacques Rousseau
4 months 3 weeks ago
I know my heart, and have...

I know my heart, and have studied mankind; I am not made like any one I have been acquainted with, perhaps like no one in existence; if not better, I at least claim originality, and whether Nature did wisely in breaking the mould with which she formed me, can only be determined after having read this work. 

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Variant translations: I may not be better than other people, but at least I am different. If I am not better, at least I am different.
Philosophical Maxims
Max Stirner
Max Stirner
1 month 1 week ago
Political freedom means this: that the...

Political freedom means this: that the polis, the state, is free; religious freedom this: that religion is free, just as freedom of conscience indicates that conscience is free; thus, it does not that I am free from state, from religion, from conscience, or that I am rid of them. It does not mean my freedom, but the freedom of a power that rules and vanquishes me; it means that one of my oppressors, like state, religion, conscience, is free.

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Landstreicher, p. 76
Philosophical Maxims
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
4 months 2 weeks ago
The case of the conscience of...

The case of the conscience of Eichmann, which is admittedly complicated but is by no means unique, is scarcely comparable to the case of the German generals, one of whom, when asked at Nuremberg, "How was it possible that all of you honorable generals could continue to serve a murderer with such unquestioning loyalty?," replied that it was "not the task of a soldier to act as judge over his supreme commander. Let history do that or God in Heaven."

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Ch. VIII
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 months 2 weeks ago
Skepticism is the sadism of embittered...

Skepticism is the sadism of embittered souls.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
3 weeks ago
A little patience, and we shall...

A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.

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From a letter to John Taylor (June 1798), after the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
4 months 2 weeks ago
The history of science, like the...

The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of the very few human activities - perhaps the only one - in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected. This is why we can say that, in science, we often learn from our mistakes, and why we can speak clearly and sensibly about making progress there.

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Ch. 1 "Science : Conjectures and Refutations"
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
4 months 2 weeks ago
According to Christian teachers, the essential...

According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

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Book III, Chapter 8, "The Great Sin"
Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
4 months 3 weeks ago
I freely admit that the remembrance...

I freely admit that the remembrance of David Hume was the very thing that many years ago first interrupted my dogmatic slumber and gave a completely different direction to my researches in the field of speculative philosophy.

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Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
4 months 3 weeks ago
It makes a tremendous emotional and...

It makes a tremendous emotional and practical difference to one whether one accepts the universe in the drab discolored way of stoic resignation to necessity, or with the passionate happiness of Christian saints.

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Lecture II, "Circumscription of the Topic"
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
3 months 4 days ago
It may seem to be a...

It may seem to be a long way from Blake's innocent talk of love and copulation to De Sade's need to inflict pain. And yet both are the outcome of a sexual mysticism that strives to transcend the everyday world. Simone de Beauvoir said penetratingly of De Sade's work that 'he is trying to communicate an experience whose distinguishing characteristic is, nevertheless its will to remain incommunicable'. De Sade's perversion may have sprung from his dislike of his mother or of other women, but its basis is a kind of distorted religious emotion.

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p. 90
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Rorty
Richard Rorty
4 months 1 week ago
Philosophers get attention only when they...

Philosophers get attention only when they appear to be doing something sinister-corrupting the youth, undermining the foundations of civilization, sneering at all we hold dear. The rest of the time everybody assumes that they are hard at work somewhere down in the sub-basement, keeping those foundations in good repair. Nobody much cares what brand of intellectual duct tape is being used.

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"Philosophical Convictions." The Nation, June 14, 2004.
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
5 months 3 weeks ago
The advantage of a bad memory...
The advantage of a bad memory is that one can enjoy the same good things for the first time several times.
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Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
4 months 3 weeks ago
For in every country of the...

For in every country of the world, I believe, the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished the real quantity of metal, which had been originally contained in their coins.

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Chapter IV, p. 34.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month 1 week ago
I plead guilty to valuing such...

I plead guilty to valuing such a man beyond all other sorts of men. Smooth-shaven Respectabilities not a few one finds, that are not good for much. Small thanks to a man for keeping his hands clean, who would not touch the work but with gloves on!

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Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
4 months 3 weeks 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
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
4 months 3 weeks ago
To what shall the character of...

To what shall the character of utility be ascribed, if not to that which is a source of pleasure?

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Théorie des peines et des récompenses (1811); translation by Richard Smith, The Rationale of Reward, J. & H. L. Hunt, London, 1825, Bk. 3, Ch. 1
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Rorty
Richard Rorty
4 months 1 week ago
Almost as soon as I began...

Almost as soon as I began to study philosophy, I was impressed by the way in which philosophical problems appeared, disappeared, or changed shape, as a result of new assumptions or vocabularies.

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Preface
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
5 months ago
The cause and root of nearly...

The cause and root of nearly all evils in the sciences is this - that while we falsely admire and extol the powers of the human mind we neglect to seek for its true helps.

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Aphorism 9
Philosophical Maxims
David Pearce
David Pearce
2 months ago
It's not that there are no...

It's not that there are no differences between human and non-human animals, any more than there are no differences between black people and white people, freeborn citizens and slaves, men and women, Jews and gentiles, gays or heterosexuals. The question is rather: are they morally relevant differences? This matters because morally catastrophic consequences can ensue when we latch on to a real but morally irrelevant difference between sentient beings.

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"The Abolitionist Project", Talks given at the FHI (Oxford University) and the Charity International Happiness Conference, 2007
Philosophical Maxims
Robert Owen
Robert Owen
2 months 2 weeks ago
Is it not the interest of...

Is it not the interest of the human race, that every one should be so taught and placed, that he would find his highest enjoyment to arise from the continued practice of doing all in his power to promote the well-being, and happiness, of every man, woman, and child, without regard to their class, sect, party, country or colour?

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Paper Dedicated to the Governments of Great Britain, Austria, Russia, France, Prussia and the United States of America (1841) 17th of "20 Questions to the Human Race"
Philosophical Maxims
Julius Evola
Julius Evola
4 weeks 1 day ago
One of the commonplaces of modern...

One of the commonplaces of modern historiography is the polemical exaltation of the civilization of the Renaissance over and against medieval civilization. This is not just the expression of a typical misunderstanding, since this mentality is the effect of one among the innumerable deceptions purposely spread in modern culture by the leaders of global subversion. The truth is that after the collapse of the ancient world, if there ever was a civilization that deserves the name of Renaissance, this was the civilization of the Middle Ages. In its objectivity, its virile spirit, its hierarchical structure, its proud antihumanistic simplicity so often permeated by the sense of the sacred, the Middle Ages represented a return to the origins.

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p.309
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
3 months 3 weeks ago
The first and the simplest emotion...

The first and the simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind is Curiosity.

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Part I Section I
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
4 months 3 weeks ago
Compassion for animals is intimately connected...

Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he, who is cruel to living creatures, cannot be a good man. Moreover, this compassion manifestly flows from the same source whence arise the virtues of justice and loving-kindness towards men.

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Part III, Ch. VIII, 7, p. 223
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
5 months 2 weeks ago
The rest of the story, to...

The rest of the story, to Grand's thinking, was very simple. The common lot of married couples. You get married, you go on loving a bit longer, you work. And you work so hard that it makes you forget to love.

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Philosophical Maxims
Hermann Weyl
Hermann Weyl
1 month 1 day ago
In the field of philosophy Kant...

In the field of philosophy Kant was the first to take the next decisive step towards the point of view that not only the qualities revealed by the senses, but also space and spatial characteristics have no objective significance in the absolute sense; in other words, that space, too, is only a form of our perception.

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Introduction
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 months 3 weeks ago
I'm prepared....

I'm prepared to teach acceptance of religion, but, religion has to agree to the social contract. If we have to do it church by church, I'm ready.

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Philosophical Maxims
Gaston Bachelard
Gaston Bachelard
3 months 2 weeks ago
Poetry is one of the destinies...

Poetry is one of the destinies of speech.... One would say that the poetic image, in its newness, opens a future to language.

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Introduction, sect. 2
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
5 months 2 weeks ago
The direction of the world overwhelms...

The direction of the world overwhelms me at this time. In the long run, all the continents (yellow, black and brown) will spill over onto Old Europe. They are hundreds and hundreds of millions. They are hungry and they are not afraid to die. We no longer know how to die or how to kill. We could preach, but Europe believes in nothing. So, we must wait for the year 1000 or a miracle. For my part, I find it harder and harder to live before a wall.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months 3 weeks ago
Brief and powerless is Man's life;...

Brief and powerless is Man's life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark.

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Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
3 months 2 weeks ago
The entire universe is perfused with...

The entire universe is perfused with signs, if it is not composed exclusively of signs.

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Quoted in Essays in Zoosemiotics (1990) by Thomas A. Sebeok
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
4 months 4 weeks ago
He that I am reading seems...

He that I am reading seems always to have the most force.

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Book II, Ch. 12. Apology for Raimond Sebond
Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
3 weeks ago
Attractions take place between bodies, affinities...

Attractions take place between bodies, affinities between the particles of a body. The former may be compared to the alliances of states, the latter to the ties of family.

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Philosophical Maxims
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry
3 weeks ago
Wars have never made peace or...

Wars have never made peace or preserved it or fostered its ideals. To have peace you must make peace with your enemy. To make peace only with your friends is to avoid the issue, and to permit a great principle to become absurd. Far from making peace, wars invariably serve as classrooms and laboratories where men and techniques and states of mind are prepared for the next war.

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"A Statement against the War in Vietnam"
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
4 months 4 weeks ago
If it were art to overcome...

If it were art to overcome heresy with fire, the executioners would be the most learned doctors on earth.

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To the Christian Nobility of the German States (1520), translated by Charles M. Jacobs, reported in rev. James Atkinson, The Christian in Society, I (Luther's Works, ed. James Atkinson, vol. 44), p. 207
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
4 months 2 weeks ago
To be ignorant of the past...

To be ignorant of the past is to remain a child.

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Cicero
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
4 months 2 weeks ago
What is the case, the fact,...

What is the case, the fact, is the existence of atomic facts.

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(2) Original German: Was der Fall ist, die Tatsache, ist das Bestehen von Sachverhalten.
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
4 months 3 weeks ago
The law will never make men...

The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.

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"Slavery in Massachusetts", 1854
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
4 months 3 weeks ago
However hard they try, men cannot...

However hard they try, men cannot create a social organism, they can only create an organization. In the process of trying to create an organism they will merely create a totalitarian despotism.

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Chapter 3 (p. 24)
Philosophical Maxims
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