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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
4 months 1 week ago
Man loves company - even if...

Man loves company - even if it is only that of a small burning candle.

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K 40
Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
3 months 3 weeks ago
He who is bent on doing...

He who is bent on doing evil can never want occasion.

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Maxim 459
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
6 months 3 weeks ago
In Oran, as elsewhere, for want...

In Oran, as elsewhere, for want of time and thought, people have to love one another without knowing it.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
4 months 1 day ago
Almost anything...
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Main Content / General
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
1 month 2 weeks ago
We Jews have been too...

We Jews have been too adaptable. We have been too eager to sacrifice our idiosyncrasies for the sake of social conformity. ... Even in modern civilization, the Jew is most happy if he remains a Jew.

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Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
6 months 4 weeks ago
To become sober is: to come...

To become sober is: to come to oneself in self-knowledge and before God as nothing before him, yet infinitely, unconditionally engaged.

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Philosophical Maxims
Mozi
Mozi
2 months 6 days ago
The purpose of the magnanimous is...

The purpose of the magnanimous is to be found in procuring benefits for the world and eliminating its calamities. ... Mutual attacks among states, mutual usurpation among houses, mutual injuries among individuals; the lack of grace and loyalty between ruler and ruled, the lack of affection and filial piety between father and son, the lack of harmony between elder and younger brothers - these are the major calamities in the world.

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Book 4; Universal Love II
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
5 months 3 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
Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard
4 months 1 day ago
"The Precession of Simulacra," p. 6

"The Precession of Simulacra,"

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p. 6
Philosophical Maxims
David Wood
David Wood
3 months 1 week ago
After Hegel, philosophy confronts the possibility...

After Hegel, philosophy confronts the possibility of its own death, and in some sense has to do so if it is to remain the most fundamental kind of thinking.

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Chapter 4, Philosophy As Writing: The Case Of Hegel, p. 88
Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
4 months 2 weeks ago
Every moment celebrates obsequies over the...

Every moment celebrates obsequies over the virtues of its predecessor.

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Ch. XIV
Philosophical Maxims
Henri Poincaré
Henri Poincaré
2 months 3 weeks ago
There is no science apart from...

There is no science apart from the general. It may even be said that the very object of the exact sciences is to spare us these direct verifications.

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Ch. I. (1905) Tr. George Bruce Halstead
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 4 weeks ago
One must care about a world...

One must care about a world one will not see.

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Attributed to Russell in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations (1997), p. 450, and in Robertson's Dictionary of Quotations (1998), p. 362, but no specific source is given.
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
5 months 3 weeks ago
One might say: art shows us...

One might say: art shows us the miracles of nature. It is based on the concept of the miracles of nature.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
4 months 2 weeks ago
“What man among you with 100...

“What man among you with 100 sheep, on losing one of them, will not leave the 99 behind in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he has found it, he puts it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he gets home, he calls his friends and his neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous ones who have no need of repentance.

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Luke 15: 4-7
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
2 months 3 weeks ago
While Trump is not going to...

While Trump is not going to be president, Trumpism is going to survive. ...The Democrats need to look very very carefully at those election results because ...the Republicans did well not necessarily because people love what they represent, but because they don't like what the Democrats represent... Unless they sort out what that is, they are going to continue to lose elections.

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28:52:00
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
4 months 1 week ago
I believe government, organized authority, or...

I believe government, organized authority, or the State is necessary only to maintain or protect property and monopoly. It has proven efficient in that function only. As a promoter of individual liberty, human well-being and social harmony, which alone constitute real order, government stands condemned by all the great men of the world...I believe - indeed, I know - that whatever is fine and beautiful in the human expresses and asserts itself in spite of government, and not because of it.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 4 weeks ago
Men are what their mothers made...

Men are what their mothers made them.

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Fate
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
4 months 2 weeks ago
For Warre, consisteth not in Battell...

For Warre, consisteth not in Battell onely, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to contend by Battell is sufficiently known: and therefore the notion of Time, is to be considered in the nature of Warre; as it is in the nature of Weather.

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The First Part, Chapter 13, p. 62
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
6 months 6 days ago
Man is certainly crazy...

Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.

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Ch. 12
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
5 months 3 days ago
Americans of all ages, all stations...

Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations... In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.

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Book Two, Chapter V.
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
5 months 4 weeks ago
If conquest constitutes a natural right...

If conquest constitutes a natural right on the part of the few, the many have only to gather sufficient strength in order to acquire the natural right of reconquering what has been taken from them.

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The Abolition of Landed Property Letter to Robert Applegarth, 3 December 1869
Philosophical Maxims
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre
1 month 3 weeks ago
Never have nations been civilized, except...

Never have nations been civilized, except by religion.

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XXXIII, p. 99
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
4 months 2 weeks ago
Saint-Simon, like Hegel, begins with the...

Saint-Simon, like Hegel, begins with the assertion that the social order engendered by the French Revolution proved that mankind has reached the adult state. In contrast to Hegel, however, he described this stage primarily in terms of its economy; the industrial process was the sole integrating factor in the new social order.

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P. 330
Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
3 months 3 weeks ago
Poverty is the lack…

Poverty is the lack of many things, but avarice is the lack of all things.

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Maxim 236
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
4 months 4 weeks ago
Time: That which man is always...

Time: That which man is always trying to kill, but which ends in killing him.

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Definitions, as quoted in The Dictionary of Essential Quotations (1983) by Kevin Goldstein-Jackson, p. 154
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
1 month 4 weeks ago
Cries rise up on every side....

Cries rise up on every side. Who shouts? It is we who shout - the living, the dead, and the unborn. But at once we are crushed by fear, and we fall silent. And then we forget - out of laziness, out of habit, out of cowardice. But suddenly the Cry tears at our entrails once more, like an eagle. For the Cry is not outside us, it does not come from a great distance that we may escape it. It sits in the center of our hearts, and cries out. God shouts: "Burn your houses! I am coming! Whoever has a house cannot receive me! "Burn your ideas, smash your thoughts! Whoever has found the solution cannot find me."

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Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
6 months 3 weeks ago
The welfare of the people in...

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience. It would be easy, however, to destroy that good conscience by shouting to them: if you want the happiness of the people, let them speak out and tell what kind of happiness they want and what kind they don't want! But, in truth, the very ones who make use of such alibis know they are lies; they leave to their intellectuals on duty the chore of believing in them and of proving that religion, patriotism, and justice need for their survival the sacrifice of freedom.

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Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
4 months 2 weeks ago
The Great Beast is the only...

The Great Beast is the only object of idolatry, the only ersatz of God, the only imitation of something which is infinitely far from me and which is I myself.

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p. 121; footnote in Gravity and Grace
Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
6 months 1 week ago
In a quarrel for earth, turn...

In a quarrel for earth, turn not to earth.

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First Homily, as translated by John Burnaby (1955), p. 267
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
3 months 3 weeks ago
One feature of our own society...

One feature of our own society that seems decidedly anomalous is the matter of sexual advertisement. As we have seen, it is strongly to be expected on evolutionary grounds that, where the sexes differ, it should be the males that advertise and the females that are drab. Modern western man is undoubtedly exceptional in this respect. It is of course true that some men dress flamboyantly and some women dress drably but, on average, there can be no doubt that in our society the equivalent of the peacock's tail is exhibited by the female, not by the male. Women paint their faces and glue on false eyelashes. Apart from special cases, like actors, men do not. Ch. 9. Battle of the Sexes

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
2 months 2 weeks ago
Our grand business undoubtedly is, not...

Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

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Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Hölderlin
Friedrich Hölderlin
4 months 4 weeks ago
What has always made the state...

What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it heaven.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard
4 months 1 day ago
Dying is nothing. You have to...

Dying is nothing. You have to know how to disappear. Dying comes down to a biological chance and that is of no consequence. Disappearing is of a far higher order of necessity. You must not leave it to biology to decide when you will disappear. To disappear is to pass into an enigmatic state which is neither life nor death. Some animals know how to do this, as do savages, who withdraw while still alive, from the sight of their own people.

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Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
5 months 2 days ago
Bad company is as instructive as...

Bad company is as instructive as licentiousness. One makes up for the loss of one's innocence with the loss of one's prejudices.

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Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
3 months 3 weeks ago
The patient typically finds himself impelled...

The patient typically finds himself impelled by some deep, inner conviction that something is true, or right, or virtuous: a conviction that doesn't seem to owe anything to evidence or reason, but which, nevertheless, he feels as totally compelling and convincing. We doctors refer to such a belief as "faith".

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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
5 months 3 weeks ago
I think so badly of philosophy...

I think so badly of philosophy that I don't like to talk about it. ... I do not want to say anything bad about my dear colleagues, but the profession of teacher of philosophy is a ridiculous one. We don't need a thousand of trained, and badly trained, philosophers - it is very silly. Actually most of them have nothing to say.

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As quoted in "At 90, and Still Dynamic : Revisiting Sir Karl Popper and Attending His Birthday Party" by Eugene Yue-Ching Ho, in Intellectus 23
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
3 months 3 weeks ago
Any new technology is an evolutionary...

Any new technology is an evolutionary and biological mutation opening doors of perception and new spheres of action to mankind.

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(p. 67)
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Simmel
Georg Simmel
2 months 1 week ago
Man is something that is to...

Man is something that is to be overcome.Logically considered, this, too, presents a contradiction: he who overcomes himself is admittedly the victor, but he is also the defeated. The ego succumbs to itself, when it wins; it achieves victory, when it suffers defeat. Yet the contradiction only arises when the two aspects of this unity are hardened into opposed, mutually exclusive conceptions. It is precisely the fully unified process of the moral life which overcomes and surpasses every lower state by achieving a higher one, and again transcends this latter state through one still higher. That man overcomes himself means that he reaches out beyond the bounds that the moment sets for him. There must be something at hand to be overcome, but it is only there in order to be overcome. Thus even as an ethical agent, man is the limited being that has no limit.

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p. 5-6 part of the first essay "Life as Transcendence"
Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
5 months 2 weeks ago
For a man petticoat government is...

For a man petticoat government is the limit of insolence.

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Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
3 months 3 weeks ago
There's nothing nonsensical about saying that...

There's nothing nonsensical about saying that what would evolve if Darwinian selection has its head is something that you don't want to happen. And I could easily imagine trying to go against Darwinism.

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Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months 3 weeks ago
Unfortunately not only were the rulers,...

Unfortunately not only were the rulers, who were considered supernatural beings, benefited by having the peoples in subjection, but as a result of the belief in, and during the rule of, these pseudodivine beings, ever larger and larger circles of people grouped and established themselves around them, and under an appearance of governing took advantage of the people. And when the old deception of a supernatural and God-appointed authority had dwindled away these men were only concerned to devise a new one which like its predecessor should make it possible to hold the people in bondage to a limited number of rulers.

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III
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
6 months 2 weeks ago
By extensively studying all learning, and...

By extensively studying all learning, and keeping himself under the restraint of the rules of propriety, one may thus likewise not err from what is right.

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Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
6 months ago
Faith consists…

Faith consists in believing what reason cannot.

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"The Flood", 1764
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
6 months 3 weeks ago
If, as I maintain and firmly...

If, as I maintain and firmly believe, there is no objective definition of intelligence, and what we call intelligence is only a creation of cultural fashion and subjective prejudice, what the devil is it we test when we make use of an intelligence test?

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Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
4 months 1 week ago
I have written a good number...

I have written a good number of drafts and small reflections. They are not waiting for the last touch but for the sunlight to wake them up.

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B 29
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 4 weeks ago
I should as soon think of...

I should as soon think of swimming across Charles River when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my books in originals when I have them rendered for me in my mother tongue.

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Books
Philosophical Maxims
Zoroaster
Zoroaster
5 months 2 weeks ago
Suffer no anxiety, for he who...

Suffer no anxiety, for he who is a sufferer of anxiety becomes regardless of enjoyment of the world and the spirit, and contraction happens to his body and soul.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 months 2 weeks ago
While the intellectual space.....

While the intellectual space does contain universal ideas, definitions, those definitions are detailed a posteriori. Truth corresponds with reality at a minimum. 

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Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
5 months 2 days ago
Jacques said that his master said...

Jacques said that his master said that everything good or evil we encounter here below was written on high.

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Prologue
Philosophical Maxims
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