Skip to main content
Image removed.

Main navigation

☰ ˟
  • Home
  • Articulation
  • Contact
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
4 months 1 week ago
One Folk, One Realm, One Leader....

One Folk, One Realm, One Leader. Union with the unity of an insect swarm. Knowledgeless understanding of nonsense and diabolism. And then the newsreel camera had cut back to the serried ranks, the swastikas, the brass bands, the yelling hypnotist on the rostrum. And here once again, in the glare of his inner light, was the brown insectlike column, marching endlessly to the tunes of this rococo horror-music. Onward Nazi soldiers, onward Christian soldiers, onward Marxists and Muslims, onward every chosen People, every Crusader and Holy War-maker. Onward into misery, into all wickedness, into death!

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 days ago
Under all speech....
0
⚖0
Main Content / General
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
3 months 2 days ago
A man discovers what he is...

A man discovers what he is actually worth in this world when he faces society as a man, without money, name, or powerful connections, stripped of all but his native potentialities. He soon finds that nothing has less weight than his human qualities. They are prized so low that the market does not even list them. Strict science, which acknowledges man only as a biological concept, reflects man's lot in the actual world; in himself, man is nothing more than a member of a species. In the eyes of the world, the quality of humanity confers no title to existence, nay, not even a right of sojourn. Such title must be certified by special social circumstances stipulated in documents to be presented on demand.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 137.
Philosophical Maxims
Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton
2 months 5 days ago
The strange superstition has arisen in...

The strange superstition has arisen in the Western world that we can start all over again, remaking human nature, human society, and the possibilities of happiness; as though the knowledge and experience of our ancestors were now entirely irrelevant.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Gentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life
Philosophical Maxims
Peter Singer
Peter Singer
4 months 2 days ago
I am a utilitarian. I am...

I am a utilitarian. I am also a vegetarian. I am a vegetarian because I am a utilitarian.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Utilitarianism and Vegetarianism, Philosophy & Public Affairs, 9(4): 325 (1980).
Philosophical Maxims
Henri Poincaré
Henri Poincaré
1 month 6 days ago
All laws are... deduced from experiment;...

All laws are... deduced from experiment; but to enunciate them, a special language is needful... ordinary language is too poor...This... is one reason why the physicist can not do without mathematics; it furnishes him the only language he can speak. And a well-made language is no indifferent thing;...the analyst, who pursues a purely esthetic aim, helps create, just by that, a language more fit to satisfy the physicist....law springs from experiment, but not immediately. Experiment is individual, the law deduced from it is general; experiment is only approximate, the law is precise...In a word, to get the law from experiment, it is necessary to generalize... But how generalize? ...in this choice what shall guide us?It can only be analogy. ...What has taught us to know the true profound analogies, those the eyes do not see but reason divines?It is the mathematical spirit, which disdains matter to cling only to pure form.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
1 week 5 days ago
Which of the two eternal roads...

Which of the two eternal roads shall I choose? Suddenly I know that my whole life hangs on this decision - the life of the entire Universe. Of the two, I choose the ascending path. Why? For no intelligible reason, without any certainty; I know how ineffectual the mind and all the small certainties of man can be in this moment of crisis. I choose the ascending path because my heart drives me toward it. "Upward! Upward! Upward!" my heart shouts, and I follow it trustingly.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
3 months 4 days ago
Skepticism is the chastity of the...

Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Works of George Santayana p. 65
Philosophical Maxims
Max Scheler
Max Scheler
3 months 2 days ago
Even after his conversion, the true...

Even after his conversion, the true 'apostate' is not primarily committed to the positive contents of his new belief and to the realization of its aims. He is motivated by the struggle against the old belief and lives on for its negation. The apostate does not affirm his new convictions for their own sake; he is engaged in a continuous chain of acts of revenge against his own spiritual past. In reality he remains a captive of this past, and the new faith is merely a handy frame of reference for negating and rejecting the old. As a religious type, the apostate is therefore at the opposite pole from the 'resurrected,' whose life is transformed by a new faith which is full of intrinsic meaning and value.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
L. Coser, trans. (1973), pp. 66-67
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
3 months 4 days ago
In the form of the oeuvre,...

In the form of the oeuvre, the actual circumstances are placed in another dimension where the given reality shows itself as that which it is. Thus it tells the truth about itself; its language ceases to be that of deception, ignorance, and submission. Fiction calls the facts by their name and their reign collapses; fiction subverts everyday experience and shows it to be mutilated and false.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 62
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
5 months 2 days ago
Cornered vessel without corners, strange cornered...

Cornered vessel without corners, strange cornered vessel, strange cornered vessel.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
4 months 2 days ago
I am not bound….

I am not bound over to swear allegiance to any master; where the storm drives me I turn in for shelter.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book I, epistle i, line 14
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
3 months 1 week ago
Volumes might be written upon the...

Volumes might be written upon the impiety of the pious.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Pt. I, The Unknowable; Ch. V, The Reconciliation
Philosophical Maxims
Cisero
Cisero
4 months 4 weeks ago
How long will men dare to...

How long will men dare to call anything expedient that is not right? Can odium and infamy be of service to any empire, which ought to be supported by glory and by the good-will of its allies? I was often at variance even with my friend Cato. He seemed to me to guard the treasury and the revenues too obstinately, to refuse everything to the farmers of the revenue, and many things to our allies; while we ought to be generous to our allies, and to deal with the farmers of the revenue as leniently as we individually do with our own tenants, especially as the union of orders to which such a course would conduce is for the well-being of the state.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book III, Sect. 22, as translated by Andrew P. Peabody
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 4 days ago
He that is not with me...

He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Luke 11:23 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
3 months 1 week ago
We too often forget that not...

We too often forget that not only is there "a soul of goodness in things evil," but very generally also, a soul of truth in things erroneous.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Pt. I, The Unknowable; Ch. I, Religion and Science; quoting from "There is some soul of goodness in things evil / Would men observingly distil it out", William Shakespeare, Henry V, act iv. sc. i
Philosophical Maxims
Max Stirner
Max Stirner
3 weeks 6 days ago
Everything over which I have might...

Everything over which I have might that cannot be torn from me remains my property; well, then let might decide about property, and I will expect everything from my might! Alien might, might that I leave to another, makes me an owned slave: then let my own might make me an owner. Let me then withdraw the might that I have conceded to others out of ignorance regarding the strength of my own might! Let me say to myself, what my might reaches to is my property; and let me claim as property everything that I feel myself strong enough to attain, and let me extend my actual property as far as I entitle, that is, empower, myself to take.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Cambridge 1995, p. 227, 228
Philosophical Maxims
Henri Poincaré
Henri Poincaré
1 month 6 days ago
It is the simple…

It is the simple hypotheses of which one must be most wary; because these are the ones that have the most chances of passing unnoticed.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Thermodynamique: Leçons professées pendant le premier semestre 1888-1889 (1892), Preface
Philosophical Maxims
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre
1 week 3 days ago
I remember that in a widely...

I remember that in a widely distributed French newspaper they asked the famous author of the Génie du Christianisme, if a nymph was not a bit more beautiful than a nun. In supposing them represented by the same talent or by equal talents (a condition without which the question would make no sense), there is no doubt that the nun would be more beautiful. The error best suited to extinguishing the true sentiment of beauty is that of confusing that which pleases with that which is beautiful, or in other words, that which pleases the senses with that which pleases the intelligence.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Buber
Martin Buber
3 months 2 days ago
When we rise out of [the...

When we rise out of [the night] into the new life and there begin to receive the signs, what can we know of that which - of him who gives them to us? Only what we experience from time to time from the signs themselves. If we name the speaker of this speech God, then it is always the God of a moment, a moment God.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Between Man and Man (1965), p. 15
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 week 5 days ago
Whether the succeeding generation is to...

Whether the succeeding generation is to be more virtuous than their predecessors, I cannot say; but I am sure they will have more worldly wisdom, and enough, I hope, to know that honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to Nathaniel Macon
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
3 months 1 week ago
...the French business is no light...

...the French business is no light or trivial thing, or such as has commonly occurd in the course of political Events. At present the whole political State of Europe hinges upon it. On the Continent there is little doubt; every thing will take is future shape and colour from the good or ill success of the Duke of Brunswick. In my opinion, it is the most important crisis that ever existed in the World. ... My poor opinion is, that these principles...cannot possibly be realized in practice in France, without an absolute certainty and that at no remote period, of overturning the whole fabrick of the British Constitution.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to the Foreign Secretary, Lord Grenville (19 September 1792), quoted in P. J. Marshall and John A. Woods (eds.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume VII: January 1792-August 1794 (1968), pp. 218-219
Philosophical Maxims
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
4 months 3 weeks ago
Rules for Axioms. I. Not to...

Rules for Axioms. I. Not to omit any necessary principle without asking whether it is admittied, however clear and evident it may be. II. Not to demand, in axioms, any but things that are perfectly evident in themselves.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
4 months 2 weeks ago
What peculiar privilege has this little...

What peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call thought, that we must thus make it the model of the whole universe? Our partiality in our own favour does indeed present it on all occasions; but sound philosophy ought carefully to guard against so natural an illusion.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Philo to Cleanthes, Part II
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month 3 days ago
"By what method or methods can...

"By what method or methods can the able men from every rank of life be gathered, as diamond-grains from the general mass of sand: the able men, not the sham-able;-and set to do the work of governing, contriving, administering and guiding for us!" It is the question of questions. All that Democracy ever meant lies there: the attainment of a truer and truer Aristocracy, or Government again by the Best.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
José Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset
3 months 3 days ago
No human acquisition is stable. Even...

No human acquisition is stable. Even what appears to us most completely won and consolidated can disappear in a few generations. This thing we call "civilization" - all these physical and moral comforts, all these conveniences, all these shelters, all these virtues and disciplines which have become habit now, on which we count, and which in effect constitute a repertory or system of securities which man made for himself like a raft in the initial shipwreck which living always is - all these securities are insecure securities which in the twinkling of an eye, at the least carelessness, escape from man's hands and vanish like phantoms.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 25
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
3 months 1 week ago
Every archetype is capable of endless...

Every archetype is capable of endless development and differentiation. It is therefore possible for it to be more developed or less. In an outward form of religion where all the emphasis is on the outward figure (hence where we are dealing with a more or less complete projection) the archetype is identical with externalized ideas but remains unconscious as a psychic factor. When an unconscious content is replaced by a projected image to that extent, it is cut off from all participation in an influence on the conscious mind. Hence it largely forfeits its own life, because prevented from exerting the formative influence on consciousness natural to it; what is more, it remains in its original form - unchanged, for nothing changes in the unconscious.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
4 months 1 week ago
Money is a crystal formed of...

Money is a crystal formed of necessity in the course of the exchanges, whereby different products of labour are practically equated to one another and thus by practice converted into commodities.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Vol. I, Ch. 2, pg. 99.
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
4 months 1 week ago
Where there is a lull of...

Where there is a lull of truth, an institution springs up. But the truth blows right on over it, nevertheless, and at length blows it down.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 494
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
5 months 2 days ago
There is nothing more visible than...

There is nothing more visible than what is secret, and nothing more manifest than what is minute. Therefore the superior man is watchful over himself, when he is alone.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
1 week 5 days ago
There is only one woman in...

There is only one woman in the world. One woman, with many faces.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
This occurs in the film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), based upon the novel by Kazantzakis, but has not been located in the novel itself.
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
5 months 2 days ago
Virtue (or the man of...

Virtue (or the man of virtue) is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
4 months 1 week ago
It is difficult, if not impossible,...

It is difficult, if not impossible, to define the limit of our reasonable desires in respect of possessions.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 346
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
4 months 2 weeks ago
Faith is a living, bold trust...

Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
An Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans fromDr. Martin Luthers Vermischte Deutsche Schriften. Johann K. Irmischer, ed. Vol. 63(Erlangen: Heyder and Zimmer, 1854), pp. 124-125. (EA 63:124-125)
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
2 months 1 week ago
One can only live while one...

One can only live while one is intoxicated with life; as soon as one is sober it is impossible not to see that it is all a mere fraud and a stupid fraud! Ch. 4 Variant: It is possible to live only as long as life intoxicates us; once we are sober we cannot help seeing that it is all a delusion, a stupid delusion.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
2 months 2 weeks ago
I have not been able to...

I have not been able to discover the cause of those properties of gravity from phenomena, and I frame no hypotheses; for whatever is not deduced from the phenomena is to be called a hypothesis, and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, whether of occult qualities or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to Robert Hooke (15 February 1676) [5 February 1676 (O.S.)]
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
3 weeks 6 days ago
For this reason those who are...

For this reason those who are tossed about at sea, who proceed uphill and downhill over toilsome crags and heights, who go on campaigns that bring the greatest danger, are heroes and front-rank fighters; but persons who live in rotten luxury and ease while others toil, are mere turtle-doves safe only because men despise them.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
4 months 1 week ago
The faith that stands on authority...

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Over-soul
Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
3 months 2 weeks ago
The universe comprises all being in...

The universe comprises all being in a totality; for nothing that exists is outside or beyond infinite being, as the latter has no outside or beyond.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
4 months 1 day ago
Heu, Fortuna, quis est crudelior in...

O Fortune, cruellest of heavenly powers, why make such game of this poor life of ours?

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book II, satire viii, line 61 (trans. Conington)
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
3 months 1 week ago
Why is psychology the youngest of...

Why is psychology the youngest of the empirical sciences? Why have we not long since discovered the unconscious and raised up its treasure-house of eternal images? Simply because we had a religious formula for everything psychic - and one that is far more beautiful and comprehensive than immediate experience. Though the Christian view of the world has paled for many people, the symbolic treasure-rooms of the East are still full of marvels that can nourish for a long time to come the passion for show and new clothes. What is more, these images - be they Christian or Buddhist or what you will - are lovely, mysterious, richly intuitive.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 7-8
Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
4 months 2 days ago
Tis not sufficient….

Tis not sufficient to combine well-chosen words in a well-ordered line.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book I, satire iv, line 54 (translated by John Conington)
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
1 week 2 days ago
Remember this- that there is a...

Remember this- that there is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
IV, 32
Philosophical Maxims
Willard van Orman Quine
Willard van Orman Quine
2 months 4 weeks ago
Tactically, conceptualism is no doubt the...

Tactically, conceptualism is no doubt the strongest position of the three; for the tired nominalist can lapse into conceptualism and still allay his puritanic conscience with the reflection that he has not quite taken to eating lotus with the Platonists.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"Logic and the Reification of Universals"
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 4 days ago
Verily, verily, I say unto you,...

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
6:53-56
Philosophical Maxims
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei
1 month 6 days ago
I would say here something that...

I would say here something that was heard from an ecclesiastic of the most eminent degree [probably Caesar Baronius]: "The intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Variant translation: I would say here something that was heard from an ecclesiastic of the most eminent degree: "That the intention of the Holy Spirit is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how the heavens go."
Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
3 months 2 weeks ago
Everything that makes diversity of kinds,...

Everything that makes diversity of kinds, of species, differences, properties... everything that consists in generation, decay, alteration and change is not an entity, but a condition and circumstance of entity and being, which is one, infinite, immobile, subject, matter, life, death, truth, lies, good and evil.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
2 months 4 weeks ago
No human being escapes the necessity...

No human being escapes the necessity of conceiving some good outside himself towards which his thought turns in a movement of desire, supplication, and hope. consequently, the only choice is between worshipping the true God or an idol. Every atheist is an idolater - unless he is worshipping the true God in his impersonal aspect. The majority of the pious are idolaters.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Last Notebook (1942) p. 308
Philosophical Maxims
Novalis
Novalis
3 months 1 week ago
Nature is an Æolian Harp, a...

Nature is an Æolian Harp, a musical instrument; whose tones again are keys to higher strings in us.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
1 week 1 day ago
Every legal constitution is the product...

Every legal constitution is the product of a revolution. In the history of classes, revolution is the act of political creation, while legislation is the political expression of the life of a society that has already come into being. Work for reform does not contain its own force independent from revolution. During every historic period, work for reforms is carried on only in the direction given to it by the impetus of the last revolution and continues as long as the impulsion from the last revolution continues to make itself felt. Or, to put it more concretely, in each historic period work for reforms is carried on only in the framework of the social form created by the last revolution. Here is the kernel of the problem.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 8
Philosophical Maxims
  • Load More

User login

  • Create new account
  • Reset your password

Social

☰ ˟
  • Main Feed
  • Philosophical Maxims

Civic

☰ ˟
  • Propositions
  • Issue / Solution

Users

☰ ˟
  • All users
  • Historical Figures

Who's new

  • Søren Kierkegaard
  • Jesus
  • Friedrich Nietzsche
  • VeXed
  • Slavoj Žižek

Who's online

There are currently 1 users online.
  • comfortdragon

CivilSimian.com created by AxiomaticPanic, CivilSimian, Kalokagathia