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William James
William James
3 months 3 weeks ago
The war against war is going...

The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party. The military feelings are too deeply grounded to abdicate their place among our ideals until better substitutes are offered than the glory and shame that come to nations as well as to individuals from the ups and downs of politics and the vicissitudes of trade.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
3 months 3 weeks ago
You, your families, your friends and...

You, your families, your friends and your countries are to be exterminated by the common decision of a few brutal but powerful men. To please these men, all the private affections, all the public hopes, all that has been achieved in art, and knowledge and thought and all that might be achieved hereafter is to be wiped out forever. Our ruined lifeless planet will continue for countless ages to circle aimlessly round the sun unredeemed by the joys and loves, the occasional wisdom and the power to create beauty which have given value to human life.

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Leaflet issued while Russell was in Brixton Prison, 1961
Philosophical Maxims
Novalis
Novalis
2 months 3 weeks ago
Now to Some it appears not...

Now to Some it appears not at all worth while to follow out the endless divisions of Nature; and moreover a dangerous undertaking, without fruit and issue. As we can never reach, say they, the absolutely smallest grain of material bodies, never find their simplest compartments, since all magnitude loses itself, forwards and backwards, in infinitude; so likewise is it with the species of bodies and powers; here too one comes on new species, new combinations, new appearances, even to infinitude. These seem only to stop, continue they, when our diligence tires; and so it is spending precious time with idle contemplations and tedious enumerations; and this becomes at last a true delirium, a real vertigo over the horrid Deep.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn
2 weeks 2 days ago
In the development of any science,...

In the development of any science, the first received paradigm is usually felt to account quite successfully for most of the observations and experiments easily accessible to that science's practitioners. Further development, therefore, ordinarily calls for the construction of elaborate equipment, the development of an esoteric vocabulary and skills, and a refinement of concepts that increasingly lessens their resemblance to their usual common-sense prototypes. That professionalization leads, on the one hand, to an immense restriction of the scientist's vision and to a considerable resistance to paradigm change. The science has become increasingly rigid. On the other hand, within those areas to which the paradigm directs the attention of the group, normal science leads to a detail of information and to a precision of the observation-theory match that could be achieved in no other way.

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p. 64
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
3 months 3 weeks ago
There is one very serious defect...

There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ's moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.

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"The Moral Problem"
Philosophical Maxims
Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas
3 months 2 weeks ago
All affected can accept the consequences...

All affected can accept the consequences and the side effects that [the norm's] general observance can be anticipated to have for the satisfaction of everyone's interests, and the consequences are preferred to those of known alternative possibilities for regulation.

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p. 65
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
1 month 3 weeks ago
The stock market was created by...

The stock market was created by the telegraph and the telephone, and its panics are engineered by carefully orchestrated stories in the press.

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(p. 106)
Philosophical Maxims
Epicurus
Epicurus
4 months 2 weeks ago
Since it is every man's interest...

Since it is every man's interest to be happy through the whole of life, it is the wisdom of every one to employ philosophy in the search of felicity without delay; and there cannot be a greater folly, than to be always beginning to live.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 weeks ago
The life of money....
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Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 months 1 week ago
The heart, oddly enough, seems to...

The heart, oddly enough, seems to be the essential organ concerned. When we are in a hurry or doing something we dislike, we clench the heart, exactly like clenching a fist, and nothing can get in. When we are filled with a sense of multiplicity and excitement we somehow 'open' the heart and allow reality to flow in. But in that state we only need to entertain the shadow of some unpleasant thought for it to close again. And human beings are so naturally prone to mistrust that it is hard to maintain the openness for very long. Children on the other hand find it easy to slip into states of wonder and delight when the heart finally opens so wide that the whole world seems magical. the 'trick' of the peak experience lies in this ability to relax out of our usual defensive posture and to 'open the heart'.

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p. 360
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises
1 week 4 days ago
The interventionists do not approach the...

The interventionists do not approach the study of economic matters with scientific disinterestedness. Most of them are driven by an envious resentment against those whose incomes are larger than their own. This bias makes it impossible for them to see things as they really are. For them the main thing is not to improve the conditions of the masses, but to harm the entrepreneurs and capitalists even if this policy victimizes the immense majority of the people.

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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
3 months 3 weeks ago
On the other hand one must...

On the other hand one must not entertain any fantastic illusions on the productive power of the credit system, so far as it supplies or sets in motion money-capital.

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Vol. II, Ch. XVII, p. 351.
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2 months 5 days ago
Nothing can contribute more to peace...

Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.

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E 11
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
2 months 1 week ago
With Puritanism as the constant check...

With Puritanism as the constant check upon American life, neither truth nor sincerity is possible. Nothing but gloom and mediocrity to dictate human conduct, curtail natural expression, and stifle our best impulses.

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Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
3 months 3 weeks ago
The boundaries of the species, whereby...

The boundaries of the species, whereby men sort them, are made by men.

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Book III, Ch. 6, sec. 37
Philosophical Maxims
Heraclitus
Heraclitus
4 months 2 weeks ago
Of Every One-Hundred Men, Ten shouldn't...

Of Every One-Hundred Men, Ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are nothing but targets, Nine are real fighters... We are lucky to have them... They make the battle. Ah but the One, One of them is a Warrior... and He will bring the others back.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay
1 month 2 weeks ago
The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because...

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

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Vol. I, ch. 3
Philosophical Maxims
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
2 months 3 weeks ago
This method of mental training is,...

This method of mental training is, therefore, the immediate preparation for the moral; it completely destroys the root of immorality by never allowing sensuous enjoyment to become the motive. Formerly, that was the first motive to be stimulated and developed, because it was believed that otherwise the pupil could not be influenced or controlled at all.

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General Nature of New Eduction contiunued p. 31
Philosophical Maxims
David Pearce
David Pearce
1 month 4 days ago
[O]ne might naively suppose that a...

[O]ne might naively suppose that a negative utilitarian would welcome human extinction. But only (trans)humans - or our potential superintelligent successors - are technically capable of phasing out the cruelties of the rest of the living world on Earth. And only (trans)humans - or rather our potential superintelligent successors - are technically capable of assuming stewardship of our entire Hubble volume.

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"Unsorted Postings", Facebook, pre-2014
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
1 month 3 weeks ago
The man is making preparations for...

The man is making preparations for a year, and does not know that he will die before evening. And I remembered God's second saying, "Learn what is not given to man." 'What dwells in man" I already knew. Now I learnt what is not given him. It is not given to man to know his own needs.

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Ch. XI
Philosophical Maxims
Paracelsus
Paracelsus
1 week 3 days ago
We should become angels and not...

We should become angels and not devils, that's why we have been created and born into the world. Therefore be and stick to what God has chosen you for.

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Philosophical Maxims
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
3 months 3 weeks ago
The simple-minded positivism that believes it...

The simple-minded positivism that believes it has found a firm ground of certainty if it only excludes all mental phenomena from consideration and holds fast to observable facts.

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p. 39
Philosophical Maxims
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
1 month 3 weeks ago
I shall doubtless outlive some troublesome...

I shall doubtless outlive some troublesome desires; but I am in no hurry about that; nor, when the time comes, shall I plume myself on the immunity just in the same way, I do not greatly pride myself on having outlived my belief in the fairy tales of Socialism. Old people have faults of their own; they tend to become cowardly, niggardly, and suspicious. Whether from the growth of experience or the decline of animal heat, I see that age leads to these and certain other faults; and it follows, of course, that while in one sense I hope I am journeying towards the truth, in another I am indubitably posting towards these forms and sources of error.

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Crabbed Age and Youth.
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
4 months 3 days ago
All the world knows me in...

All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.

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Book III, Ch. 5. Upon some Verses of Virgil
Philosophical Maxims
Allan Bloom
Allan Bloom
6 days ago
Intellectuals ... advertise their superiority to...

Intellectuals ... advertise their superiority to political practice but are absolutely in its thrall. ... It is no accident that Marxist theory and practice use the intellectuals as tools and keep them in brutal subservience.

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"Commerce and Culture," p. 281.
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
3 months 3 weeks ago
A commodity appears, at first sight,...

A commodity appears, at first sight, a very trivial thing, and easily understood.Its analysis shows that it is, in reality, a very queer thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties.

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Vol. I, Ch. 1, Section 4, pg. 81.
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert A. Simon
Herbert A. Simon
2 months 4 days 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
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
3 months 3 weeks ago
Apart from autograph hunters, I get......

Apart from autograph hunters, I get... many letters from Hindus, beseeching me to adopt some form of mysticism, from young Americans, asking me where I think the line should be drawn in petting, and from Poles, urging me to admit that while all other nationalism may be bad that of Poland is wholly noble. I get letters from engineers who cannot understand Einstein, and from parsons who think that I cannot understand Genesis, from husbands whose wives have deserted them - not (they say) that that would matter, but the wives have taken the furniture with them, and what in these circumstances should an enlightened male do? ...I get letters (concerning whose genuineness I am suspicious) trying to get me to advocate abortion, and I get letters from young mothers asking my opinion of bottle-feeding.

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Letter to Mr C. L. Aiken, March 19, 1930
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
3 months 3 weeks ago
Yes, if you happen to be...

Yes, if you happen to be interested in philosophy and good at it, but not otherwise - but so does bricklaying. Anything you're good at contributes to happiness. When asked "Does philosophy contribute to happiness?"

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(SHM 76), as quoted in The quotable Bertrand Russell (1993), p. 149
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3 months 3 weeks ago
What potent blood hath modest May!...

What potent blood hath modest May!

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May-Day
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
2 months 3 weeks ago
Every cause produces more than one...

Every cause produces more than one effect.

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On Progress: Its Law and Cause
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
2 months 1 week ago
The huge laugh is a most...

The huge laugh is a most extreme expression of freedom.

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Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 week 3 days ago
A large part….

A large part of mankind is angry not with the sins, but with the sinners.

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De Ira (On Anger): Book 2, cap. 28, line 8
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
4 months 3 days ago
One should hasten to put such...

One should hasten to put such witches to death. Statement of 20 August 1538;

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as quoted in Conversations With Martin Luther (1915), translated and edited by Preserved Smith and Herbert Percival Gallinger, p. 163
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
1 month 3 weeks ago
You worldly-minded people are most unfortunate!...

You worldly-minded people are most unfortunate! You are surrounded with sorrows and troubles overhead and underfoot and to the right and to the left, and you are enigmas even to yourselves.

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p. 37
Philosophical Maxims
Plato
Plato
4 months 3 weeks ago
I shall assume that your silence...

I shall assume that your silence gives consent.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
2 months 1 week ago
Some will ask, what about weak...

Some will ask, what about weak natures, must they not be protected? Yes, but to be able to do that, it will be necessary to realize that education of children is not synonymous with herdlike drilling and training. If education should really mean anything at all, it must insist upon the free growth and development of the innate forces and tendencies of the child. In this way alone can we hope for the free individual and eventually also for a free community, which shall make interference and coercion of human growth impossible.

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Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
3 months 3 weeks ago
The most dangerous thing you can...

The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There is not one of them which will not make us into devils if we set it up as an absolute guide. You might think love of humanity in general was safe, but it is not. If you leave out justice you will find yourself breaking agreements and faking evidence in trials "for the sake of humanity", and become in the end a cruel and treacherous man.

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Book I, Chapter 2, "Some Objections"
Philosophical Maxims
Xunzi
Xunzi
3 weeks 1 day ago
A questioner asks: If human nature...

A questioner asks: If human nature is evil, then where do ritual and rightness come from? I reply: ritual and rightness are always created by the conscious activity of the sages.

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Sources of Chinese Tradition (1999), vol. 1, p. 180
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
3 months 3 weeks ago
Moreover, if the character is formed,...

Moreover, if the character is formed, and the mind made up, on the few cardinal points of human opinion, agreement of conviction and feeling on these, has been felt in all times to be an essential requisite of anything worthy the name of friendship, in a really earnest mind. All these circumstances united, made the number very small of those whose society, and still more whose intimacy, I now voluntarily sought.

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(p. 229)
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
3 months 3 weeks ago
I was not the one to...

I was not the one to invent lies: they were created in a society divided by class and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies: it is by eradicating class by any means necessary.

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Act 5, sc. 3
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
2 months 3 weeks ago
Falsehood and delusion are allowed in...

Falsehood and delusion are allowed in no case whatever: But, as in the exercise of all the virtues, there is an œconomy of truth. It is a sort of temperance, by which a man speaks truth with measure that he may speak it the longer.

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Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
2 months 2 weeks ago
Non-operational ideas are non-behavioral and subversive....

Non-operational ideas are non-behavioral and subversive. The movement of thought is stopped at barriers which appear as the limits of Reason itself.

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p. 14
Philosophical Maxims
Emperor Julian
Emperor Julian
4 days ago
So long as you are a...

So long as you are a slave to the opinions of the many you have not yet approached freedom or tasted its nectar...But I do not mean by this that we ought to be shameless before all men and to do what we ought not; but all that we refrain from and all that we do, let us not do or refrain from merely because it seems to the multitude somehow honorable or base, but because it is forbidden by reason and the god within us.

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Oration to the Uneducated Cynics
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
3 months 3 weeks 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
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
1 month 3 weeks ago
Such is the content of the...

Such is the content of the mental life of the Hemingway hero and the good guy in general. Every day he gets beaten into a servile pulp by his own mechanical reflexes, which are constantly busy registering and reacting to the violent stimuli which his big, noisy, kinesthetic environment has provided for his unreflective reception.

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Eye Appeal, p. 79-80
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3 months 3 weeks ago
Though love repine, and reason chafe,...

Though love repine, and reason chafe, There came a voice without reply, - "'T is man's perdition to be safe When for the truth he ought to die."

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Sacrifice
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
4 months 4 days ago
States as great engines move slowly....

States as great engines move slowly.

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Book II
Philosophical Maxims
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
1 month 3 weeks ago
The public health authorities never mention...

The public health authorities never mention the main reason many Americans have for smoking heavily, which is that smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide.

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Preface (p. xi)
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
3 months 4 weeks ago
The freest importation of salt provisions,...

The freest importation of salt provisions, in the same manner, could have as little effect upon the interest of the graziers of Great Britain as that of live cattle. Salt provisions are not only a very bulky commodity, but when compared with fresh meat, they are a commodity both of worse quality, and as they cost more labour and expence, of higher price. They could never, therefore, come into competition with the fresh meat, though they might with the salt provisions of the country.

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Chapter II
Philosophical Maxims
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