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Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 week ago
Detachment from the world as an...

Detachment from the world as an attachment to the ego... Who can realize the detachment in which you are as far away from yourself as you are from the world?

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Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
5 months 2 weeks ago
The religion and philosophy of the...

The religion and philosophy of the Hebrews are those of a wilder and ruder tribe, wanting the civility and intellectual refinements and subtlety of Vedic culture.

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A Tribute to Hinduism, 2008
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
5 months 2 weeks ago
Scientific theories are distinguished from myths......

Scientific theories are distinguished from myths... in being criticizable, and... open to modifications... They can be neither verified nor probabilified.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 weeks 4 days ago
No one should....
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Main Content / General
Nikolai Berdyaev
Nikolai Berdyaev
4 months 2 days ago
What one needs to do at...

What one needs to do at every moment of one's life is to put an end to the old world and to begin a new world.

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Philosophical Maxims
Epicurus
Epicurus
6 months 6 days ago
No pleasure is in itself evil,...

No pleasure is in itself evil, but the things which produce certain pleasures entail annoyances many times greater than the pleasures themselves.

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Philosophical Maxims
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
5 months 1 week ago
In contrast to "Blessed are they...

In contrast to "Blessed are they who do not see and still believe," he speaks of "seeing and still not believing."

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p. 30
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
2 months 1 week ago
Adversity is sometimes hard upon a...

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity. (Often shortened to "can't stand prosperity" as an unknown quote).

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Philosophical Maxims
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
5 months 2 weeks ago
Each of the parts of philosophy...

Each of the parts of philosophy is a philosophical whole, a circle rounded and complete in itself. In each of these parts, however, the philosophical Idea is found in a particular specificality or medium. The single circle, because it is a real totality, bursts through the limits imposed by its special medium, and gives rise to a wider circle. The whole of philosophy in this way resembles a circle of circles. The Idea appears in each single circle, but, at the same time, the whole Idea is constituted by the system of these peculiar phases, and each is a necessary member of the organisation.

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Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
6 months 2 weeks ago
He is a dreamer of ancient...

He is a dreamer of ancient times, or rather, of the myths of what ancient times used to be. Such men are harmless in themselves, but their queer lack of realism makes them fools for others.

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Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
3 months 2 weeks ago
The most human thing about us...

The most human thing about us is our technology.

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Man and the future of organizations, Volume 5, School of Business Administration, Georgia State University, 1974, p. 19
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 2 weeks ago
The truth is, that the greatest...

The truth is, that the greatest enemies of the doctrine of Jesus are those, calling themselves the expositors of them, who have perverted them to the structure of a system of fancy absolutely incomprehensible, and without any foundation in his genuine words. And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter ... But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.

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Letter to John Adams (11 April 1823) (Scan at The Library of Congress)
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Simmel
Georg Simmel
1 month 3 weeks ago
I understand the task of sociology...

I understand the task of sociology to be description and determination of the historical-psychological origin of those forms in which interactions take place between human beings. The totality of these interactions, springing from the most diverse impulses, directed toward the most diverse objects, and aiming at the most diverse ends, constitutes "society."

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p. 167
Philosophical Maxims
David Pearce
David Pearce
2 months 3 weeks ago
Getting rid of predation isn't a...

Getting rid of predation isn't a matter of moralising. A python who kills a small human child isn't morally blameworthy. Nor is a lion who hunts and kills a terrified zebra. In both cases, the victim suffers horribly. But the predator lacks the empathetic and mind-reading skills needed to understand the implications of what s/he is doing. Some humans still display a similar deficit. From the perspective of the victim, the moral status or (lack of) guilty intent of a human or nonhuman predator is irrelevant. Either way, to stand by and watch the snake asphyxiate a child would be almost as morally abhorrent as to kill the child yourself. So why turn this principle on its head with beings of comparable sentience to human infants and toddlers? With power comes complicity.

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"The Radical Plan to Phase out Earth's Predatory Species", io9, 30 Jul. 2014
Philosophical Maxims
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
5 months 2 weeks ago
Create all the happiness you are...

Create all the happiness you are able to create: remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you to add something to the pleasure of others, or to diminish something of their pains. And for every grain of enjoyment you sow in the bosom of another, you shall find a harvest in your own bosom; while every sorrow which you pluck out from the thoughts and feelings of a fellow creature shall be replaced by beautiful peace and joy in the sanctuary of your soul.

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Advice to a young girl, 22 June 1830
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
2 months 1 week ago
He who would write heroic poems...

He who would write heroic poems should make his whole life a heroic poem.

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Life of Schiller.
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
5 months 2 weeks ago
There are a thousand hacking at...

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root, and it may be that he who bestows the largest amount of time and money on the needy is doing the most by his mode of life to produce that misery which he strives in vain to relieve.

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p. 87
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
5 months 2 weeks ago
One is still what one is...

One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one is going to become. One lives one's death, one dies one's life.

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Book 2, "The Melodious Child Dead in Me"
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
3 months 3 weeks ago
When a book and a head...

When a book and a head collide and a hollow sound is heard, must it always have come from the book?

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D 66
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
4 months 3 days ago
To know something is to make...

To know something is to make this something that I know myself; but to avail myself of it, to dominate it, it has to remain distinct from myself.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean Jacques Rousseau
5 months 2 weeks ago
Let us not forget what befits...

Let us not forget what befits our present state in the pursuit of vain fancies. Mankind has its place in the sequence of things; childhood has its place in the sequence of human life; the man must be treated as a man and the child as a child. Give each his place, and keep him there. Control human passions according to man's nature; that is all we can do for his welfare. The rest depends on external forces, which are beyond our control.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
5 months 2 weeks ago
When Descartes said, "Conquer yourself rather...

When Descartes said, "Conquer yourself rather than the world," what he meant was, at bottom, - the same - that we should act without hope. Marxists, to whom I have said thus have answered: "Your action is limited, obviously, by your death: but you can rely upon the help of others.

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p. 39
Philosophical Maxims
Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus
5 months 3 weeks ago
I doubt if a single individual...

I doubt if a single individual could be found from the whole of mankind free from some form of insanity. The only difference is one of degree. A man who sees a gourd and takes it for his wife is called insane because this happens to very few people.

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As quoted in Words from the Wise : Over 6,000 of the Smartest Things Ever Said (2007) by Rosemarie Jarski, p. 312. From The Praise of Folly.
Philosophical Maxims
Melissus of Samos
Melissus of Samos
1 month 1 week ago
So then it is…

So then it is eternal and infinite and one and all alike.

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Philosophical Maxims
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4 months 2 weeks ago
To be in love is not...

To be in love is not the same as loving. You can be in love with a woman and still hate her.

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Philosophical Maxims
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
1 month 1 week ago
The Utopianism of the standpoint which...

The Utopianism of the standpoint which expects an era of peace and retrenchment of militarism in the present social order is plainly revealed in the fact that it is having recourse to project making. For it is typical of Utopian strivings that, in order to demonstrate their practicability, they hatch "practical" recipes with the greatest possible details. To this also belongs the project of the "United States of Europe" as a basis for the limitation of international militarism.

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Philosophical Maxims
Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
3 months 4 weeks ago
To hope means to be ready...

To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.

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Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
6 months 1 week 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
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva
3 months ago
Principles of Earth Democracy, #10: Earth...

Principles of Earth Democracy, #10: Earth Democracy connects people in circles of care, cooperation, and compassion instead of dividing them through competition and conflict, fear and hatred. In the face of a world of greed, inequality, and overconsumption, Earth Democracy globalizes compassion, justice, and sustainability.

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(p. 11)
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
4 months 2 weeks ago
Corrupt influence, which is itself the...

Corrupt influence, which is itself the perennial spring of all prodigality, and of all disorder; which loads us, more than millions of debt; which takes away vigor from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from the most venerable parts of our constitution.

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Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
4 months 3 weeks ago
Jews are angry and brutish people,...

Jews are angry and brutish people, vile and vulgar men, slaves worthy of the yoke [Talmudism] which you bear... Go, take back your books and remove yourselves from me. [ The Talmud ] taught the Jews to steal the goods of Christians, to regard them as savage beasts, to push them over the precipice... to kill them with impunity and to utter every morning the most horrible imprecations against them.

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See The Jews: A History, Second Edition, by John Efron, Steven Weitzman and Matthias Lehmann
Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
4 months 1 week ago
There is nothing impossible in the...

There is nothing impossible in the existence of the supernatural: its existence seems to me decidedly probable.

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The Genteel Tradition at Bay
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
3 months 2 days ago
I am too much of a...

I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything - especially as I am now so much occupied with theology - but I don't see my way to your conclusion.

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Letter to Herbert Spencer (22 March 1886); this is often quoted with a variant spelling as: I am too much of a skeptic to deny the possibility of anything.
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
4 months 1 week ago
What man shall there be among...

What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.

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12:11-12 (KJV) Said to the Pharisees.
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 week ago
Psychoanalysis will be entirely discredited one...

Psychoanalysis will be entirely discredited one of these days, no doubt about it. Which will not keep it from destroying our last vestiges of naivete. After psychoanalysis, we can never again be innocent.

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Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
4 months 2 days ago
Just as a vagrant accused of...

Just as a vagrant accused of stealing a carrot from a field stands before a comfortably seated judge who keeps up an elegant flow of queries, comments and witticisms while the accused is unable to stammer a word, so truth stands before an intelligence which is concerned with the elegant manipulation of opinions.

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p. 68
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
4 months 1 week ago
Wherever ideas come together they tend...

Wherever ideas come together they tend to weld into general ideas; and whenever they are generally connected, general ideas govern the connection; and these general ideas are living feelings spread out.

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Philosophical Maxims
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre
1 month 2 weeks ago
The eighteenth century, which distrusted itself...

The eighteenth century, which distrusted itself in nothing, as a matter of course, hesitated in nothing.

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VIII
Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
6 months 2 days ago
What is the use of believing,...

What is the use of believing, if the dost blaspheme? Thou adorest Him as Head, and dost blaspheme Him in His body. He loves His body. Thou canst cut thyself off from the body, but the Head does not detach itself from its body. "Thou dost honor me in vain," He cries from heaven, "thou dost honor Me in vain!" If someone wished to kiss thy cheek, but insisted at the same time on trampling thy feet; if with his hailed boots he were to crush thy feet as he tries to hold thy head and kiss thee, wouldst thou not interrupt his expression of respect and cry out: "What are thou doing, man? Thou art trampling upon me!" It is for this reason that before He ascended into heaven our Lord Jesus Christ recommended to us His body, by which He was to remain upon earth. For He foresaw that many would pay Him homage because of His glory in heaven, but that their homage would be vain, so long as they despise His members on earth.

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(pp. 436-437)
Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
5 months 4 days ago
Socrates thought that if all our...

Socrates thought that if all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most persons would be contented to take their own and depart.

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Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
5 months 2 weeks ago
He the devil always sends errors...

He the devil always sends errors into the world in pairs-pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is the worse. You see why, of course? He relies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them.

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Book IV, chapter 6, "Two Notes"
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
4 months 1 week ago
The music of the soul is...

The music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth value counts. On it centers the rationality of the status quo, and all alien rationality is bent to It.

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p. 57
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
5 months 2 weeks ago
People are often reproached because their...

People are often reproached because their desires are directed mainly to money and they are fonder of it than of anything else. Yet it is natural and even inevitable for them to love that which, as an untiring Proteus, is ready at any moment to convert itself into the particular object of our fickle desires and manifold needs. Thus every other blessing can satisfy only one desire and one need; for instance, food is good only to the hungry, wine only for the healthy, medicine for the sick, a fur coat for winter, women for youth, and so on. Consequently, all these are only ... relatively good. Money alone is the absolutely good thing because it meets not merely one need in concreto, but needs generally in abstracto.

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E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 347
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
5 months 2 weeks ago
I cannot imagine how the clockwork...

I cannot imagine how the clockwork of the universe can exist without a clockmaker.

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As attributed in More Random Walks in Science : An Anthology (1982) by Robert L. Weber, p. 65
Philosophical Maxims
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
4 months 2 weeks ago
Ah! why do women condescend to...

Ah! why do women condescend to receive a degree of attention and respect from strangers different from that reciprocation of civility which the dictates of humanity and the politeness of civilization authorize between man and man? And why do they not discover, when, "in the noon of beauty's power", that they are treated like queens only to be deluded by hollow respect. Confined, then, in cages like the feathered race, they have nothing to do but to plume themselves, and stalk with mock majesty from perch to perch.

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Ch. 4
Philosophical Maxims
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre
1 month 2 weeks ago
There is no chastisement that does...

There is no chastisement that does not purify; there is no disorder that ETERNAL LOVE does not turn against the principle of evil.

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Chapter III, p. 31
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
4 months 1 week ago
The kingdom of heaven can be...

The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves.

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18:23
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
6 months 2 weeks ago
I don't believe in an afterlife,...

I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.

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Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
5 months 2 weeks ago
The first statement of the two...

The first statement of the two principles reads as follows. First: each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others. Second: social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a)reasonably expected to be to everyone's advantage, and (b) attached to positions and offices open to all.

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Chapter II, Section 11, pg. 60
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
4 months 3 weeks ago
When an opinion has taken root...

When an opinion has taken root in a democracy and established itself in the minds of the majority, it afterward persists by itself, needing no effort to maintain it since no one attacks it. Those who at first rejected it as false come in the end to adopt it as accepted, and even those who still at the bottom of their hearts oppose it keep their views to themselves, taking great care to avoid a dangerous and futile contest.

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Book Three, Chapter XXI.
Philosophical Maxims
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