Skip to main content

Main navigation

☰ ˟
  • Home
  • Articulation
  • Contact
  • Shop
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
3 months 2 weeks ago
There are more ideas on earth...

There are more ideas on earth than intellectuals imagine. And these ideas are more active, stronger, more resistant, more passionate than "politicians" think. We have to be there at the birth of ideas, the bursting outward of their force: not in books expressing them, but in events manifesting this force, in struggles carried on around ideas, for or against them. Ideas do not rule the world. But it is because the world has ideas (and because it constantly produces them) that it is not passively ruled by those who are its leaders or those who would like to teach it, once and for all, what it must think.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in Michel Foucault (1991) by Didier Eribon, as translated by Betsy Wind, Harvard University Press, p. 282
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
2 months 3 weeks ago
A man full of warm, speculative...

A man full of warm, speculative benevolence may wish his society otherwise constituted than he finds it, but a good patriot and a true politician always considers how he shall make the most of the existing materials of his country. A disposition to preserve and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman. Everything else is vulgar in the conception, perilous in the execution.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Leszek Kołakowski
Leszek Kołakowski
2 weeks 1 day ago
But the philosophy that killed off...

But the philosophy that killed off truth proclaims unlimited tolerance for the "language games" (i.e., opinions, beliefs and doctrines) that people find useful. The outcome is expressed in the words of Karl Kraus: "Alles ist wahr und auch das Gegenteil." "Everything is true, and also its opposite."

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"Our Merry Apocalypse" (1997), as quoted in Is God Happy? Selected Essays (Basic Books, 2013), p. 318
Philosophical Maxims
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
4 months 5 days ago
A doubtful balance is made between...

A doubtful balance is made between truth and pleasure, and... the knowledge of one and the feeling of the other stir up a combat the success of which is very uncertain, since, in order to judge of it, it would be necessary to know all that passes in the innermost spirit of the man, of which man himself is scarcely ever conscious.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
2 months 2 weeks ago
Affection requires a firmer foundation than...

Affection requires a firmer foundation than sympathy, and few people have a principle of action sufficiently stable to produce rectitude of feeling; for in spite of all the arguments I have heard to justify deviations from duty, I am persuaded that even the most spontaneous sensations are more under the direction of principle than weak people are willing to allow.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter 17
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
3 months 3 weeks ago
The gods we stand by are...

The gods we stand by are the gods we need and can use, the gods whose demands on us are reinforcements of our demands on ourselves and on one another. What I then propose to do is, briefly stated, to test saintliness by common sense, to use human standards to help us decide how far the religious life commends itself as an ideal kind of human activity . ... It is but the elimination of the humanly unfit, and the survival of the humanly fittest, applied to religious beliefs; and if we look at history candidly and without prejudice, we have to admit that no religion has ever in the long run established or proved itself in any other way. Religions have approved themselves; they have ministered to sundry vital needs which they found reigning. When they violated other needs too strongly, or when other faiths came which served the same needs better, the first religions were supplanted.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Lectures XIV and XV, "The Value of Saintliness"
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay
1 month 1 week ago
I would rather be a poor...

I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to his Niece, 15 September 1842
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
3 months 3 weeks ago
It is Christ Himself, not the...

It is Christ Himself, not the Bible, who is the true Word of God. The Bible, read in the right spirit and with the guidance of good teachers, will bring us to Him.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter (8 November 1952); published in Letters of C. S. Lewis (1966), p. 247
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
1 month 2 weeks ago
My method is vertical rather than...

My method is vertical rather than horizontal so the scenery does not change but the texture does.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to The Listener October 1971, Letters of Marshall McLuhan (1987), p. 318
Philosophical Maxims
Emperor Julian
Emperor Julian
2 days ago
Know all ye mortals who have...

Know all ye mortals who have entered this contest, that according to our laws and decrees the victor is allowed to exult but the vanquished must not complain. Depart then wherever you please, and in future live every one of you under the guidance of the gods. Let every man choose his own guardian and guide.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 week ago
Death weighs on him….

Death weighs on him who is known to all, but dies unknown to himself.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
lines 401-403; (Chorus)
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
3 months 3 weeks ago
The Hudson's Bay Company, before their...

The Hudson's Bay Company, before their misfortunes in the late war, had been much more fortunate than the Royal African Company.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter I, Part III, p. 806.
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
3 months 3 weeks ago
The great writers to whom the...

The great writers to whom the world owes what religious liberty it possesses, have mostly asserted freedom of conscience as an indefeasible right, and denied absolutely that a human being is accountable to others for his religious belief.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 1: Introductory
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
4 months ago
I am entirely of the opinion...

I am entirely of the opinion that the papacy is the Antichrist. But if anyone wants to add the Turk, then the Pope is the spirit of the Antichrist, and the Turk is the flesh of the Antichrist. They help each other in their murderous work. The latter slaughters bodily and by the sword, the former spiritually and by doctrine.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
330
Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
4 months 1 week ago
By faithfulness we are collected and...

By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in Footprints in Time : Fulfilling God's Destiny for Your Life (2007) by Jeff O'Leary, p. 223
Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
3 months 3 weeks ago
No one deserves his greater natural...

No one deserves his greater natural capacity nor merits a more favorable starting place in society.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter II, Section 17, pg. 102
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
3 months 3 weeks ago
As to [General Douglas] Macarthur, I...

As to [General Douglas] Macarthur, I don't feel in a position to have clear opinions about anyone I know only from newspapers. You see, whenever they deal with anyone (or anything) I know myself, I find they're always a mass of lies & misunderstandings: so I conclude they're no better in the places where I don't know.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to Mrs. Mary Van Deusen, April 30, 1951. Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, vol. 3, "Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy", 1950-1963. p. 114.
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
1 month 2 weeks ago
Most of what we strive for...

Most of what we strive for in our modern life uses the apparatus of goal seeking that was originally set up to seek goals in the state of nature.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 months 5 days ago
He alone is aware of the...

He alone is aware of the truth, and if all men were aware of it, there would be an end of life. In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. But his kingship is kingship over nothing. It brings no powers and privileges, only loss of faith and exhaustion of the power to act. Its world is a world without values.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter one, The Country of the Blind, referencing a quote by Desiderius Erasmus.
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
3 months 3 weeks ago
I myself believe that the evidence...

I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Lecture III, Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered
Philosophical Maxims
Averroes
Averroes
4 months 1 week ago
This is one of the most...

This is one of the most intricate problems of religion. For if you look into the traditional arguments (Hadith) about this problem you will find them contradictory; such also being the case with arguments of reason. The contradiction in the arguments of the first kind is found in the Qur'an and the Hadith.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
3 months 3 weeks ago
My purpose is to explain…

My purpose is to explain, not the meaning of words, but the nature of things.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Part III, Def. XX
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
3 months 3 weeks ago
He sees as well as you...

He sees as well as you do that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter XXIX
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
3 months 3 weeks ago
Gradually the village murmur subsided, and...

Gradually the village murmur subsided, and we seemed to be embarked on the placid current of our dreams, floating from past to future as silently as one awakes to fresh morning or evening thoughts.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
3 months 3 weeks ago
"Everything is both a trap and...

"Everything is both a trap and a display; the secret reality of the object is what the Other makes of it."

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
2 months 4 days ago
By incestuous symbiosis is meant the...

By incestuous symbiosis is meant the tendency to stay tied to the mother and to her equivalents - blood, family, tribe - to fly from the unbearable weight of responsibility, of freedom, of awareness, and to be protected and loved in a state of certainty dependence that the individual pays for with the ceasing of his own human development.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean Jacques Rousseau
3 months 3 weeks ago
It is a mistake to classify...

It is a mistake to classify the passions as lawful and unlawful, so as to yield to the one and refuse the other. All alike are good if we are their masters; all alike are bad if we abandon ourselves to them. Nature forbids us to extend our relations beyond the limits of our strength; reason forbids us to want what we cannot get, conscience forbids us, not to be tempted, but to yield to temptation. To feel or not to feel a passion is beyond our control, but we can control ourselves. Every sentiment under our own control is lawful; those which control us are criminal. A man is not guilty if he loves his neighbour's wife, provided he keeps this unhappy passion under the control of the law of duty; he is guilty if he loves his own wife so greatly as to sacrifice everything to that love.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
4 months 3 weeks ago
[T]he infinite is in capacity. That,...

[T]he infinite is in capacity. That, however, which is infinite in capacity is not to be assumed as that which is infinite in energy. ...[I]t has its being in capacity, and in division and diminution. ...[I]t is always possible to assume something beyond it. It does not, however, on this account surpass every definite magnitude; as in division it surpasses every definite magnitude, and will be less.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
2 months 2 weeks ago
Liberating tolerance, then, would mean intolerance...

Liberating tolerance, then, would mean intolerance against movements from the Right, and toleration of movements from the Left.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
An Essay on Liberation Beacon Press, 1969, p. 109
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2 months 2 days ago
Rational free spirits are the light...

Rational free spirits are the light brigade who go on ahead and reconnoitre the ground which the heavy brigade of the orthodox will eventually occupy.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
H 36
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
3 months 3 weeks ago
An unlearned carpenter of my acquaintance...

An unlearned carpenter of my acquaintance once said in my hearing: "There is very little difference between one man and another; but what little there is, is very important." This distinction seems to me to go to the root of the matter.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"The Importance of Individuals"
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
2 months 2 weeks ago
Equally there is no rhythm when...

Equally there is no rhythm when variations are not placed. There is a wealth of suggestions in the phrase "takes place". The change not only comes but it belongs; it had its definite place in a larger whole.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 160
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
3 months 3 weeks ago
Darwinism is not a testable scientific...

Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research program. Unsourced variant: Evolution is not a fact. Evolution doesn't even qualify as a theory or as a hypothesis. It is a metaphysical research program, and it is not really testable science.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
4 months 2 weeks ago
The dullness of fact is the...

The dullness of fact is the mother of fiction.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
2 months 2 weeks ago
For lack of empirical data I...

For lack of empirical data I have neither knowledge nor understanding of such forms of being, which are commonly called spiritual. ...Nevertheless, we have good reason to suppose that behind this veil there exists the uncomprehended absolute object which affects and influences us-and to suppose it even, or particularly, in the case of psychic phenomena about which no verifiable statements can be made.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p.351
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
3 months 3 weeks ago
The executive of the modern State...

The executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in the Communist Manifesto (1848) p. 7
Philosophical Maxims
Will Durant
Will Durant
1 week 5 days ago
The death of Alexander (323 BC)...

The death of Alexander (323 BC) quickened this process of decay. The boy-emperor, barbarian though he remained after all of Aristotle's tutoring, had yet learned to revere the rich culture of Greece, and had dreamed of spreading that culture through the Orient in the wake of his victorious armies.... But he had underrated the inertia and resistance of the Oriental mind, and the mass and depth of Oriental culture. It was only a youthful fancy, after all, to suppose that so immature and unstable a civilization as that of Greece could be imposed upon a civilization immeasurably more widespread, and rooted in the most venerable traditions. The quantity of Asia proved too much for the quality of Greece.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 week 6 days ago
The suffering man ought really 'to...

The suffering man ought really 'to consume his own smoke'; there is no good in emitting smoke till you have made it into fire, - which, in the metaphorical sense too, all smoke is capable of becoming!

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
2 months 2 weeks ago
Allow me, Gentlemen, to pose this...

Allow me, Gentlemen, to pose this question in a more serious manner. Do I need to tell you that it is not a question at first of the natural, physiological, ethnographic difference that exists between individuals, but of the social difference, that is produced by the economic organization of society? Give to all the children, from their birth, the same means of maintenance, education, and instruction; give then to all the men thus raised the same social milieu, the same means of earning their living by their own labor, and you will see then that many of these differences, that we believe to be natural differences, will disappear because they are nothing but the effect of an unequal division of the conditions of intellectual and physical development - of the conditions of life.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
1 month 2 weeks ago
Tocqueville predicted that in democratic countries...

Tocqueville predicted that in democratic countries the public would demand larger and larger doses of excitement and increasingly stronger stimulants from its writers. He probably did not expect that public to dramatize itself so extensively, to make the world scene everybody's theatre, or, in the developed countries, to take to alcohol and drugs in order to get relief from the horrors of ceaseless intensity, the torment of thrills and distractions. A great many writers have done little more than meet the mounting demand for thrills. I think that this demand has, in the language of marketing, peaked.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Distracted Public
Philosophical Maxims
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
2 months 2 weeks ago
We reason deeply, when we forcibly...

We reason deeply, when we forcibly feel.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter 19
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
2 months 5 days ago
Like a plague, the mad spirit...

Like a plague, the mad spirit is sweeping the country, infesting the clearest heads and staunchest hearts with the deathly germ of militarism.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
3 months 4 days ago
Reason not with him, that will...

Reason not with him, that will deny the principal truths!

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
4 months ago
The Mass is the greatest blasphemy...

The Mass is the greatest blasphemy of God, and the highest idolatry upon earth, an abomination the like of which has never been in Christendom since the time of the Apostles.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
171
Philosophical Maxims
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
1 month 2 weeks ago
One naturally regrets not being an...

One naturally regrets not being an expert or one of those insiders who thoroughly understand. It's hell to be an amateur. A little reflection calms your sorrow, however. The experts in their own little speedboat, the rest of us floating with the rest of mankind in a great barge - that is the picture.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Day They Signed the Treaty (1979), p. 224
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
2 months 2 weeks ago
A naturall foole that could never...

A naturall foole that could never learn by heart the order of numerall words, as one, two, and three, may observe every stroak of the Clock, and nod to it, or say one, one, one; but can never know what houre it strikes.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The First Part, Chapter 4, p. 14
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay
1 month 1 week ago
I believe that the progress of...

I believe that the progress of experimental science, the free intercourse of nation with nation, the unrestricted influx of commodities from countries where they are cheap, and the unrestricted efflux of labour towards countries where it is dear, will soon produce, nay, I believe that they are beginning to produce, a great and most blessed social revolution.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Speech in Edinburgh (2 November 1852), quoted in Speeches of the Right Honourable T. B. Macaulay, M.P. (1854), p. 517
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 2 weeks ago
In the fact of being born...

In the fact of being born there is such an absence of necessity that when you think about it a little more than usual, you are left...with a foolish grin.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
3 months 3 weeks ago
There are truths….

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to François-Joachim de Pierre, cardinal de Bernis, 23 April 1764
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 months 6 days ago
When they have...
0
⚖0
Main Content / General
  • Load More

User login

  • Create new account
  • Reset your password

Social

☰ ˟
  • Main Feed
  • Philosophical Maxims

Civic

☰ ˟
  • Propositions
  • Issue / Solution

Who's new

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

Who's online

There are currently 0 users online.

CivilSimian.com created by AxiomaticPanic, CivilSimian, Kalokagathia