Skip to main content

Main navigation

☰ ˟
  • Home
  • Articulation
  • Contact
  • Shop
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
3 weeks 2 days ago
Pain will force even the truthful...

Pain will force even the truthful to speak falsely.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Maxim 232
Philosophical Maxims
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
3 weeks 6 days ago
No matter how corrupt, greedy, and...

No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious and charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful. If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDEDFOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD WAS MUSIC. Now, during our catastrophically idiotic war in Vietnam, the music kept getting better and better and better. We lost that war, by the way. Order couldn't be restored in Indochina until the people kicked us out. That war only made billionaires out of millionaires. Today's war is making trillionaires out of billionaires. Now I call that progress.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in "Vonnegut's Blues For America" Sunday Herald
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard
4 weeks ago
The "hard law of value," the...

The "hard law of value," the "law set in stone"-when it abandons us, what sadness, what panic! This is why there are still good days left to fascist and authoritarian methods, because they revive something of the violence necessary to life-whether suffered or inflicted. The violence of ritual, the violence of work, the violence of knowledge, the violence of blood, the violence of power and of the political is good! It is clear, luminous, the relations of force, contradictions, exploitation, repression! This is lacking today, and the need for it makes itself felt.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"Value's Last Tango," p. 156
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
2 months 3 weeks ago
Hence money may be dirt, although...

Hence money may be dirt, although dirt is not money.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Vol. I, Ch. 3, Section 2, pg. 123.
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
1 month 1 week ago
In fact, we had a number...

In fact, we had a number of extreme leftists and trade unionists among us, and they seemed to take it for granted that we all agreed that the rich must somehow be forced to surrender their ill-gotten gains. Yet there was an air of good humor about their idealism that made me feel they would not be too offended if I admitted that I regard socialists as well-meaning but muddle-headed brigands.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 30
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
1 month 1 week ago
The combination of these two facts...

The combination of these two facts - the longing in the depth of the heart for absolute good, and the power, though only latent, of directing attention and love to a reality beyond the world and of receiving good from it - constitutes a link which attaches every man without exception to that other reality. Whoever recognizes that reality recognizes also that link. Because of it, he holds every human being without any exception as something sacred to which he is bound to show respect. This is the only possible motive for universal respect towards all human beings. Whatever formulation of belief or disbelief a man may choose to make, if his heart inclines him to feel this respect, then he in fact also recognizes a reality other than this world's reality. Whoever in fact does not feel this respect is alien to that other reality also.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
3 weeks 2 days ago
The content or time-clothing of any...

The content or time-clothing of any medium or culture is the preceding medium or culture.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(p. 168)
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 3 weeks ago
A gun gives you the body,...

A gun gives you the body, not the bird.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Quoted by Ralph Waldo Emerson, in C. J. Woodbury (ed.) Talks with Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1890
Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
3 months 3 weeks ago
It is absurd to hold that...

It is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs but not of being unable to defend himself with reason when the use of reason is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 month 3 weeks ago
Do not be too moral...
0
⚖0
Main Content / General
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
3 months 3 weeks ago
Christ speaks of two debtors, one...

Christ speaks of two debtors, one of whom owed much and the other little, and who both found forgiveness. He asks: Which of these two ought to love more? The answer: The one who has forgiven much. When you love much, you are forgiven much-and when you are forgiven much, you love much. See here the blessed recurrence of salvation in love!

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
2 months 4 weeks ago
The heights of popularity and patriotism...

The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny ; flattery to treachery ; standing armies to arbitrary government ; and the glory of God to the temporal interest of the clergy.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Part I, Essay 8: Of Public Credit (This appears as a footnote in editions H to P. Other editions include it in the body of the text, and some number it Essay 9.)
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 months 3 weeks ago
What strength belongs to every plant...

What strength belongs to every plant and animal in nature. The tree or the brook has no duplicity, no pretentiousness, no show. It is, with all its might and main, what it is, and makes one and the same impression and effect at all times. All the thoughts of a turtle are turtles, and of a rabbit, rabbits. But a man is broken and dissipated by the giddiness of his will; he does not throw himself into his judgments; his genius leads him one way but 't is likely his trade or politics in quite another.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"The Natural History of Intellect", p. 46
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
1 month 3 weeks ago
Here we must make one of...

Here we must make one of those inductive applications of the law of continuity which have produced such great results in all of the positive sciences. We must extend the law of insistency into the future. Plainly, the insistency of a future idea with reference to the present is a quantity affected by the minus sign; for it is the present that affects the future, if there be any effect, not the future that affects the present.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
2 months ago
What chiefly diverts the men of...

What chiefly diverts the men of democracies from lofty ambition is not the scantiness of their fortunes, but the vehemence of the exertions they daily make to improve them.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book Three, Chapter XIX.
Philosophical Maxims
Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
1 month 1 week ago
His concept of the anal character...

His concept of the anal character as one that has not reached maturity is in fact a sharp criticism of bourgeois society of the nineteenth century, in which the qualities of the anal character constituted the norm for moral behavior.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
To Have or to Be? (2005) p. 68
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
2 months 3 weeks ago
Farewell to the monsters…

Farewell to the monsters, farewell to the saints. Farewell to pride. All that is left is men.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Act 10, sc. 4
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
3 weeks 2 days ago
The printing press was at first...

The printing press was at first mistaken for an engine of immortality by everybody except Shakespeare.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(p. 230)
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
2 months 3 weeks ago
Critics who treat adult as a...

Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"On Three Ways of Writing for Children" (1952) - in Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories (1967), p. 25
Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
3 weeks 2 days ago
It is more easy…

It is more easy to get a favor from Fortune than to keep it.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Maxim 282
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
1 month 1 week ago
Man is as much a slave...

Man is as much a slave to his immediate surroundings now as he was when he lived in tree-huts. Give him the highest, the most exciting thoughts about man's place in the universe, the meaning of history; they can all be snuffed out in a moment if he wants his dinner, or feels irritated by a child squalling on a bus. He is bound by pettiness.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter Two, World Without Values
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
1 month 1 week ago
A man, in so far as...

A man, in so far as he is an individual, may be very sharply detached from others, a sort of spiritual crustacean, and yet be very poor in differentiating content. And further, it is true on the other hand that the more personality a man has and the greater his interior riches and the more he is a society within himself, the less brusquely he is divided from his fellows.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Auguste Comte
Auguste Comte
2 months ago
Mathematical Analysis is... the true rational...

Mathematical Analysis is... the true rational basis of the whole system of our positive knowledge.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Bk. 1, chap. 1; as cited in: Robert Edouard Moritz. Memorabilia mathematica; or, The philomath's quotation-book, (1914), p. 224
Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
2 months 2 weeks ago
In a shared fish, there are...

In a shared fish, there are no bones.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Freeman (1948), p. 157
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
3 months 3 weeks ago
Writing is an addiction more powerful...

Writing is an addiction more powerful than alcohol, than nicotine, than crack. I could not conceive of not writing.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 month 2 weeks ago
If you fast, you will give...

If you fast, you will give rise to sin for yourselves; and if you pray, you will be condemned; and if you give alms, you will do harm to your spirits. When you go into any land and walk about in the districts, if they receive you, eat what they will set before you, and heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but that which issues from your mouth—it is that which will defile you.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 3 weeks ago
One disgust, then another...

One disgust, then another - to the point of losing the use of speech and even of the mind...The greatest exploit of my life is to be still alive.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
2 months 4 weeks ago
Every thing in the world is...

Every thing in the world is purchased by labour.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Part II, Essay 1: Of Commerce
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 3 weeks ago
I am looking forward very much...

I am looking forward very much to getting back to Cambridge, and being able to say what I think and not to mean what I say: two things which at home are impossible. Cambridge is one of the few places where one can talk unlimited nonsense and generalities without anyone pulling one up or confronting one with them when one says just the opposite the next day.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to Alys Pearsall Smith (1893); published in The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell, Volume 1: The Private Years (1884-1914), edited by Nicholas Griffin
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
3 months 3 weeks ago
Junz found revulsion growing strong within...

Junz found revulsion growing strong within him. A planet full of people meant nothing against the dictates of economic necessity!

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
2 months 3 weeks ago
A philosophy without heart and a...

A philosophy without heart and a faith without intellect are abstractions from the true life of knowledge and faith. The man whom philosophy leaves cold, and the man whom real faith does not illuminate, may be assured that the fault lies in them, not in knowledge and faith. The former is still an alien to philosophy, the latter an alien to faith.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
1 month 2 weeks ago
... classic philosophy maintained that change,...

... classic philosophy maintained that change, and consequently time, are marks of inferior reality, holding that true and ultimate reality is immutable and eternal. Human reasons, all too human, have given birth to the idea that over and beyond the lower realm of things that shift like the sands on the seashore there is the kingdom of the unchanging, of the complete, the perfect. The grounds for the belief are couched in the technical language of philosophy, but the grounds for the cause is the heart's desire for surcease from change, struggle, and uncertainty. The eternal and immutable is the consummation of mortal man's quest for certainty.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 3 weeks ago
You can hardly convince a man...

You can hardly convince a man of an error in a lifetime, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
3 months 3 days ago
I approached the task of destroying...

I approached the task of destroying images by first tearing them out of the heart through God's Word and making them worthless and despised. This indeed took place before Dr. Karlstadt ever dreamed of destroying images. For when they are no longer in the heart, they can do no harm when seen with the eyes. But Dr. Karlstadt, who pays no attention to matters of the heart, has reversed the order by removing them from sight and leaving them in the heart. For he does not preach faith, nor can he preach it; unfortunately, only now do I see that. Which of these two forms of destroying images is best, I will let each man judge for himself.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
pp. 84-85
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 month 2 weeks ago
Get thee hence, Satan: for it...

Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
4:10 (KJV) Said to Satan.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
2 months 3 weeks ago
Eloquence may strike the ear, but...

Eloquence may strike the ear, but the language of poverty strikes the heart; the first may charm like music, but the second alarms like a knell. 

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Case of the Officers of Excise (1772), p. 20
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
3 months 2 weeks ago
You [a disciple], shall I...

You [a disciple], shall I teach you about knowledge? What you know, you know, what you don't know, you don't know. This is true knowledge.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
1 month 5 days ago
It is almost impossible to bear...

It is almost impossible to bear the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard. G 4 Variant translations: It is almost impossible to carry the torch of wisdom through a crowd without singeing someone's beard. It is virtually impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd, without singeing someone's beard

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
3 months 3 weeks ago
By 1204, the only place where...

By 1204, the only place where the entire body of Greek learning existed, still intact, was Constantinople. As a result of the crusaders' conquest, however, Constantinople was ruthlessly pillaged and destroyed and almost all the great treasures of ancient Greek learning were lost forever. It is because of that sack, for instance, that we have only seven plays left out of the better than one hundred written by Sophocles. The tragedy of 1204 can never be undone and for all of time, only bits and pieces of the marvelous Greek world can be known to us.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
3 weeks 2 days ago
Even a single hair casts its...

Even a single hair casts its shadow.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Maxim 228
Philosophical Maxims
Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton
2 weeks 4 days ago
Take any aspect of the Western...

Take any aspect of the Western inheritance of which our ancestors were proud, and you will find university courses devoted to deconstructing it. Take any positive feature of our political and cultural inheritance, and you will find concerted efforts in both the media and the academy to place it in quotation marks, and make it look like an imposture or a deceit.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(p. 40)
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 3 weeks ago
All that is Life in me...

All that is Life in me urges me to give up God.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
2 months 3 weeks ago
Freedom is what you do….

Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
2 months 2 days ago
Since I have spread my wings...

Since I have spread my wings to purpose high, The more beneath my feet the clouds I see, The more I give the winds my pinions free, Spurning the earth and soaring to the sky.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in "Giordano Bruno" by Thomas Davidson, in The Index Vol. VI. No. 36 (4 March 1886), p. 429
Philosophical Maxims
Antisthenes
Antisthenes
2 months 2 weeks ago
Pay attention to your enemies, for...

Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
§ 12
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 3 weeks ago
Neither a man nor a crowd...

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
3 months 3 weeks ago
Since... nature is a principle of...

Since... nature is a principle of motion and mutation... it is necessary that we should not be ignorant of what motion is... But motion appears to belong to things continuous; and the infinite first presents itself to the view in that which is continuous. ...Frequently ...those who define the continuous, employ the nature or the infinite, as if that which is divisible to infinity is continuous.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
2 months ago
We are sleeping on a volcano......

We are sleeping on a volcano... A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Speaking in the Chamber of Deputies just prior to to outbreak of revolution in Europe (1848).
Philosophical Maxims
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
3 months 1 week ago
If, being duke and peer, you...

If, being duke and peer, you would not be contented with my standing uncovered before you, but should also wish that I should esteem you, I should ask you to show me the qualities that merit my esteem. If you did this, you would gain it, and I could not refuse it to you with justice; but if you did not do it, you would be unjust to demand it of me; and assuredly you would not succeed, were you the greatest prince in the world.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
2 months 2 weeks ago
One should emulate works and deeds...

One should emulate works and deeds of virtue, not arguments about it.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
  • 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