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William James
William James
2 months 2 days ago
A paradise of inward tranquility seems...

A paradise of inward tranquility seems to be faith's usual result.

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Lectures XI, XII, and XIII, "Saintliness"
Philosophical Maxims
Novalis
Novalis
1 month ago
Building worlds is not enough for...

Building worlds is not enough for the deeper urging mind; but a loving heart sates the striving spirit.

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Fragment No. 91
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 week ago
There's no objective morality....

There's no objective morality, but that's not the real point. It's not the point that morality has to somehow be a stone, or something that can be touched. 

The options that are available to choose are determined to a point, and this is the objective aspect of morality, ethics, goodness, fairness, justice. 

The subjective aspect can still remain subjective, but that doesn't mean goodness is relative.....at all. The measure of a man is a man.

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Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
1 month 3 days ago
If any ask me what a...

If any ask me what a free Government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so, - and that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this matter.

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Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
2 months 5 days ago
Newton... (after having remarked that geometry...

Newton... (after having remarked that geometry only requires two of the mechanical actions which it postulates, namely, to describe a straight line and a circle) says: geometry is proud of being able to achieve so much while taking so little from extraneous sources. One might say of metaphysics, on the other hand: it stands astonished, that with so much offered it by pure mathematics it can effect so little. In the meantime, this little is something which mathematics indispensably requires in its application to natural science, which, inasmuch as it must here necessarily borrow from metaphysics, need not be ashamed to allow itself to be seen in company with the latter.

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Preface, Tr. Bax (1883) citing Isaac Newton's Principia
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
2 months 4 weeks ago
The words that reverberate for us...

The words that reverberate for us at the confines of this long adventure of rebellion are not formulas for optimism, for which we have no possible use in the extremities of our unhappiness, but words of courage and intelligence which, on the shores of the eternal seas, even have the qualities of virtue.

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Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
1 month 3 days ago
We are at war with a...

We are at war with a system, which, by it's essence, is inimical to all other Governments, and which makes peace or war, as peace and war may best contribute to their subversion. It is with an armed doctrine that we are at war. It has, by it's essence, a faction of opinion, and of interest, and of enthusiasm, in every country. To us it is a Colossus which bestrides our channel. It has one foot on a foreign shore, the other upon the British soil. Thus advantaged, if it can at all exist, it must finally prevail.

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p. 19
Philosophical Maxims
Cisero
Cisero
2 months 2 weeks ago
I have always been..

I have always been of the opinion that infamy earned by doing what is right is not infamy at all, but glory.

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Speech I
Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
2 months 5 days ago
Through failures one becomes intelligent; but...

Through failures one becomes intelligent; but the one who has trained himself in this subject so that he can make others wise through their own failures, has used his intelligence. Ignorance is not stupidity.

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Kant, Immanuel (1996), page 100
Philosophical Maxims
Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
2 weeks 4 days ago
Myth deprives the object of which...

Myth deprives the object of which it speaks of all history. In it, history evaporates.

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p. 151
Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
2 months 1 day ago
Many conservative writers have contended that...

Many conservative writers have contended that the tendency to equality in modern social movements is the expression of envy. In this way they seek to discredit this trend, attributing it to collectively harmful impulses.

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Chapter IX, Section 82, p. 538
Philosophical Maxims
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
1 month 3 weeks ago
In the old system, the body...

In the old system, the body of the condemned man became the king's property, on which the sovereign left his mark and brought down the effects of his power. Now he will be rather the property of society, the object of a collective and useful appropriation.

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Chapter Three, The Gentle Way in Punishment
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
3 months 3 days ago
To become sober is: to come...

To become sober is: to come to oneself in self-knowledge and before God as nothing before him, yet infinitely, unconditionally engaged.

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Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
1 month 3 days ago
Resolved to die in the last...

Resolved to die in the last dike of prevarication.

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Speech on the sixth article of charge in the impeachment of Warren Hastings (7 May 1789), quoted in The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Volume the Tenth (1899), p. 406
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
1 month 1 week ago
In America the majority raises formidable...

In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them.

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Chapter XV, in a section titled Tryanny of the Majority.
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
2 months 6 days ago
In England, success in the profession...

In England, success in the profession of the law leads to some very great objects of ambition; and yet how few men, born to easy fortunes, have ever in this country been eminent in that profession?

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Chapter I, Part III, p. 824.
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 3 days ago
This idea of weapons of mass...

This idea of weapons of mass extermination is utterly horrible and is something which no one with one spark of humanity can tolerate. I will not pretend to obey a government which is organising a mass massacre of mankind.

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Speech in Birmingham, England encouraging civil disobedience in support of nuclear disarmament, 4/15/1961
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
2 months 1 week ago
Since the law is good, the...

Since the law is good, the will, which is hostile to it, cannot be good.

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Thesis 87
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 3 days ago
I do not wish to force...

I do not wish to force my thoughts upon you, but I feel forced myself. Little as I know of Captain Brown, I would fain do my part to correct the tone and the statements of the newspapers, and of my countrymen generally, respecting his character and actions. It costs us nothing to be just. We can at least express our sympathy with, and admiration of, him and his companions, and that is what I now propose to do.

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Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
2 weeks 5 days ago
Isolation is the worst possible counselor....

Isolation is the worst possible counselor.

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Civilization is Civilism
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
1 month 3 days ago
So to be patriots as not...

So to be patriots as not to forget we are gentlemen.

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Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
2 months 1 week ago
Lying and guile need only to...

Lying and guile need only to be revealed and recognized to be undone. When once lying is recognized as such, it needs no second stroke; it falls of itself and vanishes in shame.

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p. 60
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
4 weeks 1 day ago
I have taken pains to make...

I have taken pains to make my distinction of icons, indices, and tokens clear, in order to enunciate this proposition: in a perfect system of logical notation signs of these several kinds must all be employed. Without tokens there would be no generality in the statements, for they are the only general signs; and generality is essential to reasoning. ... But tokens alone do not state what is the subject of discourse ; and this can, in fact, not be described in general terms ; it can only be indicated. The actual world cannot be distinguished from a world of imagination by any description. Hence the need of pronoun and indices, and the more complicated the subject the greater the need of them.

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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
2 months 3 days ago
By quarrelling amongst themselves, instead of...

By quarrelling amongst themselves, instead of confederating, Germans and Scandinavians, both of them belonging to the same great race, only prepare the way for their hereditary enemy, the Slav. 

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The Eastern Question: A Reprint of Letters written 1853 -1856 dealing with the events of the Crimean War, edit., Eleanor Marx Aveling, London, Swan Sonnenschein & Co. (1897) p. 90
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
3 weeks 4 days ago
For such is the nature of...

For such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned; Yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves: For they see their own wit at hand, and other men's at a distance.

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The First Part, Chapter 13, p. 61
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
1 week 5 days ago
The fly that doesn't want to...

The fly that doesn't want to be swatted is most secure when it lights on the fly-swatter.

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J 70 Variant translation: The fly that does not want to be swatted is safest if it sits on the fly-swat.
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
2 months 3 days ago
The writers by whom, more than...

The writers by whom, more than by any others, a new mode of political thinking was brought home to me, were those of the St. Simonian school in France. In 1829 and 1830 I became acquainted with some of their writings. They were then only in the earlier stages of their speculations. They had not yet dressed out their philosophy as a religion, nor had they organized their scheme of Socialism. They were just beginning to question the principle of hereditary property. I was by no means prepared to go with them even this length; but I was greatly struck with the connected view which they for the first time presented to me, of the natural order of human progress; and especially with their division of all history into organic periods and critical periods.

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(p. 163)
Philosophical Maxims
Parmenides
Parmenides
1 month 2 weeks ago
It is indifferent to me where...

It is indifferent to me where I am to begin, for there shall I return again.

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Frag. B 5, quoted by Proclus, Commentary on the Parmenides, 708
Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
1 month 2 weeks ago
Take not thine enemy for thy...

Take not thine enemy for thy friend; nor thy friend for thine enemy!

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Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
3 months ago
Printing will tell you such useful...

Printing will tell you such useful things and such interesting things that not being able to read would be as bad as not being able to see.

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Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
3 weeks 4 days ago
Understanding finds nothing but itself when...

Understanding finds nothing but itself when it seeks the essence behind the appearance of things. 'It is manifest that behind the so-called curtain, which is to hide the inner world, there is nothing to be seen unless we ourselves go behind there, as much in order that we may thereby see, as that there may be something behind there which can be seen.'

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P. 111
Philosophical Maxims
Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach
4 weeks ago
:...Vienna is the origin of so...

:...Vienna is the origin of so many schools of its own which were dominant in the 1920s. And one of the most fundamental and influential, in which we all were partially caught, was logical positivism. In fact, Mises' brother, Richard von Mises, became one of the leading figures. Now he and I all grew up in this Ernst Mach philosophy that ultimately everything must be rationally justified...

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Friedrich Hayek, in 1985 interview, quoted in Alan Ebenstein, Hayek's Journey: The Mind of Friedrich Hayek (2003), Ch. 10. Epistemology, Psychology, and Methodology
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 weeks 1 day ago
There is no false sensation.

There is no false sensation.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 weeks 4 days ago
See ye not all these things?...

See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

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24:2 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 weeks 1 day ago
One simple method is to take...

One simple method is to take a pen or pencil and hold it up against a blank wall or ceiling. Now concentrate on the pen as if it is the most important thing in the world. Then allow your sense to relax, so you see the pen against the background of the wall. Concentrate again. Relax again. Keep on doing this until you become aware of the ability to focus attention at will. You will find that this unaccustomed activity of the will is tiring; it produces a sense of strain behind the eyes. My own perception is that if you persist, in spite of the strain, the result is acute discomfort, followed by a sudden immense relief - the 'peak experience'.

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p. 33
Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
3 months 3 days ago
When people are friends, they have...

When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition.

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Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 3 days ago
When will the world learn that...

When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?

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Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson, 8 June 1843
Philosophical Maxims
Nikolai Berdyaev
Nikolai Berdyaev
2 weeks 5 days ago
There is no objective reality. But...

There is no objective reality. But there is only an illusion of consciousness, there is only an objectivication of reality, which was created by the spirit. The origin of life is creativity, freedom; and the personality, subject, and spirit are the representatives of that origin, but not the nature, not the object.

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As translated at Gallery of Russian Thinkers ... selected by Dmitry Olshansky
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
6 days ago
God gave us....
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Main Content / General
David Hume
David Hume
2 months 6 days ago
What a noble privilege is it...

What a noble privilege is it of human reason to attain the knowledge of the supreme Being; and, from the visible works of nature, be enabled to infer so sublime a principle as its supreme Creator? But turn the reverse of the medal. Survey most nations and most ages. Examine the religious principles, which have, in fact, prevailed in the world. You will scarcely be persuaded, that they are any thing but sick men's dreams: Or perhaps will regard them more as the playsome whimsies of monkies in human shape, than the serious, positive, dogmatical asseverations of a being, who dignifies himself with the name of rational.

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Part XV - General corollary
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
2 months 1 day ago
If the Jew did not exist,...

If the Jew did not exist, the anti-Semite would invent him.

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p. 8
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
4 weeks 1 day ago
Time with its continuity logically involves...

Time with its continuity logically involves some other kind of continuity than its own. Time, as the universal form of change, cannot exist unless there is something to undergo change, and to undergo a change continuous in time, there must be a continuity of changeable qualities.

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Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
2 months 4 weeks ago
This was her finest role and...

This was her finest role and the hardest one to play. Choosing between heaven and a ridiculous fidelity, preferring oneself to eternity or losing oneself in God is the age-old tragedy in which each must play his part.

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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
3 weeks 2 days ago
If the result of a war...

If the result of a war is to change nothing, but only to destroy, with the mere result that a group of human beings who do not differ notably from the conquered acquires preponderant advantages for the future, there is lacking the affective strength of an existence that has inspired faith, of an existence whose destiny would have been decided by the war.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 weeks 1 day ago
What place do we occupy in...

What place do we occupy in the "universe"? A point, if that! Why reproach ourselves when we are evidently so insignificant? Once we make this observation, we grow calm at once: henceforth, no more bother, no more frenzy, metaphysical or otherwise. And then that point dilates, swells, substitutes itself for space. And everything begins all over again.

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Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
1 month 3 weeks ago
In peace, as a wise man….

In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war.

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Book II, satire ii, line 111
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
2 weeks 2 days ago
The eros-driven soul produces beautiful things,...

The eros-driven soul produces beautiful things, and, above all, beautiful actions, which have a universal value.

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Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 weeks 1 day ago
It is not enough to accept...

It is not enough to accept a concept of order and live by it; that is cowardice, and such cowardice cannot result from freedom. Chaos must be faced. Real order must be preceded by a descent into chaos.

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Chapter Three, The Romantic Outsider
Philosophical Maxims
Lucretius
Lucretius
2 months 2 weeks ago
Again and again…

Again and again our foe, religion, has given birth to deeds sinful and unholy.

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Book I, lines 82-83 (tr. C. Bailey)
Philosophical Maxims
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida
1 month 3 weeks ago
Whatever the poverty of our knowledge...

Whatever the poverty of our knowledge in this respect, it is certain that the question of the sign is itself more or less, or in any event something other, than a sign of the times. To dream of reducing it to a sign of the times is to dream of violence.

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Force and Signification
Philosophical Maxims
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