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C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
3 months 1 day 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
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
1 month 2 weeks ago
I began to practice 'meditation', sitting...

I began to practice 'meditation', sitting cross-legged for hours, staring straight in front of me. The result was a sudden and total transformation of my inner-being. There was a sense of freedom from my personality -- from the being called Colin Wilson who was born in Leicester in 1931. I felt that 'he' was a series of responses and reactions, of ambitions and frustrations. But after half an hour of staring straight in front of me, of concentrating my attention 'at the root of my eyebrows', I felt in control of his responses and frustrations. This control brought such a sense of exhilaration and satisfaction that I often sneaked away from other people to spend just five minutes sitting cross-legged; when I was working as a labourer on a building site, I would find a quiet spot and, while the others were having a smoke, would sit in a position that could quickly be changed to an ordinary sitting posture if someone came by . . .

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p. 87
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
1 month ago
All media of communications are cliches...

All media of communications are cliches serving to enlarge man's scope of action, his patterns of associations and awareness. These media create environments that numb our powers of attention by sheer pervasiveness.

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Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
2 months 3 weeks ago
Throw moderation to the winds, and...

Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.

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Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
1 month ago
The TV camera has no shutter....

The TV camera has no shutter. It does not deal with aspects or facets of objects in high resolution. It is a means of direct pick-up by the electrical groping over surfaces.

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Arts in society, Volume 3, 1964, p. 242
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 month 3 weeks ago
Follow me, and I will make...

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

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4:19 (KJV) Said to Peter and Andrew
Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
3 months 2 weeks ago
Ira festuca est, odium trabes est....

Anger is a weed; hate is the tree.

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58 Alternate versions: Anger is a stem, hate is a trunk. Anger is the mote, hate is the beam.
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
2 months 3 weeks ago
The human body is the best...

The human body is the best picture of the human soul.

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Pt II, p. 178
Philosophical Maxims
Novalis
Novalis
1 month 4 weeks ago
The division of Philosopher and Poet...

The division of Philosopher and Poet is only apparent, and to the disadvantage of both. It is a sign of disease, and of a sickly constitution.

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Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
3 months 3 weeks ago
The Superior Man has nothing...

The Superior Man has nothing to compete for. But if he must compete, he does it in an archery match, wherein he ascends to his position, bowing in deference. Descending, he drinks (or has [the winner] drink) the ritual cup. Note: Bowing is a courtesy for the host who invites him as well drinking a cup.

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Philosophical Maxims
Arnold J. Toynbee
Arnold J. Toynbee
2 weeks 1 day ago
Compared with the life-span of a...

Compared with the life-span of a human being the time-span of a civilization is so vast that a human observer cannot hope to take the measure of its curve unless he is in a position to view it in a distant perspective; and he can only obtain this perspective vis-a-vis some society that is extinct. He can never stand back sufficiently far from the history of the society in which he himself lives and moves and has his being. In other words, to assert of any living society, at any moment in its life, that it is the consummation of human history is to hazard a guess which is intrinsically unsusceptible of immediate verification. When we find that a majority of the members of all societies at all times make this assertion about their own civilizations, it becomes evident that their guesses have really nothing to do with any objective calculation of probabilities but are pure expressions of the egocentric illusion.

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Vol. 1
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 week 1 day ago
Opinion considers....
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Main Content / General
Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson
1 month 3 weeks ago
Men do not sufficiently realise that...

Men do not sufficiently realise that their future is in their own hands. Theirs is the task of determining first of all whether they want to go on living or not. Theirs is the responsibility, then, for deciding if they want merely to live, or intend to make just the extra effort required for fulfilling, even on their refractory planet, the essential function of the universe, which is a machine for the making of gods.

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Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
1 month ago
When we put our central nervous...

When we put our central nervous system outside us we returned to the primal nomadic state.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3 months 2 days ago
Next to the originator of a...

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it.

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Quotation and Originality
Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
2 months 2 weeks ago
Thrasyllus the Cynic begged a drachm...

Thrasyllus the Cynic begged a drachm of Antigonus. "That," said he, "is too little for a king to give." "Why, then," said the other, "give me a talent." "And that," said he, "is too much for a Cynic (or, for a dog) to receive."

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45 Antigonus I
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
3 months 4 weeks ago
There lay certitude; there, in the...

There lay certitude; there, in the daily round. All the rest hung on mere threads and trivial contingencies; you couldn't waste your time on it. The thing was to do your job as it should be done.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 4 weeks ago
Obviously God was a solution, and...

Obviously God was a solution, and obviously none so satisfactory that will ever be found again.

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Philosophical Maxims
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
2 months 2 days ago
These Lectures, conjoined with those which...

These Lectures, conjoined with those which have already appeared under the titles of "The Characteristics of the Present Age," and "The Nature of the Scholar," in the latter of which the tone of thought that governs the present course is applied to a particular subject, form a complete scheme of popular instruction, of which the present work exhibits the highest and clearest summit; and, taken together, they are the result of a process of self-culture, unceasingly pursued during the last six or seven years of my life, with greater leisure and in riper maturity, by means of that Philosophy in which I have been a partaker for thirteen years, and which, although, I hope, it has changed many things in me, has nevertheless itself suffered no change whatever during that period.

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Preface
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
3 months 3 days ago
In a really equal democracy, every...

In a really equal democracy, every or any section would be represented, not disproportionately, but proportionately. ... Unless they are, there is not equal government, but a government of inequality and privilege: one part of the people rule over the rest: there is a part whose fair and equal share of influence in the representation is withheld from them, contrary to all just government, but, above all, contrary to the principle of democracy, which professes equality as its very root and foundation.

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Ch. VII: Of True and False Democracy; Representation of All, and Representation of the Majority only (p. 248)
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
3 months 6 days ago
It is a great mortification to...

It is a great mortification to the vanity of man, that his utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or value. Art is only the under-workman, and is employed to give a few strokes of embellishment to those pieces, which come from the hand of the master.

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Part I, Essay 15: The Epicurean
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
3 months 3 days ago
There was once a millionaire who...

There was once a millionaire who bought an infinite number of pairs of shoes and, whenever he bought a pair of shoes, he also bought a pair of socks. We can make a selection choosing one out of each pair of shoes, because we can choose always the right shoe or always the left shoe. Thus, so far as the shoes are concerned, selections exist. But, as regards the socks, where there is no distinction of right and left, we cannot use this rule of selection.

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pp. 93-93
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 4 weeks ago
I seem to myself, among civilised...

I seem to myself, among civilised men, an intruder, a troglodyte enamored of decrepitude, plunged into subversive prayers.

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Philosophical Maxims
Isaiah Berlin
Isaiah Berlin
1 month 3 weeks ago
The very desire for guarantees that...

The very desire for guarantees that our values are eternal and secure in some objective heaven is perhaps only a craving for the certainties of childhood or the absolute values of our primitive past.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3 months 2 days ago
We are born believing. A man...

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.

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Worship
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
3 months 6 days ago
People who invented the word charity,...

People who invented the word charity, and used it in a good sense, inculcated more clearly, and much more efficaciously, the precept, Be charitable, than any pretended legislator or prophet, who should insert such a maxim in his writings.

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Part I, Essay 22: Of the Standard of Taste
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
1 month 3 weeks ago
But this priviledge, is allayed by...

But this priviledge, is allayed by another; and that is, by the priviledge of Absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only.

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The First Part, Chapter 5, p. 20
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
3 months 4 days ago
Life is just a notebook with...

Life is just a notebook with blank pages. Every time we make a mistake, the pages get stained and living in it becomes impossible.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 4 weeks ago
Crime in full glory consolidates authority...

Crime in full glory consolidates authority by the sacred fear it inspires.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3 months 2 days ago
In different hours, a man represents...

In different hours, a man represents each of several of his ancestors, as if there were seven or eight of us rolled up in each man's skin, - seven or eight ancestors at least, - and they constitute the variety of notes for that new piece of music which his life is.

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Fate
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
4 months ago
There can never be a man...

There can never be a man so lost as one who is lost in the vast and intricate corrdiors of his own lonely mind, where none may reach and none may save. There never was a man so helpless as one who cannot remember.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3 months 2 days ago
By necessity, by proclivity, and by...

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote.

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Quotation and Originality
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
3 months 1 day ago
If you read history you will...

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next... It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at earth and you will get neither.

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Book III, Chapter 10, "Hope"
Philosophical Maxims
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2 months 2 days ago
So long as man remains free...

So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find some one to worship.

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Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
4 weeks 1 day ago
An agreeable companion on a journey...

An agreeable companion on a journey is as good as a carriage.

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Maxim 143
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
3 months 3 days ago
A truer image of the world,...

A truer image of the world, I think, is obtained by picturing things as entering into the stream of time from an eternal world outside, than from a view which regards time as the devouring tyrant of all that is.

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Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
2 months 1 week ago
That Vulcan gave arrows unto Apollo...

That Vulcan gave arrows unto Apollo and Diana the fourth day after their Nativities, according to Gentile Theology, may pass for no blind apprehension of the Creation of the Sun and Moon, in the work of the fourth day.

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Opening lines of Ch. 1
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
3 months 1 day ago
The belief in a political Utopia...

The belief in a political Utopia is especially dangerous. This is possibly connected with the fact that the search for a better world, like the investigation of our environment, is (if I am correct) one of the oldest and most important of all the instincts.

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Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
1 month 3 weeks ago
Such abstraction which refuses to accept...

Such abstraction which refuses to accept the given universe of facts as the final context of validation, such "transcending" analysis of the facts in the light of their arrested and denied possibilities, pertains to the very structure of social theory.

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p. xliii
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
1 month 2 weeks 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
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
4 months 3 days ago
Between God and man there is...

Between God and man there is and remains an eternal, essential, qualitative difference. The paradoxical relationship (which, quite rightly, cannot be thought, but only believed) appears when God appoints a particular man to divine authority, in relation, be it carefully noted, to that which has entrusted to him.

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Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
2 months 1 week ago
The universal Intellect is the intimate,...

The universal Intellect is the intimate, most real, peculiar and powerful part of the soul of the world. This is the single whole which filleth the whole, illumineth the universe and directeth nature to the production of natural things, as our intellect with the congruous production of natural kinds.

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Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
1 month 2 weeks ago
Psychological disorders are symptoms of a...

Psychological disorders are symptoms of a blocked story... The patient is cured the moment she narrates herself free.

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Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
4 months 3 days ago
The next thing you can learn...

The next thing you can learn from the woman who was a sinner, something she herself understood, is that with regard to finding forgiveness she is able to do nothing at all.

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Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
3 months 1 week ago
A true prayer and religious reconciling...

A true prayer and religious reconciling of ourselves to Almighty God cannot enter into an impure soul, subject at the very time to the dominion of Satan. He who calls God to his assistance whilst in a course of vice, does as if a cut-purse should call a magistrate to help him, or like those who introduce the name of God to the attestation of a lie.

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Ch. 56, tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
2 months 1 week ago
The long habit of living indisposeth...

The long habit of living indisposeth us for dying.

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Chapter V
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3 months 2 days ago
It is sublime as night and...

It is sublime as night and a breathless ocean. It contains every religious sentiment, all the grand ethics, which visit in turn each noble poetic mind .... It is of no use to put away the book if I trust myself in the woods or in a boat upon the pond. Nature makes a Brahmin of me presently: eternal compensation, unfathomable power, unbroken silence .... This is her creed. Peace, she saith to me, and purity and absolute abandonment - these panaceas expiate all sin and bring you to the beatitude of the Eight Gods.

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Quoted in Nani Ardeshir Palkhivala, India's Priceless Heritage, 1st ed. (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1980) pp. 9-24
Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
4 weeks 1 day ago
Necessity gives the law..

Necessity gives the law without itself acknowledging one.

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Maxim 444
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
3 months 2 days ago
In capitalist society however where social...

In capitalist society however where social reason always asserts itself only post festum great disturbances may and must constantly occur.

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Vol. II, Ch. XVI, p. 319.
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
1 month 4 weeks ago
Because we cannot discover God's throne...

Because we cannot discover God's throne in the sky with a radiotelescope or establish (for certain) that a beloved father or mother is still about in a more or less corporeal form, people assume that such ideas are "not true." I would rather say that they are not "true" enough, for these are conceptions of a kind that have accompanied human life from prehistoric times, and that still break through into consciousness at any provocation.

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Philosophical Maxims
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