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Confucius
Confucius
5 months 2 weeks ago
When we see men of...

When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

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Philosophical Maxims
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
5 months 1 week ago
What would you say of that...

What would you say of that man who was made king by the error of the people, if he had so far forgotten his natural condition as to imagine that this kingdom was due to him, that he deserved it, and that it belonged to him of right? You would marvel at his stupidity and folly. But is there less in the people of rank who live in so strange a forgetfulness of their natural condition?

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Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
4 months 3 weeks ago
We know nothing accurately in reality,...

We know nothing accurately in reality, but [only] as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the constitution of those things that flow upon [the body] and impinge upon it.

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Freeman (1948), p. 142
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
4 months 4 weeks ago
By 'arguing...' I mean... criticizing... inviting......

By 'arguing...' I mean... criticizing... inviting... criticism; and trying to learn from it.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
4 weeks ago
Whenever the general...
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Jesus
Jesus
3 months 3 weeks ago
Why trouble ye the woman? for...

Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.

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26:10-13 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Zoroaster
Zoroaster
4 months 3 weeks ago
With an ignorant man thou shouldst...

With an ignorant man thou shouldst not become a confederate and associate.

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Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
1 month 1 day ago
High up where the poor sat,...

High up where the poor sat, the people quaked with fear:they saw the soul stretched on the ground, a votive beastbeaten by the conflicting powers of light and dark,and their minds shook, nor knew now what great god to choose,for comfort's road dropped to the right, the rough ascentrose to the left, and both roads seemed to lead to God,while at the crossroads stood the human heart, and swayed.

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Book VI, line 242
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 1 day ago
'Tis the good reader that makes...

Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakenly meant for his ear.

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Success
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 1 day ago
A world full of happiness is...

A world full of happiness is not beyond human power to create; the obstacles imposed by inanimate nature are not insuperable. The real obstacles lie in the heart of man, and the cure for these is a firm hope, informed and fortified by thought.

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Ch. VI: International relations, p. 106
Philosophical Maxims
Theodor Adorno
Theodor Adorno
3 months 2 weeks ago
The thesis of the identity of...

The thesis of the identity of concept and thing is in general the vital nerve of idealist thought, and indeed traditional thought in general. ... Negative dialectics as critique means above all criticism of precisely this claim to identity.

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p. 20
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 2 weeks ago
Do you desire another case? Take...

Do you desire another case? Take that of the younger Marcus Cato, with whom Fortune dealt in a more hostile and more persistent fashion. But he withstood her, on all occasions, and in his last moments, at the point of death, showed that a brave man can live in spite of Fortune, can die in spite of her. His whole life was passed either in civil warfare, or under a political regime which was soon to breed civil war.

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Philosophical Maxims
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
2 months 1 week ago
I kept looking at the flowers...

I kept looking at the flowers in a vase near me: lavender sweet peas, fragile winged and yet so still, so perfectly poised, apart, and complete. They are self-sufficient, a world in themselves, a whole - perfect. Is that then, perfection? Is what those sweet peas had what I have, occasionally in moments like that? But flowers always have it - poise, completion, fulfillment, perfection; I only occasionally, like that moment. For that moment I and the sweet peas had an understanding.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month 3 weeks ago
By awakening the Heroic that slumbers...

By awakening the Heroic that slumbers in every heart, can any Religion gain followers.

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Philosophical Maxims
Cornel West
Cornel West
4 months 3 weeks ago
This market way of life promotes...

This market way of life promotes addictions to stimulation and obsessions with comfort and convenience.

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(p29)
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
5 months ago
Every crusader is apt to go...

Every crusader is apt to go mad. He is haunted by the wickedness which he attributes to his enemies; it becomes in some sort a part of him.

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Aldous Huxley, The Devils of Loudon Chatto & Windus, London, (1951), ch. 9, p. 274
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
2 months 4 weeks ago
In tetrad form, the artefact is...

In tetrad form, the artefact is seen to be not netural or passive, but an active logos or utterance of the human mind or body that transforms the user and his ground.

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p. 99
Philosophical Maxims
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre
4 weeks ago
All the science in the world...

All the science in the world began in temples, and the first astronomers especially were priests. I do not say that it necessary to begin again with the antique initiation, and to change the presidents of our academies into hierophants, but I say that all things begin again as they began, that they all carry an original principle that modifies itself according to the different character of nations and the progressive advance of the human mind, but which however always shows itself in one way or another. Priests have preserved everything, brooded over everything, and taught us everything.

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p. 283
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
2 months 4 weeks ago
Until now a culture has been...

Until now a culture has been a mechanical fate for societies, the automatic interiorization of their own technologies.

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(p. 86)
Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
4 months 5 days ago
It is said that desire is...

It is said that desire is a product of the will, but the converse is in fact true: will is a product of desire.

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"Will, Freedom"
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
3 months 2 weeks ago
We must needs believe in the...

We must needs believe in the other life, in the eternal life beyond the grave. ...And we must needs believe in that other life, perhaps, in order that we may deserve it, in order that we may obtain it, for it may be that he neither deserves it nor will obtain it who does not passionately desire it above reason and, if need be, against reason.

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Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
3 months 2 weeks ago
It seemed perfectly possible that, in...

It seemed perfectly possible that, in spite of my certainty of my own genius, I might die of some illness, or perhaps even in a street accident, before I had ever glimpsed the meaning of life. My moods of happiness and self-confidence convinced me that I had a "destiny" to become a famous writer, and to be remembered as one of the most important thinkers of the century.

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p. 67
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months ago
If people would but understand that...

If people would but understand that they are not the sons of some fatherland or other, nor of Governments, but are sons of God, and can therefore neither be slaves nor enemies one to another - those insane, unnecessary, worn-out, pernicious organizations called Governments, and all the sufferings, violations, humiliations and crimes which they occasion, would cease.

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Patriotism and Government
Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
3 months 3 weeks ago
History is nothing but assisted and...

History is nothing but assisted and recorded memory. It might almost be said to be no science at all, if memory and faith in memory were not what science necessarily rest on. In order to sift evidence we must rely on some witness, and we must trust experience before we proceed to expand it. The line between what is known scientifically and what has to be assumed in order to support knowledge is impossible to draw. Memory itself is an internal rumour; and when to this hearsay within the mind we add the falsified echoes that reach us from others, we have but a shifting and unseizable basis to build upon. The picture we frame of the past changes continually and grows every day less similar to the original experience which it purports to describe.

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Ch. 2 "History"
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
4 months 1 day ago
The pretended rights of these theorists...

The pretended rights of these theorists are all extremes: and in proportion as they are metaphysically true, they are morally and politically false. The rights of men are in a sort of middle, incapable of definition, but not impossible to be discerned. The rights of men in government are their advantages; and these are often in balances between differences of good; in compromises between good and evil, and sometimes between evil and evil. Political reason is a computing principle: adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing, morally and not metaphysically or mathematically, true moral denominations.

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Philosophical Maxims
Max Stirner
Max Stirner
1 month 2 weeks ago
Because the Egoist is to...

Because the Egoist is to himself the warder of the human, and has nothing to say to the state except: "Get out of my sunshine!"

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Tucker 1907, p. 307
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
5 months 1 day ago
Even the best things are not...

Even the best things are not equal to their fame.

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Pearls of Thought (1881) p. 87
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
3 months 2 weeks ago
Zen Buddhism is inspired by a...

Zen Buddhism is inspired by a basic trust in the Here, a basic trust in the world.

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Philosophical Maxims
Peter Singer
Peter Singer
4 months 3 weeks ago
Human social institutions can effect the...

Human social institutions can effect the course of human evolution. Just as climate-change, food supply, predators, and other natural forces of selection have molded our nature, so too can our culture.

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Chapter 6, A New Understanding Of Ethics, p. 172
Philosophical Maxims
Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus
5 months 1 week ago
As Christ had recommended peace during...

As Christ had recommended peace during the whole of his life, mark with what anxiety he enforces it at the approach of his dissolution. Love one another, says he; as I have loved you, so love one another; and again, my peace I give unto you, my peace I leave you. Do you observe the legacy he leaves to those whom he loves? Is it a pompous retinue, a large estate, or empire? Nothing of this kind. What is it then? Peace he giveth, his peace he leaveth; peace, not only with our near connections, but with enemies and strangers!

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Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
5 months 2 weeks ago
Be loyal and trustworthy. Do...

Be loyal and trustworthy. Do not befriend anyone who is lower than yourself in this regard. When making a mistake, do not be afraid to correct it.

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Philosophical Maxims
Herbert A. Simon
Herbert A. Simon
3 months 1 week ago
The world you perceive is drastically...

The world you perceive is drastically simplified model of the real world.

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p. xxvi.
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert A. Simon
Herbert A. Simon
3 months 1 week ago
By public administration is meant, in...

By public administration is meant, in common usage, the activities of the executive branches of national, state, and local governments; independent boards and commissions set up by the congress and state legislatures; government corporations, and certain agencies of a specialized character. Specifically excluded are judicial and legislative agencies within the government and nongovernmental administration.

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p. 7
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
5 months 5 days ago
Monopoly of one kind or another,...

Monopoly of one kind or another, indeed, seems to be the sole engine of the mercantile system.

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Chapter VII, Part Third, p. 684.
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
6 months 3 days ago
Art furnishes us with eyes and...
Art furnishes us with eyes and hands and above all the good conscience to be able to turn ourselves into such a phenomenon.
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Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 2 weeks ago
I shall never….

I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.

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Alternate translation: I shall never be ashamed to go to a bad author for a good quotation. Chapter 11, Section 8
Philosophical Maxims
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
1 month 2 weeks ago
No furniture so charming as books....

No furniture so charming as books.

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Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 289
Philosophical Maxims
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
2 months 3 weeks ago
I shall doubtless outlive some troublesome...

I shall doubtless outlive some troublesome desires; but I am in no hurry about that; nor, when the time comes, shall I plume myself on the immunity just in the same way, I do not greatly pride myself on having outlived my belief in the fairy tales of Socialism. Old people have faults of their own; they tend to become cowardly, niggardly, and suspicious. Whether from the growth of experience or the decline of animal heat, I see that age leads to these and certain other faults; and it follows, of course, that while in one sense I hope I am journeying towards the truth, in another I am indubitably posting towards these forms and sources of error.

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Crabbed Age and Youth.
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
5 months 4 days ago
He is happy, whose circumstances suit...

He is happy, whose circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent, who can suit his temper to any circumstances.

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§ 6.9 : Of Qualities Useful to Ourselves, Pt. 1
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
6 months 1 day ago
Father in heaven, when the thought...

Father in heaven, when the thought of thee awakens in our soul, let it not waken as an agitated bird which flutters confusedly about, but as a child waking from sleep with a celestial smile.

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Philosophical Maxims
Antonio Negri
Antonio Negri
1 month 3 weeks ago
Reality and history, however, are not...

Reality and history, however, are not dialectical, and no idealist rhetorical gymnastics can make them conform to the dialect.

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131
Philosophical Maxims
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
3 months 1 week ago
People do not go into the...

People do not go into the company of their fellow-creatures for what would seem a very sufficient reason, namely, that they have something to say to them, or something that they want to hear from them; but in the vague hope that they may find something to say.

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Philosophical Maxims
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1 month 3 weeks ago
Who is the happiest of men?...

Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, And in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own. Not in the morning alone, not only at mid-day he charmeth; Even at setting, the sun is still the same glorious planet.

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Distichs in The Poems of Goethe (1853) as translated in the original metres by Edgar Alfred Bowring
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Schelling
Friedrich Schelling
4 months 1 day ago
Yes! We believe in a higher...

Yes! We believe in a higher principle than your virtue and the kind of morality you speak of so paltrily and without much conviction. We believe that there is no imperative or reward for virtue for the soul because it simply acts according to the necessity of its inherent nature. The moral imperative expresses itself in an ought and presupposes the concept of an evil next to that of good.

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P. 43
Philosophical Maxims
John Gray
John Gray
2 months 1 week ago
Human knowledge increases, while human irrationality...

Human knowledge increases, while human irrationality stays the same. Scientific inquiry may be an embodiment of reason, but what such inquiry demonstrates is that humans are not rational animals. The fact that humanists refuse to accept the demonstration only confirms its truth.

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An Old Chaos: Humanism and Flying Saucers (p. 81)
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 3 weeks ago
Look at the birds of the...

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

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Matthew 6:26 (NKJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 1 day ago
The law books abound with similar...

The law books abound with similar instances of the care the judges take of the public integrity, Laws, moreover, abridging the natural right of the citizen, should be restrained by rigorous constructions within their narrowest limits.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 2 days ago
When I found myself regarded as...

When I found myself regarded as respectable, I began to wonder what sins I had committed. I must be very wicked, I thought. I began to engage in the most uncomfortable introspection. Interview with Irwin Ross, September 1957;If there were a God, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt his existence.

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Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell (2005), p. 385
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 2 weeks ago
And yet life…

And yet life, Lucilius, is really a battle.

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Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
4 months 2 weeks ago
Force without wisdom…

Force without wisdom falls of its own weight.

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Philosophical Maxims
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