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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
4 months 3 weeks ago
The pleasures of the imagination are...

The pleasures of the imagination are as it were only drawings and models which are played with by poor people who cannot afford the real thing.

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C 38
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
6 months 2 weeks ago
The necessity of speaking, the predicament...

The necessity of speaking, the predicament of having nothing to say, and the desire for tact are three things that can turn the greatest man into a laughingstock.

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Philosophical Maxims
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
2 months 4 weeks ago
It is true that every increase...

It is true that every increase of knowledge may possibly render depravity more depraved, as well as it may increase the strength of virtue. It is in itself only power; and its value depends on its application.

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"Female Education" (review of Thomas Broadhurst, Advice to Young Ladies on the Improvement of Mind, 1808), in The Edinburgh Review, No. 30 (January 1810), p. 314
Philosophical Maxims
Cornel West
Cornel West
6 months 1 week ago
I remind young people everywhere I...

I remind young people everywhere I go, one of the worst things the older generation did was to tell them for twenty-five years "Be successful, be successful, be successful" as opposed to "Be great, be great, be great". There's a qualitative difference.

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Speech in San Francisco: Democracy Matters
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
6 months 2 weeks ago
This disposition to admire, and almost...

This disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and powerful, and to despise or, at least, neglect persons of poor and mean conditions, though necessary both to establish and to maintain the distinction of ranks and the order of society, is, at the same time, the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.

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Section III, Chap. III.
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
6 months 2 weeks ago
Those only are happy

Those only are happy (I thought) who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.

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(p. 142)
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
6 months 2 weeks ago
Genius is always sufficiently the enemy...

Genius is always sufficiently the enemy of genius by over influence.

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par. 19
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
5 months 1 week ago
Tolerance - the function of an...

Tolerance - the function of an extinguished ardor - tolerance cannot seduce the young.

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Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
2 months 4 days ago
The longing for guidance, for...

The longing for guidance, for love and succor, provides the stimulus for the growth of a social or moral conception of God. This is the God of Providence, who protects, decides, rewards and punishes. This is the God who, according to man's widening horizon, loves and provides for the life of the race, or of mankind, or who even loves life itself. He is the comforter in unhappiness and in unsatisfied longing, the protector of the souls of the dead. This is the social or moral idea of God.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
2 months 2 weeks ago
Do not be frightened from this...

Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no god, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you. If you find reason to believe there is a God, a consciousness that you are acting under his eye, and that he approves you, will be a vast additional incitement; if that there be a future state, the hope of a happy existence in that increases the appetite to deserve it; if that Jesus was also a god, you will be comforted by a belief of his aid and love.

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Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
7 months 2 weeks ago
It is impossible for motion to...

It is impossible for motion to subsist without place, and void, and time.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
6 months 2 weeks ago
I think no virtue goes with...

I think no virtue goes with size; The reason of all cowardice Is, that men are overgrown, And, to be valiant, must come down To the titmouse dimension.

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The Titmouse, st. 5
Philosophical Maxims
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
4 months 1 week ago
It is better to lose health...

It is better to lose health like a spendthrift than to waste it like a miser. It is better to live and be done with it, than to die daily in the sick-room.

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315
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
4 months 1 week ago
In particular, it is certainly wrong...

In particular, it is certainly wrong to condemn poor old Homo sapiens as the only species to kill his own kind, the only inheritor of the mark of Cain, and similar melodramatic charges. Whether a naturalist stresses the violence or the restraint of animal aggression depends partly on the kinds of animals he is used to watching, and partly on his evolutionary preconceptions-Lorenz is, after all, a 'good of the species' man. Even if it has been exaggerated, the gloved fist view of animal fights seems to have at least some truth. Superficially this looks like a form of altruism. The selfish gene theory must face up to the difficult task of explaining it. Why is it that animals do not go all out to kill rival members of their species at every possible opportunity?

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Ch. 5. Aggression: stability and the selfish machine
Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
6 months 4 days ago
A host is like….

A host is like a general: calamities often reveal his genius.

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Book II, satire viii, lines 73-74
Philosophical Maxims
Epictetus
Epictetus
6 months 4 weeks ago
In each separate thing that you...

In each separate thing that you do consider the matters which come first, and those which follow after, and only then approach the thing itself.

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Book III, ch. 15, 1 (= Enchiridion 29, 1).
Philosophical Maxims
Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
5 months ago
The bourgeoisie hides the fact that...

The bourgeoisie hides the fact that it is the bourgeoisie and thereby produces myth; revolution announces itself openly as revolution and thereby abolishes myth.

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p. 146
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
5 months 6 days ago
The discovery that mass changes with...

The discovery that mass changes with velocity, a discovery made when minute bodies came under consideration, finally forced surrender of the notion that mass is a fixed and inalienable possession of ultimate elements or individuals, so that time is now considered to be their fourth dimension.

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Philosophical Maxims
bell hooks
bell hooks
4 months 4 weeks ago
The fierce willingness to repudiate domination...

The fierce willingness to repudiate domination in a holistic manner is the starting point for progressive cultural revolution.

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Women, Art, and Society: Fourth Edition (2007) by Whitney Chadwick ISBN 0-500-20393-8
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
6 months 2 weeks ago
Give all to love; Obey thy...

Give all to love; Obey thy heart; Friends, kindred, days, Estate, good fame, Plans, credit, and the muse; Nothing refuse.

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Give All to Love, st. 1
Philosophical Maxims
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
2 months 4 weeks ago
It is always right that a...

It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason for the faith that is within him.

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Vol. I, ch. 3, p. 91
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
6 months 2 weeks ago
The retinue of a grandee in...

The retinue of a grandee in China or Indostan accordingly is, by all accounts, much more numerous and splendid than that of the richest subjects of Europe.

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Chapter XI, Part III, Third Period, p. 240.
Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
6 months 2 days ago
As Cæsar was at supper the...

As Cæsar was at supper the discourse was of death,-which sort was the best. "That," said he, "which is unexpected."

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Cæsar
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
6 months 2 weeks ago
I never turned recreant to intellectual...

I never turned recreant to intellectual culture, or ceased to consider the power and practice of analysis as an essential condition both of individual and of social improvement. But I thought that it had consequences which required to be corrected, by joining other kinds of cultivation with it. The maintenance of a due balance among the faculties, now seemed to me of primary importance. The cultivation of the feelings became one of the cardinal points in my ethical and philosophical creed.

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(pp. 143-144)
Philosophical Maxims
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
3 months 3 weeks ago
Experience is what you get while...

Experience is what you get while looking for something else.

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"Experience"
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
7 months 2 weeks ago
Spontaneous love can reach the point...

Spontaneous love can reach the point of despair, shows that it is in despair, that even when it is happy it loves with the power of despair.

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Philosophical Maxims
Zoroaster
Zoroaster
6 months 5 days ago
For a thinking man is where...

For a thinking man is where Wisdom is at home.

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Ahunuvaiti Gatha; Yasna 30, 9.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
2 months 2 weeks ago
I shall often go wrong through...

I shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts.

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Philosophical Maxims
kalokagathia
kalokagathia
10 months 4 weeks ago
Exclude those that exclude

We cannot stand by while the social contract is broken by those who chose conflict over equality. Those that want equal treatment for themselves have to treat others equally. They cannot lead with exclusion, then turn around and demand equal treatment. It is a double standard. If they are going to exclude first, then justice demands that we, the group that stands with universality, follow our duty to react and exclude those that exclude.

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Propositions / General
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
2 months 2 weeks ago
I subdue matter and force it...

I subdue matter and force it to become my mind's good medium. I rejoice in plants, in animals, in man and in gods, as though they were my children. I feel all the universe nestling about me and following me as though it were my own body.

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Philosophical Maxims
David Wood
David Wood
3 months 3 weeks ago
Language steps in where the angels...

Language steps in where the angels of experience fear to tread.

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Chapter 1, The Faces of Silence, p. 5
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
6 months 1 week ago
It is freedom, it is particularity,...

It is freedom, it is particularity, it is solitude that we are aiming at, and not Evil for its own sake.

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p. 179
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
5 months ago
Le prestige, qui constitue la force...

The prestige which constitutes three-fourths of might is first of all made up of that superb indifference which the powerful have for the weak, an indifference so contagious that it is communicated even to those who are its object.

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in The Simone Weil Reader, p. 168
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
6 months 2 weeks ago
The goal to be reached is...

The goal to be reached is the mind's insight into what knowing is. Impatience asks for the impossible, wants to reach the goal without the means of getting there. The length of the journey has to be borne with, for every moment is necessary, ... because by nothing less could that all-pervading mind ever manage to become conscious of what itself is - for that reason, the individual mind, in the nature of the case, cannot expect by less toil to grasp what its own substance contains.

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Preface (J. B. Baillie translation), § 29
Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
5 months 3 weeks ago
After it hath been seen how...

After it hath been seen how the obstinate and the ignorant of evil disposition are accustomed to dispute, it will further be shewn how disputes are wont to conclude; although others are so wary that without losing their composure, but with a sneer, a smile, a certain discreet malice, that which they have not succeeded in proving by argument - nor indeed can it be understood by themselves - nevertheless by these tricks of courteous disdain they pretend to have proven, endeavouring not only to conceal their own patently obvious ignorance but to cast it on to the back of their adversary. For they dispute not in order to find or even to seek Truth, but for victory, and to appear the more learned and strenuous upholders of a contrary opinion. Such persons should be avoided by all who have not a good breastplate of patience.

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"Introductory Epistle : Argument of the Third Dialogue"
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
2 months 1 week ago
No longer let thy breathing only...

No longer let thy breathing only act in concert with the air which surrounds thee, but let thy intelligence also now be in harmony with the intelligence which embraces all things. For the intelligent power is no less diffused in all parts and pervades all things for him who is willing to draw it to him than the aërial power for him who is able to respire it.

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VIII, 54
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 month 3 weeks ago
Thinking is an expression...
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Friedrich Hölderlin
Friedrich Hölderlin
5 months 2 weeks ago
You seek life, and a godly...

You seek life, and a godly fire Gushes and gleams for you out of the earth, As, with shuddering long, you Hurl yourself down to the flames of the Etna. So by a queen's wanton whim Pearls were dissolved in wine- heed her not! What folly, poet, to cast your riches Into that bright and bubbling cup! Yet still are you holy to me, as the might of the earth That bore you away, audaciously perishing! And I would follow the hero into the depths Did love not hold me.

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"Empedokles"
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
3 months 5 days ago
To a shower of gold most...

To a shower of gold most things are penetrable.

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Pt. I, Bk. III, ch. 7.
Philosophical Maxims
Cornel West
Cornel West
6 months 1 week ago
To be a Christian - a...

To be a Christian - a follower of Jesus Christ - is to love wisdom, love justice, and love freedom.

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(p172)
Philosophical Maxims
Will Durant
Will Durant
3 months 4 days ago
She is a woman now, and...

She is a woman now, and not an idle girl, not a domestic ornament or a sexual convenience anymore.

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On the maturation of women, Ch. 4 : On Old Age
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 months 3 days ago
There should be....

There should be 2 systems. One for needs and one for wants. We shouldn't have to compete for needs, and we shouldn't expect the things we want. An ideal system would definitely be a seriously regulated capitalism with an uncompromised safety net that we focus on with automation and AI. But, those with just want those without to die. In the end, they will lose.

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Philosophical Maxims
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
5 months 2 weeks ago
No nation which has sunk into...

No nation which has sunk into this state of dependence can raise itself out of it by the means which have usually been adopted hitherto. Since resistance was useless to it when it was still in possession of all its powers, what can such resistance avail now that it has been deprived of the greater part of them?

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Introduction p. 9-10
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
6 months 2 weeks ago
The heart is everywhere, and each...

The heart is everywhere, and each part of the organism is only the specialized force of the heart itself.

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Philosophical Maxims
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
3 months 1 week ago
The artist may be well advised...

The artist may be well advised to keep his work to himself till it is completed, because no one can readily help him or advise him with it...but the scientist is wiser not to withhold a single finding or a single conjecture from publicity.

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Essay on Experimentation
Philosophical Maxims
Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang
2 months 3 weeks ago
It is not so much what...

It is not so much what you believe in that matters, as the way in which you believe it and proceed to translate that belief into action.

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Ch. I : The Awakening, p. 8
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
6 months 2 weeks ago
If belief consists in an emotional...

If belief consists in an emotional reaction of the entire man on an object, how can we believe at will? We cannot control our emotions.... But gradually our will can lead us to the same results by a very simple method: we need only in cold blood act as if the thing in question were real, and keep acting as if it were real, and it will infallibly end by growing into such a connection with our life that it will become real. It will become so knit with habit and emotion that our interests in it will be those which characterize belief.

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Ch. 21
Philosophical Maxims
Plato
Plato
7 months 1 week ago
Wonder is the feeling of a...

Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

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Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
5 months 1 week 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 Einstein
Albert Einstein
2 months 4 days ago
[I do not] carry such...

I do not carry such information in my mind since it is readily available in books. ...The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.

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Philosophical Maxims
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