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Carl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt
1 week 1 day ago
The state as the decisive political...

The state as the decisive political entity possesses an enormous power: the possibility of waging war and thereby publicly disposing of the lives of men. The jus belli contains such a disposition. It implies a double possibility: the right to demand from its own members the readiness to die and unhesitatingly to kill enemies.

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Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
2 months 3 weeks ago
If life is deprived of any...

If life is deprived of any meaningful closure, it will be ended in non-time.

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Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
3 months 2 days ago
That life is worth living is...

That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions and, were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.

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Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
4 months 1 week ago
At best the principles that economists...

At best the principles that economists have supposed the choices of rational individuals to satisfy can be presented as guidelines for us to consider when we make our decisions.

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Chapter IX, Section 84, p. 558
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
3 months 1 week ago
You had that action and counteraction...

You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers draws out the harmony of the universe.

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Volume iii, p. 277
Philosophical Maxims
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
3 months 1 week ago
We exhort the compromisers to open...

We exhort the compromisers to open their hearts to truth, to free themselves of their wretched and blind circumspection, of their intellectual arrogance, and of the servile fear which dries up their souls and paralyzes their movements. Let us therefore trust the eternal Spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unfathomable and eternal source of all life. The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too!

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"The Reaction in Germany" (1842) Often paraphrased as, "The urge to destroy is also a creative urge"
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
4 months 1 week ago
Thus the labour of a manufacture...

Thus the labour of a manufacture adds, generally, to the value of the materials which he works upon, that of his own maintenance, and of his masters profits. The labour of a menial servant, on the contrary, adds to the value of nothing.

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Chapter III, p. 364 (see Proverbs 14-23 KJV).
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month ago
With what scientific stoicism he walks...

With what scientific stoicism he walks through the land of wonders, unwondering.

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Philosophical Maxims
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
4 months 5 days ago
It is said that "being" is...

It is said that "being" is the most universal and the emptiest concept. As such it resists every attempt at definition. Nor does this most universal and thus indefinable concept need any definition. Everybody uses it constantly and also already understands what is meant by it.

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Introduction: The Exposition of the Question of the Meaning of Being (Stambaugh translation)
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
4 months 2 weeks ago
Every man bears...

Every man bears the whole stamp of the human condition.

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Ch. 2
Philosophical Maxims
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
1 month 3 weeks ago
I must write it all out,...

I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.

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Locked Rooms and Open Doors
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
3 months 1 week ago
I think I can hardly overrate...

I think I can hardly overrate the malignity of the principles of Protestant ascendancy, as they affect Ireland; or of Indianism, as they affect these countries, and as they affect Asia; or of Jacobinism, as they affect all Europe, and the state of human society itself. The last is the greatest evil.

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Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe (26 May 1795), quoted in R. B. McDowell (ed.)
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
2 months 3 weeks ago
Faith feels itself secure neither with...

Faith feels itself secure neither with universal consent, nor with tradition, nor with authority. It seeks support of its enemy, reason.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
3 months 2 weeks ago
Happy are they that go to...

Happy are they that go to bed with grave music like Pythagoras.

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Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
1 week 2 days ago
We collect individuals into 'kinds' by...

We collect individuals into 'kinds' by applying to them the Idea of Likeness.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 2 days 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.

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Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
3 months 1 week ago
Economy is a distributive virtue, and...

Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving but selection. Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no judgment.

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Philosophical Maxims
Novalis
Novalis
3 months 1 week ago
Man is the higher Sense of...

Man is the higher Sense of our Planet; the star which connects it with the upper world; the eye which it turns towards Heaven.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
4 months 5 days ago
I work quite diligently and wish...

I work quite diligently and wish that I were better and smarter. And these both are one and the same.

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In a letter to Paul Engelmann (1917) as quoted in The Idea of Justice (2010) by Amartya Sen, p. 31
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 week 2 days ago
It was by the sober sense...

It was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back.

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Letter to Arthur Campbell
Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
5 months 1 week ago
My lectures are published and not...

My lectures are published and not published; they will be intelligible to those who heard them, and to none beside.

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Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
4 months 1 week ago
How shall we define a god?...

How shall we define a god? Expressed in psychological terms (which are primary-there is no getting behind them) a god is something that gives us the peculiar kind of feeling which Professor Otto has called "numinous". Numinous feelings are the original god-stuff from which the theory-making mind extracts the individualised gods of the pantheon.

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"Meditation on the Moon"
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
2 months 1 week ago
Great ages of innovation are the...

Great ages of innovation are the ages in which entire cultures are junked or scrapped.

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(p. 309)
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 week 2 days ago
The moral sense, or conscience, is...

The moral sense, or conscience, is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given to all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members is given them in a greater or less degree. It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body. This sense is submitted, indeed, in some degree, to the guidance of reason; but it is a small stock which is required for this: even a less one than what we call common sense. State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules.

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Philosophical Maxims
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze
2 months 2 weeks ago
One of the principal motifs of...

One of the principal motifs of Nietzsche's work is that Kant had not carried out a true critique because he was not able to pose the problem of critique in terms of values.

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p. 1
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 months 2 weeks ago
That which is good...

The Prince: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10827

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Main Content / General
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
4 months 1 week ago
Contemplating the universe, the whole system...

Contemplating the universe, the whole system of creation, in this point of light, we shall discover, that all that which is called natural philosophy is properly a divine study- It is the study of God through his works - It is the best study, by which we can arrive at a knowledge of the existence, and the only one by which we can gain a glimpse of his perfection. Do we want to contemplate his power? We see it in the immensity of the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible Whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate his munificence? We see it in the abundance with which he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it in his not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful. In fine, do we want to know what God is?

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Search not written or printed books, but the Scripture called the Creation. A Discourse, &c. &c.
Philosophical Maxims
Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton
2 months 2 days ago
Nationality is not the only kind...

Nationality is not the only kind of social membership, nor is it an exclusive tie. However, it is the only form of membership that has so far shown itself able to sustain a democratic process and a liberal rule of law.

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Philosophical Maxims
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
3 months 1 week ago
All exercise of authority perverts, and...

All exercise of authority perverts, and submission to authority humiliates.

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As quoted in Michael Bakunin (1937), E.H. Carr, p. 453
Philosophical Maxims
Lucretius
Lucretius
4 months 3 weeks ago
So far as it goes…

So far as it goes, a small thing may give an analogy of great things, and show the tracks of knowledge.

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Book II, lines 123-124 (tr. Rouse)
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
4 months 1 week ago
Conformity to nature has no connection...

Conformity to nature has no connection whatever with right and wrong. The idea can never be fitly introduced into ethical discussions at all, except, occasionally and partially, into the question of degrees of culpability. To illustrate this point, let us consider the phrase by which the greatest intensity of condemnatory feeling is conveyed in connection with the idea of nature - the word "unnatural." That a thing is unnatural, in any precise meaning which can be attached to the word, is no argument for its being blamable; since the most criminal actions are to a being like man not more unnatural than most of the virtues.

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page 62; Broadview Press, page 102
Philosophical Maxims
Hilary Putnam
Hilary Putnam
2 months 2 weeks ago
Philosophy was never just ontotheology, and...

Philosophy was never just ontotheology, and even when philosophers were concerned with ontotheology, they were concerned with much more than that. That is the first reason that the idea of a fundamental "crisis" in philosophy and of the "end of philosophy" is deeply mistaken. And if the questions of philosophy are indeed "unsettleable," in the sense that they will always be with us, that is a wonderful thing, not something to be regretted.

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Science and Philosophy
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months 1 week ago
To be without some of the...

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

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Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
3 months 2 weeks ago
It is manifest that every soul...

It is manifest that every soul has a certain continuity with the soul of the Universe, so that it must be understood to exist and to be included not only there where it liveth and feeleth, but it is also by its essence and substance diffused throughout immensity. The power of each soul is itself somehow present afar in the Universe. It is not mixed, yet is there in some presence.

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Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2 months 2 weeks ago
If it were true what in...

If it were true what in the end would be gained? Nothing but another truth. Is this such a mighty advantage? We have enough old truths still to digest, and even these we would be quite unable to endure if we did not sometimes flavor them with lies.

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E 10
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
4 months 1 week ago
Pass in, pass in, the angels...

Pass in, pass in, the angels say, In to the upper doors; Nor count compartments of the floors, But mount to Paradise By the stairway of surprise.

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Merlin, I, st. 2
Philosophical Maxims
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
4 months 4 days ago
In... "The Education of Children"... Plutarch...

In... "The Education of Children"... Plutarch gives an anecdote of Theocritus, a sophist, as an example of athuroglossos... he is... "a giant in impudence"... strong not because of his reason, or his rhetorical ability... or his ability to pronounce the truth, but only because he is arrogant. ...His fourth trait is... "putting his confidence in bluster." He is confident in thorubos... the noise made by a strong voice, by a scream, a clamor, or uproar. ...The final characteristic ...his confidence in ..."ignorant outspokenness..." ... it lacks mathesis ...-learning or wisdom.

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Ref: Plutarch, "The Education of Children", Moralia (1927) Vol. 1, Tr. Frank Cole Babbit, p. 4, The Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press.
Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
4 months 1 week ago
Collectively, the more civilized men are,...

Collectively, the more civilized men are, the more they are actors. They assume the appearance of attachment, of esteem for others, of modesty, and of disinterestedness, without ever deceiving anyone, because everyone understands that nothing sincere is meant. Persons are familiar with this, and it is even a good thing that this is so in this world, for when men play these roles, virtues are gradually established, whose appearance had up until now only been affected. These virtues ultimately will become part of the actor's disposition. To deceive the deceiver in ourselves, or the tendency to deceive, is a fresh return to obedience.

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Kant, Immanuel (1996), page 37
Philosophical Maxims
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
4 months 1 week ago
In principle and in practice, in...

In principle and in practice, in a right track and in a wrong one, the rarest of all human qualities is consistency.

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Ch. 1: Of the Principle of Utility
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
4 months 1 week ago
Nature is full of genius, full...

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

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January 5, 1856
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 months 5 days ago
On the frontiers of the self:...

On the frontiers of the self: "What I have suffered, what I am suffering, no one will ever know, not even I."

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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
4 months 1 week ago
England, it is true, in causing...

England, it is true, in causing a social revolution in Hindostan, was actuated only by the vilest interests, and was stupid in her manner of enforcing them. But that is not the question. The question is, can mankind fulfil its destiny without a fundamental revolution in the social state of Asia? If not, whatever may have been the crimes of England she was the unconscious tool of history in bringing about that revolution.

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"The British Rule in India," New York Daily Tribune, 10 June 1853.
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 months 5 days ago
I feel effective, competent, likely to...

I feel effective, competent, likely to do something positive only when I lie down and abandon myself to an interrogation without object or end.

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Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
4 months 3 weeks ago
Therefore, on hearing His words let...

Therefore, on hearing His words let no one say either: "These are not Christ's words," or "These are not my words." On the contrary, if he knows that he is in the body of Christ, let him say: "These are both Christ's words and my words." Say nothing without Him, and He will say nothing without thee. We must not consider ourselves as strangers to Christ, or look upon ourselves as other than Himself.

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p.422
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 months 3 weeks ago
This, I feel, is missing a...

This, I feel, is missing a vital point: that the sceptic is often a totally honest person who, for perfectly good, sound reasons, simply cannot see a case for belief. In fact many -- like Courty Bryan -- admit that they would like to be convinced, but find it impossible.

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p. 77
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
4 months 1 week ago
Oatmeal indeed supplies the common people...

Oatmeal indeed supplies the common people of Scotland with the greatest and best part of their food, which is in general much inferior to that of their neighbours of the same rank in England.

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Chapter VIII, p. 91 (Oatmeal in England makes for great horses, in Scotland Great Men).
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
4 months 1 week ago
If the colleges were better, if...

If the colleges were better, if they ... had the power of imparting valuable thought, creative principles, truths which become powers, thoughts which become talents, - if they could cause that a mind not profound should become profound, - we should all rush to their gates: instead of contriving inducements to draw students, you would need to set policy at the gates to keep order in the in-rushing multitude.

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The Celebration of Intellect, 1861
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
4 months 1 week ago
An unbiased reader, on opening one...

An unbiased reader, on opening one of their [Fichte's, Schelling's or Hegel's] books and then asking himself whether this is the tone of a thinker wanting to instruct or that of a charlatan wanting to impress, cannot be five minutes in any doubt. ... The tone of calm investigation, which had characterized all previous philosophy, is exchanged for that of unshakeable certainty, such as is peculiar to charlatanry of every kind and at all times. ... From every page and every line, there speaks an endeavor to beguile and deceive the reader, first by producing an effect to dumbfound him, then by incomprehensible phrases and even sheer nonsense to stun and stupefy him, and again by audacity of assertion to puzzle him, in short, to throw dust in his eyes and mystify him as much as possible.

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E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 23
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
3 weeks 3 days ago
Imagine that nature is saying to...

Imagine that nature is saying to us: "Those things of which you complain are the same for all. I cannot give anything easier to any man, but whoever wishes will make things easier for himself." In what way? By equanimity. You must suffer pain, and thirst, and hunger, and old age too, if a longer stay among men shall be granted you; you must be sick, and you must suffer loss and death.

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Philosophical Maxims
Porphyry
Porphyry
3 months 3 weeks ago
Soul, indeed, is a certain medium...

Soul, indeed, is a certain medium between an impartible essence, and an essence which is divisible about bodies. But intellect is an impartible essence alone. And qualities and material forms are divisible about bodies. Not everything which acts on another, effects that which it does effect by approximation and contact; but those natures which effect any thing by approximation and contact, use approximation accidentally.

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Philosophical Maxims
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