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Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
3 months 2 days ago
There is a cult of ignorance...

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

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Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2 weeks ago
Those who have racked their brains...

Those who have racked their brains to discover new proofs have perhaps been induced to do so by a compulsion they could not quite explain to themselves. Instead of giving us their new proofs they should have explained to us the motivation that constrained them to search for them.

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L24
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
3 months 1 day ago
Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute...

Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom. To be fruitful, the two ideas must find their limits in each other. 

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"Historical Murder", as translated by Anthony Bower
Philosophical Maxims
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
2 months 1 week ago
Human infirmity in moderating….

Human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions I name bondage: for, when a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.

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Part IV, Preface; translation by R. H. M. Elwes
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month ago
Since it is difficult to approve...

Since it is difficult to approve the reasons people invoke, each time we leave one of our 'fellow men', the question which comes to mind is invariably the same: how does he keep from killing himself?

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
2 months 6 days ago
The Theophilanthropists do not call themselves...

The Theophilanthropists do not call themselves the disciples of such or such a man. They avail themselves of the wise precepts that have been transmitted by writers of all countries and in all ages.

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Introduction
Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
3 weeks 6 days ago
It is not society's fault that...

It is not society's fault that most men seem to miss their vocation. Most men have no vocation.

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Ch. IV: The Aristocratic Ideal
Philosophical Maxims
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
3 weeks 4 days ago
Reason has never really directed social...

Reason has never really directed social reality, but now reason has been so thoroughly purged of any specific trend or preference that it has finally renounced even the task of passing judgment on man's actions and way of life. Reason has turned them over for ultimate sanction to the conflicting interests to which our world actually seems abandoned.

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p. 9.
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
2 months 1 week ago
No regulation of commerce can increase...

No regulation of commerce can increase the quantity of industry in any society beyond what its capital can maintain. It can only divert a part of it into a direction into which it might not otherwise have gone; and it is by no means certain that this artificial direction is likely to be more advantageous to the society than that into which it would have gone of its own accord. Every individual is continually exerting himself to find out the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. It is his own advantage, indeed, and not that of the society, which he has in his view. But the study of his own advantage naturally, or rather necessarily leads him to prefer that employment which is most advantageous to the society.

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Chapter II, p. 486.
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2 weeks ago
One has to do something new...

One has to do something new in order to see something new.

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J 1770
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
2 months 1 week ago
The Hudson's Bay Company, before their...

The Hudson's Bay Company, before their misfortunes in the late war, had been much more fortunate than the Royal African Company.

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Chapter I, Part III, p. 806.
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 weeks 6 days ago
But everyone who hears these sayings...

But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.

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Matthew 7:24-27 (NKJV) (Also Luke 6:47-49)
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month ago
If you don't want to explode...

If you don't want to explode with rage, leave your memory alone, abstain from burrowing there.

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Philosophical Maxims
Auguste Comte
Auguste Comte
1 month 1 week ago
To understand a science it is...

To understand a science it is necessary to know its history.

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A Course of Positive Philosophy (1832 - 1842) [Six volumes]
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month ago
This is how I recognize an...

This is how I recognize an authentic poet: by frequenting him, living a long time in the intimacy of his work, something changes in myself, not so much my inclinations or my tastes as my very blood, as if a subtle disease had been injected to alter its course, its density and nature. To live around a true poet is to feel your blood run thin, to dream a paradise of anemia, and to hear, in your veins, the rustle of tears.

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Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
2 months 1 week ago
The heroes in paganism correspond exactly...

The heroes in paganism correspond exactly to the saints in popery, and holy dervises in MAHOMETANISM. The place of, HERCULES, THESEUS, HECTOR, ROMULUS, is now supplied by DOMINIC, FRANCIS, ANTHONY, and BENEDICT. Instead of the destruction of monsters, the subduing of tyrants, the defence of our native country; whippings and fastings, cowardice and humility, abject submission and slavish obedience, are become the means of obtaining celestial honours among mankind.

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Part X - With regard to courage or abasement
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
1 month 1 week ago
Not to be content with Life...

Not to be content with Life is the unsatisfactory state of those which destroy themselves; who being afraid to live, run blindly upon their own Death, which no Man fears by Experience.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month ago
A regret understood by no one:...

A regret understood by no one: the regret to be a pessimist. It's not easy to be on the wrong foot with life

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Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
3 weeks ago
These terrible sociologists, who are the...

These terrible sociologists, who are the astrologers and alchemists of our twentieth century.

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Fanatical Skepticism
Philosophical Maxims
Avicenna
Avicenna
2 months 3 weeks ago
Medicine considers the human body as...

Medicine considers the human body as to the means by which it is cured and by which it is driven away from health.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 week 4 days ago
He was breakfasting...
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Main Content / General
Proclus
Proclus
1 month 2 weeks ago
This, therefore, is mathematics: she reminds...

This, therefore, is mathematics: she reminds you of the invisible form of the soul; she gives life to her own discoveries; she awakens the mind and purifies the intellect; she brings light to our intrinsic ideas; she abolishes oblivion and ignorance which are ours by birth.

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As quoted by Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean Jacques Rousseau
2 months 1 week ago
There is only one man who...

There is only one man who gets his own way-he who can get it single-handed; therefore freedom, not power, is the greatest good. That man is truly free who desires what he is able to perform, and does what he desires. This is my fundamental maxim. Apply it to childhood, and all the rules of education spring from it. Society has enfeebled man, not merely by robbing him of the right to his own strength, but still more by making his strength insufficient for his needs. This is why his desires increase in proportion to his weakness; and this is why the child is weaker than the man. If a man is strong and a child is weak it is not because the strength of the one is absolutely greater than the strength of the other, but because the one can naturally provide for himself and the other cannot. Thus the man will have more desires and the child more caprices, a word which means, I take it, desires which are not true needs, desires which can only be satisfied with the help of others.

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Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
1 month 3 weeks ago
Life grants nothing…

Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.

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Book I, satire ix, line 59
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
1 month 1 day ago
So it is that you come...

So it is that you come to know what a real God is. ... The God wants my life. He wants to go with me, sit at the table with me, work with me. Above all he wants to be ever-present.

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P. 291
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 months 4 days ago
Self-trust is the first secret of...

Self-trust is the first secret of success.

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Success
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
2 months 5 days ago
The destiny of the spiritual World,...

The destiny of the spiritual World, and, - since this is the substantial World, while the physical remains subordinate to it, or, in the language of speculation, has no truth as against the spiritual, - the final cause of the World at large, we allege to be the consciousness of its own freedom on the part of Spirit, and ipso facto, the reality of that freedom.

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Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 weeks 3 days 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
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
2 months 3 days ago
Our responsibility is much greater than...

Our responsibility is much greater than we might have supposed, because it involves all mankind.

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Existentialism and Human Emotions
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
2 months 6 days ago
In general, the art of government…

In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.

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"Money", 1770
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 weeks 3 days ago
Once again, I experienced that overwhelming...

Once again, I experienced that overwhelming joy in the universe that I had felt in London outside the V and A. But this time, my consciousness of the world seemed larger, more complex. It was the mystic's sensation of oneness, of everything blending into everything else. Everything I looked at reminded me of something else, which also became present to my consciousness, as if I were simultaneously seeing a million worlds and smelling a million scents and hearing a million sounds-- not mixed up, but each separate and clear. I was overwhelmed with a sense of my smallness in the face of this vast, beautiful, objective universe, this universe whose chief miracle is that it exists, as well as myself. It is no dream, but a great garden in which life is trying to obtain a foothold. I experienced a desire to burst into tears of gratitude; then I controlled it, and the feeling subsided into a calm sense of immense, infinite beauty.

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pp. 237-238
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
2 months 3 days ago
Fascism is not defined by the...

Fascism is not defined by the number of its victims, but by the way it kills them.

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On the Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Libération
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Just now
Another force driving progressive evolution is...

Another force driving progressive evolution is the so-called "arms-race." Prey animals evolve faster running speeds because predators do. Consequently predators have to evolve even faster running speeds, and so on, in an escalating spiral. Such arms races probably account for the spectacularly advanced engineering of eyes, ears, brains, bat "radar" and all the other high-tech weaponry that animals display.

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Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
2 months 3 weeks ago
If the Superior Man is...

If the Superior Man is not serious, then he will not inspire awe in others. If he is not learned, then he will not be on firm ground. He takes loyalty and good faith to be of primary importance, and has no friends who are not of equal (moral) caliber. When he makes a mistake, he doesn't hesitate to correct it.

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Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
1 month 1 week ago
How did they meet? By chance,...

How did they meet? By chance, like everybody ... Where did they come from? From the nearest place. Where were they going? Do we know where we are going?

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Prologue
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
2 months 3 days ago
'But you must see that if...

But you must see that if two things are alike, then it is a further question whether the first is copied from the second, or the second from the first, or both from a third.''What would the third be?''Some have thought that all these loves were copies of our love for the Landlord.'

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Pilgrim's Regress 59
Philosophical Maxims
Judith Butler
Judith Butler
6 days ago
It is precisely because we can...

It is precisely because we can destroy that we are under an obligation to know why we ought not to do it, and to summon those countervailing powers that curb our destructive capacity. Nonviolence becomes an ethical obligation by which we are bound precisely because we are bound to one another; it may well be an obligation against which we rail, in which ambivalent swings of the psyche make themselves known, but the obligation to preserve the social bond can be resolved upon without precisely resolving that ambivalence. The obligation not to destroy each other emerges from, and reflects, the vexed social form of our lives, and it leads us to reconsider whether self-preservation is not linked to preserving the lives of others.

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p. 148
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
2 months 3 weeks ago
Men all say, "We are wise";...

Men all say, "We are wise"; but being driven forward and taken in a net, a trap, or a pitfall, they know not how to escape. Men all say, "We are wise"; but happening to choose the course of the Mean, they are not able to keep it for a round month.

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Philosophical Maxims
Epictetus
Epictetus
2 months 2 weeks ago
Whatever you would make habitual, practice...

Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but accustom yourself to something else.

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Book II, ch. 18, 4.
Philosophical Maxims
Judith Butler
Judith Butler
6 days ago
Nonviolence is an ideal that cannot...

Nonviolence is an ideal that cannot always be fully honored in the practice. To the degree that those who practice nonviolent resistance put their body in the way of an external power, they make physical contact, presenting a force against force in the process. Nonviolence does not imply the absence of force or of aggression. It is, as it were, an ethical stylization of embodiment, replete with gestures and modes of non-action, ways of becoming an obstacle, of using the solidity of the body and its proprioceptive object field to block or derail a further exercise of violence.

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p. 22
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 5 days ago
Poetry - No definition of poetry...

Poetry - No definition of poetry is adequate unless it be poetry itself. The most accurate analysis by the rarest wisdom is yet insufficient, and the poet will instantly prove it false by setting aside its requisitions. It is indeed all that we do not know. The poet does not need to see how meadows are something else than earth, grass, and water, but how they are thus much. He does not need discover that potato blows are as beautiful as violets, as the farmer thinks, but only how good potato blows are. The poem is drawn out from under the feet of the poet, his whole weight has rested on this ground. It has a logic more severe than the logician's. You might as well think to go in pursuit of the rainbow, and embrace it on the next hill, as to embrace the whole of poetry even in thought.

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January 26, 1840
Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
3 weeks 6 days ago
Our dignity is not in what...

Our dignity is not in what we do, but in what we understand. The whole world is doing things.

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p. 199
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 5 days ago
It would be worthy of the...

It would be worthy of the age to print together the collected Scriptures or Sacred Writings of the several nations, the Chinese, the Hindus, the Persians, the Hebrews, and others, as the Scripture of mankind. The New Testament is still, perhaps, too much on the lips and in the hearts of men to be called a Scripture in this sense. Such a juxtaposition and comparison might help to liberalize the faith of men. This is a work which Time will surely edit, reserved to crown the labors of the printing-press. This would be the Bible, or Book of Books, which let the missionaries carry to the uttermost parts of the earth.

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Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
2 months 1 week ago
I say, then, that belief is...

I say, then, that belief is nothing but a more vivid, lively, forcible, firm, steady conception of an object, than what the imagination alone is ever able to attain.

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§ 4.9
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
3 months 5 days ago
An authorship that began with Either/Or...

An authorship that began with Either/Or and advanced step by step seeks here its decisive place of rest, at the foot of the altar, where the author, personally most aware of his own imperfections and guilt, certainly does not call himself a truth-witness but only a singular kind of poet and thinker who, without authority, has had nothing new to bring but “has wanted once again to read through, if possible in a more inward way, the original text handed down from the fathers.

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Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
3 weeks 6 days ago
Whenever a nation is converted to...

Whenever a nation is converted to Christianity, its Christianity, in practice, must be largely converted to paganism.

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p. 35
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
3 weeks 6 days ago
The historical world, in so far...

The historical world, in so far as it is built, organized, and shaped by the conscious activity of thinking subjects, is a realm of mind. But the mind is fully realized and exists in its true form only when it indulges in its proper activity, namely, in art, religion, and philosophy.

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P. 87
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
4 days ago
It is often better for a...

It is often better for a person to recognize a sin than to do a good deed. Recognizing a sin makes a person humble. Doing a good deed often can feed a person's pride.

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p. 108
Philosophical Maxims
José Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset
3 weeks 4 days ago
Every intellectual effort sets us apart...

Every intellectual effort sets us apart from the commonplace, and leads us by hidden and difficult paths to secluded spots where we find ourselves amid unaccustomed thoughts.

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p. 15
Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
1 month 3 weeks ago
We are but dust….

We are but dust and shadow.

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Book IV, ode vii, line 16
Philosophical Maxims
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