Skip to main content

Main navigation

☰ ˟
  • Home
  • Articulation
  • Contact
  • Shop
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
4 months 3 days ago
Consumption is the sole end and...

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter VIII, p. 719.
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
4 months 3 days ago
II. The tax which each individual...

II. The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain, and not arbitrary.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter II, Part II, p. 892.
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 3 weeks ago
Without God, everything is nothingness; and...

Without God, everything is nothingness; and with God? Supreme nothingness.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
1 month 4 weeks ago
So the majority of the highest...

So the majority of the highest classes of that age, even the popes and ecclesiastics, really believed in nothing at all. They did not believe in the Church doctrine, for they saw its insolvency; but neither could they follow Francis of Assisi, Kelchitsky, and most of the sectarians in acknowledging the moral, social teaching of Christ, for that undermined their social position. And so these people remained without any religious view of life. And, having none, they could have no standard with which to estimate what was good and what was bad art, but that of personal enjoyment.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
George Berkeley
George Berkeley
3 months 5 days ago
Truth is the cry of all,...

Truth is the cry of all, but the game of the few.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Paragraph 368
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
4 months 1 week ago
The veneration of Mary is inscribed...

The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Weimar edition of Martin Luther's Works (Translation by William J. Cole) 10, III, p. 313
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
2 weeks ago
You have, dearest Serene, things that...

You have, dearest Serene, things that can protect tranquility, things that restore it, things that resist creeping escapes. Be it known, however, that none of these things is sufficient for those who hold a feeble matter, unless a constant concern surrounds the slipping mind.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
2 months 4 weeks ago
The power of perpetuating our property...

The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it, and that which tends most to the perpetuation of society itself. It makes our weakness subservient to our virtue; it grafts benevolence even upon avarice. The possession of family wealth and of the distinction which attends hereditary possessions (as most concerned in it,) are the natural securities for this transmission.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Diogenes of Sinope
Diogenes of Sinope
3 months 2 weeks ago
Virtue cannot dwell with wealth either...

Virtue cannot dwell with wealth either in a city or in a house.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Stobaeus, iv. 31c. 88
Philosophical Maxims
Theodor Adorno
Theodor Adorno
2 months 2 weeks ago
When I made my theoretical model,...

When I made my theoretical model, I could not have guessed that people would try to realise it with Molotov cocktails.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in The Dialectical Imagination : A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research (1973) by M Jay, p. 279.
Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
2 months 1 week ago
Every human being is the natural...

Every human being is the natural guardian of his own importance.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 9: "Science and Philosophy", p. 195
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
1 month 2 weeks ago
Our reverence for the nobility of...

Our reverence for the nobility of manhood will not be lessened by the knowledge, that Man, is in substance and in structure, one with the brutes; for, he alone possesses the marvellous endowment of intelligible and rational speech, whereby, in the secular period of his existence, he has slowly accumulated and organized the experience which is almost wholly lost with the cessation of every individual life in other animals; so that now he stands raised upon it as on a mountain top, far above the level of his humble fellows, and transfigured from his grosser nature by reflecting, here and there, a ray from the infinite source of truth.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch.2, p. 132
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
3 months 3 weeks ago
Do not allow your dreams of...

Do not allow your dreams of a beautiful world to lure you away from the claims of men who suffer here and now.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 485
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
3 weeks 3 days ago
Now the argument that I make...

Now the argument that I make in my book is that part of the current disaffection with liberalism is not from any of its basic principles, but... is the result of certain deformations of liberal principles that were carried to extremes that led... to bad outcomes... There's a move in this direction on the right and... on the left.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
12:25 Ref: Francis Fukuyama, Liberalism and Its Discontents
Philosophical Maxims
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek
8 months 4 days ago
The medium of the chorus

In his seminar on The Ethic of Psychoanalysis, Lacan speaks of the role of the Chorus in classical tragedy: we, the spectators, came to the theatre worried, full of everyday problems, unable to adjust without reserve to the problems of the play, that is to feel the required fears and compassions - but not problem, there is a chorus, who feels the sorrow and the compassion instead of us - or, more precisely, we feel the required emotions through the medium of the chorus: 'You are then relieved of all worries, even if you do not feel anything, the Chorus will do so in your place.'

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
2 weeks ago
Do you ask me whom I...

Do you ask me whom I have conquered? Neither the Persians, nor the far-off Medes, nor any warlike race that lies beyond the Dahae; not these, but greed, ambition, and the fear of death that has conquered the conquerors of the world.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 weeks 6 days ago
This avidity alone...
0
⚖0
Main Content / General
Cornel West
Cornel West
3 months 3 weeks ago
The Enlightenment worldview held by Du...

The Enlightenment worldview held by Du Bois is ultimately inadequate, and, in many ways, antiquated, for our time. The tragic plight and absurd predicament of Africans here and abroad requires a more profound interpretation of the human condition - one that goes beyond the false dichotomies of expert knowledge vs. mass ignorance, individual autonomy vs. dogmatic authority, and self-mastery vs. intolerant tradition.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Future of the Race (1997) by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cornel West, p. 64
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3 months 4 weeks ago
The faith that stands on authority...

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Over-soul
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
4 months 3 weeks ago
A robot may not injure a...

A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
3 months 4 weeks ago
But, in my state of mind,...

But, in my state of mind, this appearance of superiority to illusion added to the effect which Bentham's doctrines produced on me, by heightening the impression of mental power, and the vista of improvement which he did open was sufficiently large and brilliant to light up my life, as well as to give a definite shape to my aspirations.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(p. 67)
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
2 months 3 weeks ago
Since the Devil is the adversary...

Since the Devil is the adversary of Christ he should occupy a position equivalent to his and be the Son of God as well. Satan would be the first Son of God and Christ the second.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Paris, 1991, p. 207. As quoted in Curzio Nitoglia
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
1 week 3 days ago
If rational thought thinks itself out...

If rational thought thinks itself out to a conclusion, it arrives at something non-rational which, nevertheless, is a necessity of thought. This is the paradox which dominates our spiritual life. If we try to get on without this non-rational element, there result views of the world and of life which have neither vitality nor value.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli
4 months 6 days ago
I assert once again as a...

I assert once again as a truth to which history as a whole bears witness that men may second their fortune, but cannot oppose it; that they may weave its warp, but cannot break it. Yet they should never give up, because there is always hope, though they know not the end and more towards it along roads which cross one another and as yet are unexplored; and since there is hope, they should not despair, no matter what fortune brings or in what travail they find themselves.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book 2, Ch. 29 (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick)
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 3 weeks ago
Nothing proves that we are more...

Nothing proves that we are more than nothing.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Büchner
Georg Büchner
2 months 4 weeks ago
Murder begins where self-defense ends. Act...

Murder begins where self-defense ends.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Act I.
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
3 months 4 weeks ago
The state of society is one...

The state of society is one in which the members have suffered amputation from the trunk, and strut about so many walking monsters,-a good finger, a neck, a stomach, an elbow, but never a man.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
par. 5
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
3 months 3 days ago
Laws are always unstable unless they...

Laws are always unstable unless they are founded on the manners of a nation; and manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter XVI.
Philosophical Maxims
José Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset
2 months 2 weeks ago
History tells us of innumerable retrogressions,...

History tells us of innumerable retrogressions, of decadences and degenerations. But nothing tells us that there is no possibility of much more basic retrogressions than any so far known, including the most radical of all: the total disappearance of man as man and his silent return to the animal scale, to complete and definitive alteration. The fate of culture, the destiny of man, depends upon our maintaining this dramatic consciousness ever alive in our inmost being, and upon our being well aware, as of a murmuring counterpoint in our entrails, that we can only be sure of insecurity.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 26
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
2 months 2 weeks ago
The difference between the artificial and...

The difference between the artificial and the artful in the artistic lies on the surface in the former there is a split between what is overly done and what is intended. The appearance is one of cordiality; the intent is that of gaining favor. Whenever this split between what is done and its purpose exists, there is insincerity, a trick, a simulation of an act that intrinsically has another effect. When the natural and the cultivated blend into one, acts of social intercourse are works of art. The animating impulsion of genial friendship and the deed performed completely coincide without intrusion of ulterior motive. Awkwardness may prevent adequacy of expression.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
4 months 6 days ago
Once conform, once do what others...

Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
4 months 2 weeks ago
It is only he, possessed of...

It is only he, possessed of all sagely qualities that can exist under heaven, who shows himself quick in apprehension, clear in discernment, of far-reaching intelligence, and all-embracing knowledge, fitted to exercise rule; magnanimous, generous, benign, and mild, fitted to exercise forbearance; impulsive, energetic, firm, and enduring, fitted to maintain a firm hold; self-adjusted, grave, never swerving from the Mean, and correct, fitted to command reverence; accomplished, distinctive, concentrative, and searching, fitted to exercise discrimination. All-embracing is he and vast, deep and active as a fountain, sending forth in their due season his virtues. All-embracing and vast, he is like Heaven. Deep and active as a fountain, he is like the abyss. He is seen, and the people all reverence him; he speaks, and the people all believe him; he acts, and the people all are pleased with him.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
1 month 2 weeks ago
Missionaries, whether of philosophy or of...

Missionaries, whether of philosophy or of religion, rarely make rapid way, unless their preachings fall in with the prepossessions of the multitude of shallow thinkers, or can be made to serve as a stalking-horse for the promotion of the practical aims of the still larger multitude, who do not profess to think much, but are quite certain they want a great deal.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
2 months 4 weeks ago
People will not look forward to...

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Volume iii, p. 274
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
1 month 3 weeks ago
In the electric age, when our...

In the electric age, when our central nervous system is technologically extended to involve us in the whole of mankind and to incorporate the whole of mankind in us, we necessarily participate, in depth, in the consequences of our every action. It is no longer possible to adopt the aloof and dissociated role of the literate Westerner.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(p. 4)
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
2 months 2 weeks ago
And if it is grievous to...

And if it is grievous to be doomed one day to cease to be, perhaps it would be more grievous still to go on being always oneself, and no more than oneself, without being able to be at the same time other, without being able to be at the same time everything else, without being able to be all.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
2 weeks ago
They have been spoken by Plato,...

They have been spoken by Plato, spoken by Zeno, spoken by Chrysippus or by Posidonius, and by a whole host of Stoics as numerous as excellent. I shall show you how men can prove their words to be their own: it is by doing what they have been talking about.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
4 months 1 day ago
Thus parents, by humouring and cockering...

Thus parents, by humouring and cockering them when little, corrupt the principles of nature in their children, and wonder afterwards to taste the bitter waters, when they themselves have poison'd the fountain.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Sec. 35
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
3 months 3 days ago
Americans cleave to the things of...

Americans cleave to the things of this world as if assured that they will never die,... They clutch everything but hold nothing fast, and so lose grip as they hurry after some new delight. ... Death steps in in the end and stops him before he has grown tired of this futile pursuit of that complete felicity which always escapes him. At first sight there is something astonishing in this spectacle of so many lucky men restless in the midst of abundance. But it is a spectacle as old as the world; all that is new is to see a whole people performing in it.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book Two, Chapter XIII.
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
4 months 2 weeks ago
Only after Winter comes do we...

Only after Winter comes do we know that the pine and the cypress are the last to fade.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
2 months 2 weeks ago
It is only by entering the...

It is only by entering the transcendental, the supernatural, the authentically spiritual order that man rises above the social. Until then, whatever he may do, the social is transcendent in relation to him.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 123
Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
3 months 2 weeks ago
As money grows…

As money grows, care follows it and the hunger for more.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book III, ode xvi, line 17
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
4 months 1 week ago
The logic now in use serves...

The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search for truth. So it does more harm than good.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Aphorism 7
Philosophical Maxims
Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
2 months 1 week ago
I believe that none can "save"...

I believe that none can "save" his fellow man by making a choice for him. To help him, he can indicate the possible alternatives, with sincerity and love, without being sentimental and without illusion. The knowledge and awareness of the freeing alternatives can reawaken in an individual all his hidden energies and put him on the path to choosing respect for "life" instead of for "death."

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 3 weeks ago
To Live signifies to believe and...

To Live signifies to believe and hope - to lie and to lie to oneself.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months ago
It is amusing to hear the...

It is amusing to hear the modern Christian telling you how mild and rationalistic Christianity really is and ignoring the fact that all its mildness and rationalism is due to the teaching of men who in their own day were persecuted by all orthodox Christians.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"Sources of Intolerance"
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
3 months 4 weeks ago
You must love the crust of...

You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell more than the sweet crust of any bread or cake; you must be able to extract nutriment out of a sand heap.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
January 25, 1858
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
4 months 1 week ago
A person must take care to...

A person must take care to exercise moderate discipline over the body and subject it to the Spirit by means of fasting, vigils, and labor. The goal is to have the body obey and conform - and not hinder - the inner person and faith. Unless it is held in check, we know it is the nature of the body to undermine faith and the inner person.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
pp. 71-72
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
2 weeks 6 days ago
Who is there that can recognize...

Who is there that can recognize real intellect, and do reverence to it; and discriminate it well from sham intellect, which is so much more abundant, and deserves the reverse of reverence? He that himself has it!-One really human Intellect, invested with command, and charged to reform Downing Street for us, would continually attract real intellect to those regions, and with a divine magnetism search it out from the modest corners where it lies hid. And every new accession of intellect to Downing Street would bring to it benefit only, and would increase such divine attraction in it, the parent of all benefit there and elsewhere!

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
John Searle
John Searle
2 months 1 day ago
All of our conscious states, without...

All of our conscious states, without exception, are caused by lower level neurobiological processes in the brain, and they are realized in the brain as higher level, or system features. It's about as mysterious as the liquidity of water, right? The liquidity is not an extra juice squirted out by the H2O molecules, it's a condition that the system is in; and just as the jar full of water can go from a liquid to solid, depending on the behavior of the molecules, so your brain can go from a state of being conscious to a state of being unconscious, depending on the behavior of the molecules. The famous mind body problem is that simple.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
  • Load More

User login

  • Create new account
  • Reset your password

Social

☰ ˟
  • Main Feed
  • Philosophical Maxims

Civic

☰ ˟
  • Propositions
  • Issue / Solution

Who's new

  • Søren Kierkegaard
  • Jesus
  • Friedrich Nietzsche
  • VeXed
  • Slavoj Žižek

Who's online

There are currently 1 users online.
  • comfortdragon

CivilSimian.com created by AxiomaticPanic, CivilSimian, Kalokagathia