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Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
2 weeks 3 days ago
As an eminent pioneer in...

As an eminent pioneer in the realm of high frequency currents... I congratulate you on the great successes of your life's work.

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[http://www.teslasociety.com/einsteinletter.jpg Einstein's letter] to Nikola Tesla for Tesla's 75th birthday (1931)
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
3 months 2 weeks ago
To say that everything is idea...

To say that everything is idea or that everything is spirit, is the same as saying that everything is matter or that everything is energy, for if everything is idea or spirit, just as my consciousness is, it is not plain why the diamond should not endure for ever, if my consciousness, because it is idea or spirit, endures forever.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
3 weeks 6 days ago
An hereditary chief, strictly limited, the...

An hereditary chief, strictly limited, the right of war vested in the legislative body, a rigid economy of the public contributions, and absolute interdiction of all useless expenses, will go far towards keeping the government honest and unoppressive. But the only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted, when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure.

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Letter to Marquis de la Fayette (November 4, 1823); in: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition (ME) (Lipscomb and Bergh, editors), 20 Vols., Washington, D.C., 1903-04, Volume 15, page 491
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
4 months 3 weeks ago
That power should be exercised over...

That power should be exercised over any portion of mankind without any obligation of consulting them, is only tolerable while they are in an infantine, or a semi-barbarous state. In any civilized condition, power ought never to be exempt from the necessity of appealing to the reason, and recommending itself by motives which justify it to the conscience and feelings, of the governed.

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Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform (1859), p. 24
Philosophical Maxims
Plato
Plato
5 months 3 weeks ago
I shall assume that your silence...

I shall assume that your silence gives consent.

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Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 1 week ago
I will tell you: that perfect...

I will tell you: that perfect man, who has attained virtue, never cursed his luck, and never received the results of chance with dejection; he believed that he was citizen and soldier of the universe, accepting his tasks as if they were his orders. Whatever happened, he did not spurn it, as if it were evil and borne in upon him by hazard; he accepted it as if it were assigned to be his duty. "Whatever this may be,"he says, "it is my lot; it is rough and it is hard, but I must work diligently at the task."

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
4 months 3 weeks ago
Do you think that I count...

Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk.

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Act 10, sc. 2
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
3 weeks 3 days ago
Because most of what we say...

Because most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you'll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, "Is this necessary?" But we need to eliminate unnecessary assumptions as well. To eliminate the unnecessary actions that follow.

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(Hays translation) IV, 24
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
5 months 4 days ago
Confidence in another man's virtue is...

Confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.

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Book I, Ch. 14
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
2 weeks 3 days ago
The meaning of relativity has...

The meaning of relativity has been widely misunderstood. Philosophers play with the word, like a child with a doll. Relativity, as I see it, merely denotes that certain physical and mechanical facts, which have been regarded as positive and permanent, are relative with regard to certain other facts in the sphere of physics and mechanics. It does not mean that everything in life is relative and that we have the right to turn the whole world mischievously topsy-turvy.

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Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
2 months 3 weeks ago
I am a pattern watcher.

I am a pattern watcher.

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(p. 311)
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
1 month 3 weeks ago
Any American ally will welcome Biden...

Any American ally will welcome Biden as president, will be happy that he was elected, but will be a little... distrustful because the Republicans could make a come-back in 2022. They could win the presidency again in 2024. ...There's is still a good third of the American public that remain very strong Trump voters. They're very angry and... are not going to go away... Therefore the ability of the United States to resume its role as the chief defender of the liberal order... is going to be contested, both domestically and... by American friends. If this leads to more self-reliance on their part, that may not be the worst thing in the world, but it is going to mean a very different kind of world order than the one I grew up arguing with Owen Harries about.

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30:41:00
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
3 months 2 weeks ago
The tangible source of exploitation disappears...

The tangible source of exploitation disappears behind the façade of objective rationality.

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p. 32
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
5 months 2 weeks ago
When one cultivates to the utmost...

When one cultivates to the utmost the principles of his nature, and exercises them on the principle of reciprocity, he is not far from the path. What you do not like when done to yourself, do not do to others.

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Philosophical Maxims
Max Scheler
Max Scheler
3 months 2 weeks ago
The medieval peasant prior to the...

The medieval peasant prior to the 13th century does not compare himself to the feudal lord, nor does the artisan compare himself to the knight. ... From the king down to the hangman and the prostitute, everyone is "noble" in the sense that he considers himself as irreplaceable. In the "system of free competition," on the other hand, the notions on life's tasks and their value are not fundamental, they are but secondary derivations of the desire of all to surpass all the others. No "place" is more than a transitory point in this universal chase.

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L. Coser, trans. (1973), p. 56
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
4 months 3 weeks ago
To the gross senses the chair...

To the gross senses the chair seems solid and substantial. But the gross senses and be refined by means of instruments. Closer observations are made, as the result of which we are forced to conclude that the chair is "really" a swarm of electric charges whizzing about in empty space. ... While the substantial chair is an abstraction easily made from the memories of innumerable sensations of sight and touch, the electric charge chair is a difficult and far-fetched abstraction from certain visual sensations so excessively rare (they can only come to us in the course of elaborate experiments) that not one man in a million has ever been in the position to make it for himself. The overwhelming majority of us accept the electric-charge chair on authority, as good Catholics accept transubstantiation.

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"One and Many," pp. 8-9
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
4 months 3 weeks ago
We are apt to imagine that...

We are apt to imagine that this hubbub of Philosophy, Literature, and Religion, which is heard in pulpits, lyceums, and parlors, vibrates through the universe, and is as catholic a sound as the creaking of the earth's axle. But if a man sleeps soundly, he will forget it all between sunset and dawn.

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January 6, 1842
Philosophical Maxims
bell hooks
bell hooks
3 months 1 week ago
As more and more women acquired...

As more and more women acquired prestige, fame, or money from feminist writings or from gains from feminist movement for equality in the workforce, individual opportunism undermined appeals for collective struggle. Women who were not opposed to patriarchy, capitalism, classism, or racism labeled themselves "feminist." Their expectations were varied. Privileged women wanted social equality with men of their class; some women wanted equal pay for equal work; others wanted an alternative lifestyle. Many of these legitimate concerns were easily co-opted by the ruling capitalist patriarchy.

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p. 7.
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months 4 weeks ago
The only thing that will redeem...

The only thing that will redeem mankind is co-operation, and the first step towards co-operation lies in the hearts of individuals.

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p. 212
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months 4 weeks ago
Love is something far more than...

Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.

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Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
5 months 2 weeks ago
If you would govern a...

If you would govern a state of a thousand chariots (a small-to-middle-size state), you must pay strict attention to business, be true to your word, be economical in expenditure and love the people. You should use them according to the seasons.

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Philosophical Maxims
Hilary Putnam
Hilary Putnam
3 months 4 days ago
In conclusion, then, no satisfactory interpretation...

In conclusion, then, no satisfactory interpretation of quantum mechanics exists today. The questions posed by the confrontation between the Copenhagen interpretation and the hidden variable theorists go to the very foundations of microphysics, but the answers given by hidden variable theorists and Copenhagenists are alike unsatisfactory. Human curiosity will not rest until those questions are answered, but whether they will be answered by conceptual innovations within the framework of the present theory or only within the framework of an as yet unforeseen theory is unknown. The first step toward answering them has been attempted here. It is the modest but essential step of becoming clear on the nature and magnitude of the difficulties.

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A philosopher looks at quantum mechanics
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert A. Simon
Herbert A. Simon
3 months 5 days ago
The function of knowledge in the...

The function of knowledge in the decision-making process is to determine which consequences follow upon which of the alternative strategies.

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p. 75
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
5 months 1 day ago
The sneaking arts of underling tradesmen...

The sneaking arts of underling tradesmen are thus erected into political maxims for the conduct of a great empire; for it is the most underling tradesmen only who make it a rule to employ chiefly their own customers. A great trader purchases his good always where they are cheapest and best, without regard to any little interest of this kind.

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Chapter III, Part II, p. 530.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
4 months 2 days ago
That some have never dreamed is...

That some have never dreamed is as improbable as that some have never laughed.

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Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
4 months 1 day ago
The whole life of an American...

The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle.

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Chapter XVIII.
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 months 3 weeks ago
We say: he has no talent,...

We say: he has no talent, only tone. But tone is precisely what cannot be invented - we're born with it. Tone is an inherited grace, the privilege some of us have of making our organic pulsations felt - tone is more than talent, it is its essence.

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Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
3 weeks 3 days ago
Think not disdainfully of death, but...

Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favor; for even death is one of the things that Nature wills.

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IX, 3
Philosophical Maxims
Lucretius
Lucretius
5 months 1 week ago
By protracting life…

By protracting life, we do not deduct one jot from the duration of death.

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Book III, lines 1087-1088 (tr. Rouse)
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
3 weeks 6 days ago
God cries to my heart: "Save...

God cries to my heart: "Save me!" God cries to men, to animals, to plants, to matter: "Save me!" Listen to your heart and follow him. Shatter your body and awake: We are all one. Love man because you are he. Love animals and plants because you were they, and now they follow you like faithful co-workers and slaves. Love your body; only with it may you fight on this earth and turn matter into spirit. Love matter. God clings to it tooth and nail, and fights. Fight with him. Die every day. Be born every day. Deny everything you have every day. The superior virtue is not to be free but to fight for freedom. Do not condescend to ask: "Shall we conquer? Shall we be conquered?" Fight on!

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Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
4 months 2 weeks ago
To one that promised to give...

To one that promised to give him hardy cocks that would die fighting, "Prithee," said Cleomenes, "give me cocks that will kill fighting."

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61 Cleomenes
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
5 months 1 day ago
... no testimony is sufficient to...

... no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavors to establish.

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Section 10 : Of Miracles Pt. 1
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 2 weeks ago
Therefore every scribe which is instructed...

Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

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13:52 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
3 months 3 weeks ago
The divine life that underlies all...

The divine life that underlies all appearance reveals itself never as a fixed and known entity, but as something that is to be; and after it has become what it was to be, it will reveal itself again to all eternity as something that is to be.

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General Nature of New Eduction p. 45
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Buber
Martin Buber
3 months 2 weeks ago
The Thou encounters me by grace...

The Thou encounters me by grace - it cannot be found by seeking. But that I speak the basic word to it is a deed of my whole being, is my essential deed.

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Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
3 months 1 week ago
The study of mathematics is apt...

The study of mathematics is apt to commence in disappointment... We are told that by its aid the stars are weighed and the billions of molecules in a drop of water are counted. Yet, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, this great science eludes the efforts of our mental weapons to grasp it.

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ch. 1.
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
2 months 3 weeks ago
The most human thing about us...

The most human thing about us is our technology.

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Man and the future of organizations, Volume 5, School of Business Administration, Georgia State University, 1974, p. 19
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
5 months 3 weeks ago
It is all too easy to...

It is all too easy to forget that there are emotional motivations in history, as well as economic ones.

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Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
3 months 1 week ago
One of those leaders of what...

One of those leaders of what they call the social revolution has said that religion is the opiate of the people. Opium...opium...opium, yes. Let us give them opium so that they can sleep and dream.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 months 3 weeks 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
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
3 weeks 6 days ago
Our particular principles of religion are...

Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our god alone. I enquire after no man's and trouble none with mine; nor is it given to us in this life to know whether yours or mine, our friend's or our foe's, are exactly the right.

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Letter to Miles King
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 months 3 weeks ago
Man is the only....
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Main Content / General
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
3 weeks 3 days ago
Art thou angry with him whose...

Art thou angry with him whose arm-pits stink? art thou angry with him whose mouth smells foul? What good will this anger do thee?

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V, 28
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
4 months 3 weeks ago
We may well call it black...

We may well call it black diamonds. Every basket is power and civilization. For coal is a portable climate. It carries the heat of the tropics to Labrador and the polar circle; and it is the means of transporting itself withersoever it is wanted. Watt and Stephenson whispered in the ear of mankind their secret, that a half-ounce of coal will draw two tons a mile, and coal carries coal, by rail and by boat, to make Canada as warm as Calcutta, and with its comfort brings its industrial power.

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Wealth
Philosophical Maxims
José Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset
3 months 2 weeks ago
This fighting-shy of every obligation partly...

This fighting-shy of every obligation partly explains the phenomenon, half ridiculous, half disgraceful, Of the setting-up in our days of the platform of "youth" as youth. ... In comic fashion people call themselves "young," because they have heard that youth has more rights than obligations, since it can put off the fulfilment of these latter to the Greek Kalends of maturity. ...[T]he astounding thing at present is that these take it as an effective right precisely in order to claim for themselves all those other rights which only belong to the man who has already done something.

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Chapter XV: We Arrive At The Real Question
Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
3 months 2 weeks ago
Culture is on the horns of...

Culture is on the horns of this dilemma: if profound and noble, it must remain rare, if common, it must become mean.

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Ch. IV: The Aristocratic Ideal
Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
4 months 2 weeks ago
Good breeding in cattle depends on...

Good breeding in cattle depends on physical health, but in men on a well-formed character.

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Freeman (1948), p. 151
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
2 months 3 weeks ago
Prose is private drama; poetry is...

Prose is private drama; poetry is corporate drama.

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(p. 275)
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
5 months 1 day ago
The freest importation of salt provisions,...

The freest importation of salt provisions, in the same manner, could have as little effect upon the interest of the graziers of Great Britain as that of live cattle. Salt provisions are not only a very bulky commodity, but when compared with fresh meat, they are a commodity both of worse quality, and as they cost more labour and expence, of higher price. They could never, therefore, come into competition with the fresh meat, though they might with the salt provisions of the country.

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Chapter II
Philosophical Maxims
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
4 months 3 weeks ago
The man described for us, whom...

The man described for us, whom we are invited to free, is already in himself the effect of a subjection much more profound than himself. A 'soul' inhabits him and brings him to existence...the soul is the effect and instrument of political anatomy; the soul is the prison of the body.

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Philosophical Maxims
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