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Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
1 month 3 weeks ago
Every parting gives a foretaste of...

Every parting gives a foretaste of death; every coming together again a foretaste of the resurrection.

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"Psychological Observations"
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
2 months 3 weeks ago
Let others complain that the age...

Let others complain that the age is wicked; my complaint is that it is paltry; for it lacks passion. Men's thoughts are thin and flimsy like lace, they are themselves pitiable like the lacemakers. The thoughts of their hearts are too paltry to be sinful. For a worm it might be regarded as a sin to harbor such thoughts, but not for a being made in the image of God. Their lusts are dull and sluggish, their passions sleepy. They do their duty, these shopkeeping souls, but they clip the coin a trifle, like the Jews; they think that even if the Lord keeps ever so careful a set of books, they may still cheat Him a little. Out upon them! This is the reason my soul always turns back to the Old Testament and to Shakespeare. I feel that those who speak there are at least human beings; they hate, they love, they murder their enemies, and curse their descendants throughout all generations, they sin.

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Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
2 months 1 day ago
Silence is the virtue of a...

Silence is the virtue of a fool.

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Book VI, xxxi
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
1 month 3 weeks ago
Virtue is debased…

Virtue is debased by self-justification.

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Oedipe, act II, scene IV, 1718
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 month 3 weeks ago
You must read Plato. But you...

You must read Plato. But you must hold him at arm's length and say, 'Plato, you have delighted and edified mankind for two thousand years. What have you to say to me?'

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Said to a young Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., as reported by Felix Frankfurter in Harlan Buddington Phillips, Felix Frankfurter Reminisces (1960), p. 59
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
2 months 2 weeks ago
All mankind, right down to those...

All mankind, right down to those you most despise, are your neighbors.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 weeks 4 days ago
Man starts over again everyday, in...

Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows.

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Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
2 months 1 day ago
For the inquisition of Final Causes...

For the inquisition of Final Causes is barren, and like a virgin consecrated to God produces nothing.

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Book III, viii
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 weeks 4 days ago
Why do you lack the strength...

Why do you lack the strength to escape the obligation to breathe?

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Philosophical Maxims
Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch
2 weeks ago
We can only learn to love...

We can only learn to love by loving.

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The Bell (1958), ch. 19; 2001, p. 219.
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
2 months 1 day ago
I could not be true and...

I could not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not willing to go beyond others; but yet not more willing than to have others go beyond me again: which may the better appear by this, that I have propounded my opinions naked and unarmed, not seeking to preoccupate the liberty of men's judgments by confutations.

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Book II
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
1 month 3 weeks ago
"I don't want to! Why should...

"I don't want to! Why should I?" "Because more people will be happier if you do than if you don't." "So what? I don't care about other people." "You should." "But why?" "Because more people will be happier if you do than if you don't."

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Dialogue between Russell and his daughter Katharine, as quoted in My Father - Bertrand Russell, 1975
Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
3 weeks 6 days ago
Gaiety - a quality of ordinary...

Gaiety - a quality of ordinary men. Genius always presupposes some disorder in the machine.

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"Diseases"
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
2 months 2 weeks ago
No human being, even the most...

No human being, even the most passionately loved and passionately loving, is ever in our possession.

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Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
2 months 1 day ago
Seek first the virtues…

Seek first the virtues of the mind; and other things either will come, or will not be wanted.

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Book II, xxxi
Philosophical Maxims
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
2 weeks 6 days ago
It is vain to expect virtue...

It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men; nay, it is vain to expect that strength of natural affection which would make them good wives and mothers. Whilst they are absolutely dependent on their husbands they will be cunning, mean, and selfish.

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Ch. 9
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
1 month 3 weeks ago
The reason that I call my...

The reason that I call my doctrine logical atomism is because the atoms that I wish to arrive at as the sort of last residue in analysis are logical atoms and not physical atoms. Some of them will be what I call "particulars" - such things as little patches of color or sounds, momentary things - and some of them will be predicates or relations and so on.

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Philosophical Maxims
Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch
2 weeks ago
Writing is like getting married. One...

Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.

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The Black Prince (1973); 2003, p. 10.
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
2 months 3 weeks ago
A line by Thomas à Kempis...

A line by Thomas à Kempis which perhaps could be used as a motto sometime. He says of Paul: Therefore he turned everything over to God, who knows all, and defended himself solely by means of patience and humility . . . . He did defend himself now and then so that the weak would not be offended by his silence.

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Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
1 month 3 weeks 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
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
6 days ago
Do not allow...
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Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
2 months 3 weeks ago
Out of love, God becomes man....

Out of love, God becomes man. He says: Here you see what it is to be a human being; but he adds: Take care, for I am also God - blessed is he who takes no offense at me. 

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As translated by Howard V. Hong and EdnaH. Hong (1980) Variant translation; Out of love, God becomes man. He says: "See, here is what it is to be a human being."
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
1 month 3 weeks ago
Every one is familiar with the...

Every one is familiar with the phenomenon of feeling more or less alive on different days. Every one knows on any given day that there are energies slumbering in him which the incitements of that day do not call forth, but which he might display if these were greater. Most of us feel as if we lived habitually with a sort of cloud weighing on us, below our highest notch of clearness in discernment, sureness in reasoning, or firmness in deciding. Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half-awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources.

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The Energies of Men
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
2 weeks 5 days ago
We should not pretend to understand...

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy. Variant translation: We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.

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Conclusion, p. 628
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
2 weeks 1 day ago
Notwithstanding I have a few things...

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

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Revelation
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
2 months ago
Ambition is not a vice of...

Ambition is not a vice of little people.

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Book III, Ch. 10
Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
1 month 4 days ago
If thy fellows hurt thee in...

If thy fellows hurt thee in small things, suffer it! and be as bold with them!

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
1 month 3 weeks ago
Virtue is the death of conscience...

Virtue is the death of conscience because it is the habit of Good, and yet the ethic of the honest man infinitely prefers virtue to the noblest agonies of conscience. Thus, being poses nonbeing and eliminates it. There is only being.

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p. 402
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
1 month 3 weeks ago
The history of mankind could... be...

The history of mankind could... be described as a history of outbreaks of fashionable philosophical and religious maladies. These... have... one serious function... evoking criticism.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 weeks 4 days ago
Why don't I kill myself? If...

Why don't I kill myself? If I knew exactly what keeps me from doing so, I should have no more questions to ask myself since I should have answered them all.

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Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
1 month 3 weeks ago
A man who has trained himself...

A man who has trained himself in goodness come to have certain direct intuitions about character, about the relations between human beings, about his own position in the world - intuitions that are quite different from the intuitions of the average sensual man.

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Ch. 14, p. 333 [2012 reprint]
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
2 weeks ago
Surrender of individuality by the many...

Surrender of individuality by the many to someone who is taken to be a superindividual explains the retrograde movement of society. Dictatorships and totalitarian states, and belief in the inevitability of this or that result coming to pass are, strange as it may sound, ways of denying the reality of time and the creativeness of the individual.

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Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
2 weeks 4 days ago
The development of the human mind...

The development of the human mind has practically extinguished all feelings, except a few sporadic kinds, like sound, colors, smells, warmth, etc., which now appear to be disconnected and separate.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
1 month 3 weeks ago
He chooses the most feared, most...

He chooses the most feared, most hated man in order to worship him as a god, feeling sure that he is alone in perceiving the god's secret virtues.

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p. 165
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
1 month 3 weeks ago
Perseus wore a magic cap that...

Perseus wore a magic cap that the monsters he hunted down might not see him.We draw the magic cap down over eyes and ears as a make-believe that there are no monsters.

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Author's prefaces to the First Edition.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
2 months 1 week ago
The perfection of the effect demonstrates...

The perfection of the effect demonstrates the perfection of the cause, for a greater power brings about a more perfect effect. But God is the most perfect agent. Therefore, things created by Him obtain perfection from Him. So, to detract from the perfection of creatures is to detract from the perfection of divine power.

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III, 69, 15
Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
1 month 4 days ago
The most momentous thing in human...

The most momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or to evil.

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As quoted in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, as translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1925)
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 weeks 4 days ago
Only one thing matters: learning to...

Only one thing matters: learning to be the loser.

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Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
1 month 3 weeks ago
In early times, the great majority...

In early times, the great majority of the male sex were slaves, as well as the whole of the female. And many ages elapsed, some of them ages of high cultivation, before any thinker was bold enough to question the rightfulness, and the absolute social necessity, either of the one slavery or of the other.

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Ch. 1
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
2 weeks 5 days ago
If there is anything that we...

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.

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p. 285
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
1 month 3 weeks ago
The community has no bribe that...

The community has no bribe that will tempt a wise man. You may raise money enough to tunnel a mountain, but you cannot raise money enough to hire a man who is minding his own business. An efficient and valuable man does what he can, whether the community pay him for it or not. The inefficient offer their inefficiency to the highest bidder, and are forever expecting to be put into office. One would suppose that they were rarely disappointed.

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p. 486
Philosophical Maxims
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
2 weeks 6 days ago
Liberty is so great a magician,...

Liberty is so great a magician, endowed with so marvelous a power of productivity, that under the inspiration of this spirit alone, North America was able within less than a century to equal, and even surpass, the civilization of Europe.

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Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
1 month 3 weeks ago
Custom, then, is the great guide...

Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. It is that principle alone which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past. Without the influence of custom, we should be entirely ignorant of every matter of fact beyond what is immediately present to the memory and senses. We should never know how to adjust means to ends, or to employ our natural powers in the production of any effect. There would be an end at once of all action, as well as of the chief part of speculation. Variant (perhaps a paraphrase of this passage): It is not reason which is the guide of life, but custom.

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Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
1 week 1 day ago
Moreover, nothing is so rare as...

Moreover, nothing is so rare as to see misfortune fairly portrayed; the tendency is either to treat the unfortunate person as though catastrophe were his natural vocation, or to ignore the effects of misfortune on the soul, to assume, that is, that the soul can suffer and remain unmarked by it, can fail, in fact, to be recast in misfortune's image.

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p. 193
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
1 month 3 weeks ago
Disobedience is the true foundation of...

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

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1847
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 month 3 weeks ago
Each to each a looking-glass, Reflects...

Each to each a looking-glass, Reflects his figure that doth pass. Every wayfarer he meets What himself declared repeats, What himself confessed records, Sentences him in his words; The form is his own corporal form, And his thought the penal worm. Yet shine forever virgin minds, Loved by stars and the purest winds, Which, o'er passion throned sedate, Have not hazarded their state; Disconcert the searching spy, Rendering to a curious eye The durance of a granite ledge To those who gaze from the sea's edge. It is there for benefit; It is there for purging light; There for purifying storms; And its depths reflect all forms; It cannot parley with the mean,- Pure by impure is not seen. For there's no sequestered grot, Lone mountain tarn, or isle forgot, But Justice, journeying in the sphere, Daily stoops to harbour there.

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Astræa
Philosophical Maxims
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
1 month 2 weeks ago
The appearance in nineteenth-century psychiatry, jurisprudence,...

The appearance in nineteenth-century psychiatry, jurisprudence, and literature of a whole series of discourses on the species and subspecies of homosexuality, inversion, pederasty, and "psychic hermaphroditism" made possible a strong advance of social controls into this area of "perversity"; but it also made possible the formation of a "reverse" discourse: homosexuality began to speak in its own behalf, to demand that its legitimacy or "naturality" be acknowledged, often in the same vocabulary, using the same categories by which it was medically disqualified.

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Vol. I, p. 101
Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
1 month 1 week ago
After the battle in Pharsalia, when...

After the battle in Pharsalia, when Pompey was fled, one Nonius said they had seven eagles left still, and advised to try what they would do. "Your advice," said Cicero, "were good if we were to fight jackdaws."

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Cicero
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2 days ago
He was always smoothing and polishing...

He was always smoothing and polishing himself, and in the end he became blunt before he was sharp.

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L 70
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
1 month 3 weeks ago
Perfect humility dispenses with modesty.

Perfect humility dispenses with modesty.

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Philosophical Maxims
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