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Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 2 weeks ago
The sky is the daily bread...

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

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May 25, 1843
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 week 2 days ago
Nothing is so....
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Confucius
Confucius
6 months 6 days ago
All people respect and love their...

All people respect and love their own parents and children, as well as the parents and children of others.

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Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
3 months 1 week ago
Let a fool hold….

Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.

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Maxim 914
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
6 months 2 weeks ago
The person who is going to...

The person who is going to preach ought to live in the Christian thoughts and ideas: they ought to be his daily life. If so, this is the view of Christianity, then you, too, will have eloquence enough and precisely that which is needed when you speak extemporaneously without specific preparation. However, it is fallacious eloquence if someone, without otherwise occupying himself with, without living in these thoughts, once in a while sits down and laboriously collects such thoughts, perhaps in the field of literature, and then works them into a well-composed discourse, which is then committed to memory and delivered superbly, with respect both to voice and diction and gestures.

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Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
6 months 2 weeks ago
Concerning the generation of animals akin...

Concerning the generation of animals akin to them, as hornets and wasps, the facts in all cases are similar to a certain extent, but are devoid of the extraordinary features which characterize bees; this we should expect, for they have nothing divine about them as the bees have.

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Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
6 months 2 weeks ago
Every tradition grows ever more venerable
Every tradition grows ever more venerable — the more remote its origin, the more confused that origin is. The reverence due to it increases from generation to generation. The tradition finally becomes holy and inspires awe.
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Philosophical Maxims
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle
1 month 1 week ago
I am glad (sayes Eleutherius) to...

I am glad (sayes Eleutherius) to see the Vanity or Envy of the canting Chymists thus discover'd and chastis'd; and I could wish, that Learned Men would conspire together to make these deluding Writers sensible, that they must no longe[r] hope with Impunity to abuse the World. For whilst such Men are quietly permitted to publish Books with promising Titles, and therein to Assert what they please, and contradict others, and ev'n themselves as they please, with as little danger of being confuted as of being understood, they are encourag'd to get themselves a name, at the cost of the Readers, by finding that intelligent Men are wont for the reason newly mention'd, to let their Books and Them alone: And the ignorant and credulous (of which the number is still much greater then that of the other) are forward to admire most what they least understand.

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Philosophical Maxims
bell hooks
bell hooks
4 months ago
When I first read The Wretched...

When I first read The Wretched of the Earth I heard a new history spoken-the voice of the decolonised subject raised in resistance. That voice . . . articulated a yearning for freedom that was so intense and a quality of emotional hunger that was so fierce that it was overwhelming. Dying into the text, I abandoned and forgot myself. The lust for freedom in those pages awakened and resurrected me.

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Gender and Decolonization in the Congo (2010) ISBN 978-0-230-11040-3
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
4 months 1 week ago
Sociology does not 'negate' philosophy, in...

Sociology does not 'negate' philosophy, in the sense of taking over the hidden content of philosophy and carrying it into social theory and practice, but sets itself up as a realm apart from philosophy, with a province and truth of its own. Comte is rightly held to be the inaugurator of this separation between philosophy and sociology.

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P. 375
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
4 months 1 week ago
The absolute idea is the subject...

The absolute idea is the subject in its final form, thought. The otherness and negation is the object, being. The absolute idea now has to be interpreted as objective being. Hegel's Logic thus ends where it began, with the category of being. This, however is a different being that can no longer be explained thought he concepts applied in the analysis that opened the Logic. For being now is understood in its notion that is, as a concrete totality wherein all particular forms subsist as the essential distinctions and relations of on comprehensive principle. Thus comprehended, being is nature, and dialectical thought passes on to the Philosophy of Nature.

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P. 165-166
Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
5 months 6 days ago
Sweet exists….

Sweet exists by convention, bitter by convention, colour by convention; atoms and Void [alone] exist in reality.

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(trans. Freeman 1948), p. 92.
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
6 months 6 days ago
Sincerity is the way of Heaven....

Sincerity is the way of Heaven. The attainment of sincerity is the way of men. He who possesses sincerity is he who, without an effort, hits what is right, and apprehends, without the exercise of thought — he is the sage who naturally and easily embodies the right way. He who attains to sincerity is he who chooses what is good, and firmly holds it fast. To this attainment there are requisite the extensive study of what is good, accurate inquiry about it, careful reflection on it, the clear discrimination of it, and the earnest practice of it.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 month 1 week ago
Every person...

Every person is an end in themselves. That's universal. To respect that leads to flourishing. Not respecting it in extremes leads to unnecessary death.

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Propositions / Human Rights
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
3 months 4 weeks ago
The period of the actual revolution,...

The period of the actual revolution, the so-called transitory stage, must be the introduction, the prelude to the new social conditions. It is the threshold to the NEW LIFE, the new HOUSE OF MAN AND HUMANITY. As such it must be of the spirit of the new life, harmonious with the construction of the new edifice.

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Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
5 months 2 weeks ago
Being happy involves both a certain...

Being happy involves both a certain achievement in action and a rational assurance about the outcome.

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Chapter IX, Section 83, p. 549
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
3 months 4 weeks ago
But now we come to the...

But now we come to the real paradox: that something as explosive as sexual excitement can nevertheless become a matter of habit, But then that applies to all our pleasures. We discover some new product in the supermarket, and become addicted to it. Then our tastebuds become accustomed to its flavour, and or interest fades. In the same way a honeymoon couple may find an excuse to hurry off to the bedroom half a dozen times a day; but after a month or so sex has taken its place among the many routines of their lives. They still enjoy it, but it no longer has quite the same power to excite the imagination. Sex, like every other pleasure, can become mechanical.

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p. 14
Philosophical Maxims
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
5 months 1 week ago
Beneath the humanization of the penalties,...

Beneath the humanization of the penalties, what one finds are all those rules that authorize, or rather demand, 'leniency', as a calculated economy of the powder to punish. But they also provoke a shift in the point of application of this power: it is no longer the body, with the ritual play of excessive pains, spectacular branding in the ritual of the public execution; it is the mind or rather a play of representations and sings circulating discreetly but necessarily and evidently in the minds of all. It is no longer the body, but the soul, said Mably. And we see very clearly what he meant by this term: the correlative of a technique of power. Old 'anatomies' of punishment are abandoned, But have we really entered the age of non-corporal punishment?

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Chapter Two, Generalized Punishment, pp. 101
Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
1 month 2 weeks 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
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months 2 weeks ago
It is not sufficient to observe...

It is not sufficient to observe our mysteries in the seclusion of our lodge-we must act-act! We are drowsing, but we must act. (Pierre raised his notebook and began to read.) For the dissemination of pure truth and to secure the triumph of virtue," he read, "we must cleanse men from prejudice, diffuse principles in harmony with the spirit of the times, undertake the education of the young, unite ourselves in indissoluble bonds with the wisest men, boldly yet prudently overcome superstitions, infidelity, and folly, and form of those devoted to us a body linked together by unity of purpose and possessed of authority and power.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 week ago
If, at the limit, you can...

If, at the limit, you can rule without crime, you cannot do so without injustices.

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Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
4 months 1 week ago
Just as Marx used to say...

Just as Marx used to say about the French Marxists of the late 'seventies: All I know is that I am not a Marxist.

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Letter to Conrad Schmidt
Philosophical Maxims
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
5 months 1 week ago
The gesture that divides madness is...

The gesture that divides madness is the constitutive one, not the science that grows up in the calm that returns after the division has been made.

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Preface to 1961 edition
Philosophical Maxims
L.P. Jacks
L.P. Jacks
1 month 1 week ago
Of all the media of expression...

Of all the media of expression employed by man (and let us never forget that they are many) none are so unstable, none so quick to change their meaning, as words. Even sculpture, architecture, painting, in their noblest works, speak differently under different conditions; but these arts are relatively immortal compared with speech.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 2 weeks ago
A little patience, and we shall...

A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.

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From a letter to John Taylor (June 1798), after the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts
Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
5 months 2 weeks ago
Children have as much mind to...

Children have as much mind to shew that they are free, that their own good actions come from themselves, that they are absolute and independent, as any of the proudest of you grown men, think of them as you please.

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Sec. 73
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
5 months 2 weeks ago
The only purpose for which power...

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.

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Ch. 1: Introductory
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 2 weeks ago
No man can have society upon...

No man can have society upon his own terms. If he seeks it, he must serve it too.

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1833
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
5 months 1 week ago
Who is to determine what the...

Who is to determine what the perfect is? It could only be those who are themselves perfect and who therefore know what it means. Here yawns the abyss of that circularity in which the whole of human Dasein moves. What health is, only the healthy can say. Yet healthfulness is measured according to the essential starting point of health. What truth is, only one who is truthful can discern; but the one who is truthful is determined according to the essential starting point of truth.

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p. 127
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
2 months 1 day ago
The wise man….

The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can.

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Line 4.
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
1 month 6 days ago
I have only two rules...

I have only two rules which I regard as principles of conduct. The first is: Have no rules. The second is: Be independent of the opinion of others.

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Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
4 months 1 week ago
No, you cannot expect people to...

No, you cannot expect people to understand the higher reaches of philosophy. Culture should be taken out of the hands of the dollar chasers. We need a national subsidy for literature. It is disgraceful that artists are treated like peddlers and that art works have to be sold like soap.

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Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
5 months 3 weeks ago
There never was in the world...

There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.

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Book II, Ch. 37. Of the Resemblance of Children to their Fathers
Philosophical Maxims
Zeno of Citium
Zeno of Citium
4 months 3 weeks ago
All the good are friends of...

All the good are friends of one another.

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As quoted in Stromata, v. 14. by Clement of Alexandria
Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
4 months 3 weeks ago
He is not rich, that enjoyeth...

He is not rich, that enjoyeth not his own goods.

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Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
1 month 1 week ago
Let your occupations be few," says...

Let your occupations be few, says the sage, "if you would lead a tranquil life."

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IV, 24
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 2 weeks ago
I am against a League war...

I am against a League war in present circumstances, because the anti-League powers are strong. The analogy is not King v. Barons, but the War of the Roses. If the League were strong enough I should favour sanctions, because the effect would suffice, or the war would be short and small. The whole question is quantitative.

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Letter to Kingsley Martin shortly before the Italo-Abyssinian War (7 August 1935), quoted in Kingsley Martin, Editor: A Second Volume of Autobiography, 1931-45 (1968), p. 207
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
1 month 6 days ago
Our time is Gothic in...

Our time is Gothic in its spirit. Unlike the Renaissance, it is not dominated by a few outstanding personalities. The twentieth century has established the democracy of the intellect. In the republic of art and science, there are many men who take an equally important part in the intellectual movements of our age. It is the epoch rather than the individual that is important. There is no one dominant personality like Galileo or Newton. Even in the nineteenth century, there were still a few giants who outtopped all others. Today the general level is much higher than ever before in the history of the world, but there are few men whose stature immediately sets them apart from all others.

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Philosophical Maxims
Diogenes of Sinope
Diogenes of Sinope
5 months 6 days ago
He lit a lamp in broad...

He lit a lamp in broad daylight and said, as he went about, "I am looking for a human."

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Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 41. This line is frequently translated as "I am looking for an honest man."
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
4 months 1 week ago
As we shall see later, the...

As we shall see later, the most important factor in the training of good mental habits consists in acquiring the attitude of suspended conclusion, and in mastering the various methods of searching for new materials to corroborate or to refute the first suggestions that occur. To maintain the state of doubt and to carry on systematic and protracted inquiry ― these are the essentials of thinking.

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Chapter 1: "What Is Thought?"
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
3 months 4 weeks ago
In its mad passion for power,...

In its mad passion for power, the Communist State even sought to strengthen and deepen the very ideas and conceptions which the Revolution had come to destroy. It supported and encouraged all the worst antisocial qualities and systematically destroyed the already awakened conception of the new revolutionary values.The sense of justice and equality, the love of liberty and of human brotherhood - these fundamentals of the real regeneration of society - the Communist State suppressed to the point of extermination. Man's instinctive sense of equity was branded as weak sentimentality; human dignity and liberty became a bourgeois superstition; the sanctity of life, which is the very essence of social reconstruction, was condemned as unrevolutionary, almost counter-revolutionary. This fearful perversion of fundamental values bore within itself the seed of destruction.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
2 months 1 week ago
Our English careers to born genius...

Our English careers to born genius are twofold. There is the silent or unlearned career of the Industrialisms, which are very many among us; and there is the articulate or learned career of the three professions, Medicine, Law (under which we may include Politics), and the Church. Your born genius, therefore, will first have to ask himself, Whether he can hold his tongue or cannot? True, all human talent, especially all deep talent, is a talent to do, and is intrinsically of silent nature; inaudible, like the Sphere Harmonies and Eternal Melodies, of which it is an incarnated fraction.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 2 weeks ago
I observe that a very large...

I observe that a very large portion of the human race does not believe in God and suffers no visible punishment in consequence. And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that he would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt his existence.

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Bertrand Russell's Best: Silhouettes in Satire (1958), "On Religion".
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
3 months 4 weeks ago
He was a man born into...

He was a man born into a world dominated by scientific materialism. His objection to this materialism was not merely intellectual, or even egotistical (the feeling 'If the world is wholly material, then I can't be very important'). It was the feeling that man is cut off from his inner powers by this superficial attitude.

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p. 166
Philosophical Maxims
José Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset
4 months 1 week ago
The man with the clear head...

The man with the clear head is the man who frees himself from those fantastic "ideas" and looks life in the face, realises that everything in it is problematic, and feels himself lost. As this is the simple truth - that to live is to feel oneself lost - he who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look round for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life.

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Chapter XIV: Who Rules The World?
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
1 month 1 week ago
You're better off not giving the...

You're better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.

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(Hays translation) IV, 32
Philosophical Maxims
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
5 months 2 weeks ago
The case of the conscience of...

The case of the conscience of Eichmann, which is admittedly complicated but is by no means unique, is scarcely comparable to the case of the German generals, one of whom, when asked at Nuremberg, "How was it possible that all of you honorable generals could continue to serve a murderer with such unquestioning loyalty?," replied that it was "not the task of a soldier to act as judge over his supreme commander. Let history do that or God in Heaven."

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Ch. VIII
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
5 months 3 weeks ago
The human understanding when it has...

The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.

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Aphorism 46
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 week ago
Whenever I happen to be in...

Whenever I happen to be in a city of any size, I marvel that riots do not break out everyday: Massacres, unspeakable carnage, a doomsday chaos. How can so many human beings coexist in a space so confined without hating each other to death?

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Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
5 months 2 weeks ago
The adjective…

The adjective is the enemy of the substantive.

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Variants: The adjective is the enemy of the noun. Quote attributed in Arthur Schopenhauer (translated by Mrs Rudolf Dircks), Essays of Schopenhauer (2004), Kessinger Publishing, p. 31
Philosophical Maxims
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