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Albert Camus
Albert Camus
2 months 2 weeks ago
A man is more a man...

A man is more a man through the things he keeps to himself than through those he says.

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Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
1 month 2 weeks ago
Enough had been thought, and said,...

Enough had been thought, and said, and felt, and imagined. It was about time that something should be done.

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Philosophical Maxims
Zeno of Citium
Zeno of Citium
1 month 1 day ago
No one entrusts a secret to...

No one entrusts a secret to a drunken man; but one will entrust a secret to a good man; therefore, the good man will not get drunk.

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As quoted in Epistulae morales ad Lucilium by Seneca, Epistle LXXXIII (trans. R. M. Gummere)
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 month 2 weeks ago
What potent blood hath modest May!...

What potent blood hath modest May!

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May-Day
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
2 months 3 weeks ago
No one talks more passionately about...
No one talks more passionately about his rights than he who in the depths of his soul doubts whether he has any. By enlisting passion on his side he wants to stifle his reason and its doubts: thus he will acquire a good conscience and with it success among his fellow men.
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Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
3 weeks 3 days ago
Wandering in a vast..

Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to guide me. A stranger appears and says to me: "My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly." This stranger is a theologian.

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Number VIII
Philosophical Maxims
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
1 month 2 weeks ago
Revolutionaries do not make revolutions! The...

Revolutionaries do not make revolutions! The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and when they can pick it up. Armed uprising by itself has never yet led to revolution.

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"Thoughts on Politics and Revolution: A Commentary"
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
2 days ago
Rituals are symbolic acts. They represent,...

Rituals are symbolic acts. They represent, and pass on, the values and orders on which a community is based. They bring forth a community without communication; today, however, communication without community prevails.

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Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
1 month 3 weeks ago
Character means that the person derives...

Character means that the person derives his rules of conduct from himself and from the dignity of humanity. Character is the common ruling principle in man in the use of his talents and attributes. Thus it is the nature of his will, and is good or bad. A man who acts without settled principles, with no uniformity, has no character. A man may have a good heart and yet no character, because he is dependent upon impulses and does not act according to maxims. Firmness and unity of principle are essential to character.

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Part III : Selection on Education from Kant's other Writings, Ch. I Pedagogical Fragments, # 14
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
1 month 2 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
Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
5 days ago
Statistically, myth is on the right....

Statistically, myth is on the right. There, it is essential, well-fed, sleek, expensive, garrulous, it invents itself ceaselessly. It takes hold of everything, all aspects of the law, of morality, of aesthetics, of diplomacy, of household equipment, of Literature, of entertainment.

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p. 148
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
1 month 3 weeks ago
To oppose the torrent of scholastic...

To oppose the torrent of scholastic religion by such feeble maxims as these, that it is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be, that the whole is greater than a part, that two and three make five; is pretending to stop the ocean with a bullrush. Will you set up profane reason against sacred mystery? No punishment is great enough for your impiety. And the same fires, which were kindled for heretics, will serve also for the destruction of philosophers.

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Part XI - With regard to reason or absurdity
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
1 month 2 weeks ago
Every step of real movement is...

Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes.

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Letter to W. Bracke, 5 May 1875
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 week 5 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
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
5 days ago
It is precisely those artists and...

It is precisely those artists and writers who are most inclined to think of their art as the manifestation of their personality who are in fact the most in bondage to public taste.

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p. 57
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 days ago
When I'm bored, my sense of...

When I'm bored, my sense of values goes to sleep. But it's not dead, only asleep. A crisis can wake it up and make the world seem infinitely important and interesting. But what I need to learn is the trick of shaking them awake myself . . . And incidentally, another name for the sense of values is intelligence. A stupid person is a person whose values are narrow.

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p. 57
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
1 month 3 weeks ago
Life is a task to be...

Life is a task to be done. It is a fine thing to say defunctus est; it means that the man has done his task.

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"On the Sufferings of the World"
Philosophical Maxims
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
2 weeks 3 days ago
To be a good mother -...

To be a good mother - a woman must have sense, and that independence of mind which few women possess who are taught to depend entirely on their husbands. Meek wives are, in general, foolish mothers; wanting their children to love them best, and take their part, in secret, against the father, who is held up as a scarecrow.

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Ch. 10
Philosophical Maxims
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli
1 month 3 weeks ago
A prudent man…

A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent.

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The Prince (1513), Ch. 6; translated by Luigi Ricci
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 weeks 1 day ago
Knowledge, having irritated and stimulated our...

Knowledge, having irritated and stimulated our appetite for power, will lead us inexorably to our ruin.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
1 month 2 weeks ago
No man treats a motorcar as...

No man treats a motorcar as foolishly as he treats another human being. When the car will not go, he does not attribute its annoying behaviour to sin; he does not say, "You are a wicked motorcar, and I shall not give you any more petrol until you go." He attempts to find out what is wrong and to set it right. An analogous way of treating human beings is, however, considered to be contrary to the truths of our holy religion.

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"The Doctrine of Free Will"
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
2 weeks 6 days ago
In their nomination to office they...

In their nomination to office they will not appoint to the exercise of authority as to a pitiful job, but as to a holy function.

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Volume iii, p. 356
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
2 months 2 weeks ago
And how does the God's existence...

And how does the God's existence emerge from the proof? Does it follow straightway, without any breach of continuity? Or have we not here an analogy to the behavior of the little Cartesian dolls? As soon as I let go of the doll it stands on its head. As soon as I let it go, I must therefore let it go. So also with the proof. As long as I keep my hold on the proof, i.e., continue to demonstrate, the existence does not come out, if for no other reason than that I am engaged in proving it; but when I let the proof go, the existence is there. But this act of letting go is surely also something; it is indeed a contribution of mine. Must not this also be taken into the account, this little moment, brief as it may be – it need not be long, for it is a leap. However brief this moment, if only an instantaneous now, this "now" must be included in the reckoning.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
2 days ago
America had declared war with Spain.......

America had declared war with Spain.... It did not require much political wisdom to see that America's concern was a matter of sugar and had nothing to do with humanitarian feelings. Of course there were plenty of credulous people, not only in the country at large, but even in liberal ranks, who believed in America's claim. I could not join them. I was sure that no one, be it individual or government, engaged in enslaving and exploiting at home, could have the integrity or the desire to free people in other lands.

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(p. 226)
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
1 month 3 weeks ago
Nature forms us for ourselves, not...

Nature forms us for ourselves, not for others; to be, not to seem.

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Book II, Ch. 37. Of the Resemblance of Children to their Brothers
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
1 month 2 weeks ago
The philosophy of nature must not...

The philosophy of nature must not be unduly terrestrial; for it, the earth is merely one of the smaller planets of one of the smaller stars of the Milky Way. It would be ridiculous to warp the philosophy of nature in order to bring out results that are pleasing to the tiny parasites of this insignificant planet. Vitalism as a philosophy, and evolutionism, show, in this respect, a lack of sense of proportion and logical relevance. They regard the facts of life, which are personally interesting to us, as having a cosmic significance, not a significance confined to the earth's surface. Optimism and pessimism, as cosmic philosophies, show the same naive humanism; the great world, so far as we know it from the philosophy of nature, is neither good nor bad, and is not concerned to make us happy or unhappy. All such philosophies spring from self-importance and are best corrected by a little astronomy.

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Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
5 days ago
When I read the catechism of...

When I read the catechism of the Council of Trent, it seems as though I had nothing in common with the religion there set forth.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
1 month 2 weeks ago
Criminals together. We're in hell, my...

Criminals together. We're in hell, my little friend, and there's never any mistake there. People are not damned for nothing. Act 1, sc. 5 Variant translation: Among murderers. We are in hell, my dear, there is never a mistake and people are not damned for nothing.

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Philosophical Maxims
Gottlob frege
Gottlob frege
1 week 5 days ago
I hope I may claim in...

I hope I may claim in the present work to have made it probable that the laws of arithmetic are analytic judgments and consequently a priori. Arithmetic thus becomes simply a development of logic, and every proposition of arithmetic a law of logic, albeit a derivative one. To apply arithmetic in the physical sciences is to bring logic to bear on observed facts; calculation becomes deduction.

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Gottlob Frege (1950 ). The Foundations of Arithmetic. p. 99.
Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
1 month 2 weeks ago
To each according to his threat...

To each according to his threat advantage does not count as a principle of justice.

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Chapter III, Section 24, pg. 141
Philosophical Maxims
William Godwin
William Godwin
2 weeks 3 days ago
A common mortal periodically selected by...

A common mortal periodically selected by his fellow-citizens to watch over their own interests, can never be supposed to possess this stupendous virtue.

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Book III, Chapter 9
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 weeks 1 day ago
There was a time when time...

There was a time when time did not yet exist. ... The rejection of birth is nothing but the nostalgia for this time before time.

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Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
1 month 2 weeks ago
The miracles in fact are a...

The miracles in fact are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see. Of that larger script part is already visible, part is still unsolved. In other words, some of the miracles do locally what God has already done universally: others do locally what He has not yet done, but will do. In that sense, and from our human point of view, some are reminders and others prophecies.

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"Miracles" (1942), p. 29
Philosophical Maxims
William Godwin
William Godwin
2 weeks 3 days ago
You rejoice in having made a...

You rejoice in having made a convert to Atheism. I think there is something unnatural in a zeal of proselytism in an Atheist. I do not believe in an intellectual God, a God made after the image of man. In the vulgar acceptation of the word, therefore, I think a man is right who does not believe in God, but I am also persuaded that a man is wrong who is without religion.

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Letter to H. B. Rosser (7 March 1820), quoted in C. Kegan Paul, William Godwin: His Friends and Contemporaries, Vol. II (1876), p. 263
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 months 2 weeks ago
Words are connected to reality...
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Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 weeks 1 day ago
At this very moment, I am...

At this very moment, I am suffering - as we say in French, j'ai mal. This event, crucial for me, is nonexistent, even inconceivable for anyone else, for everyone else. Except for God, if that word can have a meaning.

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Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
2 weeks 2 days ago
The meeting of two personalities is...

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

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p. 49
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
1 week 3 days ago
In old days the plastic arts,...

In old days the plastic arts, music, and poesy were so germane to man in his totality that his Transcendence plainly manifest in them. ... What is to-day obvious to all is a decay in the essence of art. ... the opposition to man's true nature as man.

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Philosophical Maxims
bell hooks
bell hooks
3 days ago
Creation spirituality replaced a patriarchal spirituality...

Creation spirituality replaced a patriarchal spirituality rooted in notions of fall and redemption.

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Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (2014), p.106.
Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
1 month 1 week ago
Strength and beauty are the blessings...

Strength and beauty are the blessings of youth; temperance, however, is the flower of old age.

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Fragment quoted in H. Diels and W. Kranz (eds.) Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, Vol. II (1952), no. 294
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
1 month 3 weeks ago
Every faculty in one man is...

Every faculty in one man is the measure by which he judges of the like faculty in another. I judge of your sight by my sight, of your ear by my ear, of your reason by my reason, of your resentment by my resentment, of your love by my love. I neither have, nor can have, any other way of judging about them.

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Section I, Chap. III.
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
1 month 2 weeks ago
For those who want 'to change...

For those who want 'to change life", 'to reinvent love,' God is nothing but a hindrance.

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p. 500
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
1 month 2 weeks ago
Kierkegaard was by far the most...

Kierkegaard was by far the most profound thinker of the last century. Kierkegaard was a saint.

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As quoted in "Wittgenstein and Kierkegaard on the ethico-religious" by Roe Fremstedal in Ideas in History Vol. 1
Philosophical Maxims
Novalis
Novalis
2 weeks 3 days ago
No one, of a surety, wanders...

No one, of a surety, wanders farther from the mark than he who fancies to himself that he already understands this marvellous Kingdom, and can, in few words, fathom its constitution, and everywhere find the right path. To no one, who has broken off, and made himself an Island, will insight rise of itself, nor even without toilsome effort. Only to children, or childlike men, who know not what they do, can this happen. Long, unwearied intercourse, free and wise Contemplation, attention to faint tokens and indications; an inward poet-life, practised senses, a simple and devout spirit: these are the essential requisites of a true Friend of Nature; without these no one can attain his wish.

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Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
1 month 3 weeks ago
Faith consists…

Faith consists in believing what reason cannot.

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"The Flood", 1764
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
2 months 1 week ago
With regard to the abuse of...

With regard to the abuse of authority, this also may come about in two ways. First, when what is ordered by an authority is opposed to the object for which that authority was constituted (if, for example, some sinful action is commanded or one which is contrary to virtue, when it is precisely for the protection and fostering of virtue that authority is instituted). In such a case, not only is there no obligation to obey the authority, but one is obliged to disobey it, as did the holy martyrs who suffered death rather than obey the impious commands of tyrants. Secondly, when those who bear such authority command things which exceed the competence of such authority; as, for example, when a master demands payment from a servant which the latter is not bound to make, and other similar cases. In this instance the subject is free to obey or disobey.

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in Aquinas: Selected Political Writings (Basil Blackwell: 1974), p. 183
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
1 month 4 weeks ago
The human understanding is of its...

The human understanding is of its own nature prone to suppose the existence of more order and regularity in the world than it finds. And though there be many things in nature which are singular and unmatched, yet it devises for them parallels and conjugates and relatives which do not exist. Hence the fiction that all celestial bodies move in perfect circles, spirals and dragons being (except in name) utterly rejected.

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Aphorism 45
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
2 months 2 weeks ago
To the contemporary, Christ can only...

To the contemporary, Christ can only say: I will offer myself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world and for yours also. Is this easier to believe now than when he has done it, has offered himself? Or is the comfort greater because of his saying that he will do it than it is because of his having done it? There is no greater love than this, that someone lays down his life for another, but when is it easier to believe, and when is the comfort greater: when the loving one says he will do it, or when he has done it?

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Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
2 days ago
Some will ask, what about weak...

Some will ask, what about weak natures, must they not be protected? Yes, but to be able to do that, it will be necessary to realize that education of children is not synonymous with herdlike drilling and training. If education should really mean anything at all, it must insist upon the free growth and development of the innate forces and tendencies of the child. In this way alone can we hope for the free individual and eventually also for a free community, which shall make interference and coercion of human growth impossible.

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Philosophical Maxims
George Berkeley
George Berkeley
3 weeks 5 days ago
That there is no such thing...

That there is no such thing as what philosophers call material substance, I am seriously persuaded: but if I were made to see any thing absurd or skeptical in this, I should then have the same reason to renounce this, that I imagine I have now to reject the contrary opinion.

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Philonous to Hylas
Philosophical Maxims
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