Skip to main content

Main navigation

☰ ˟
  • Home
  • Articulation
  • Free Books
  • Contact
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 2 weeks ago
I believe... that every human mind...

I believe... that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to John Adams
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
5 months 1 week ago
The First [Friend] is the alter...

The First [Friend] is the alter ego, the man who first reveals to you that you are not alone in the world by turning out (beyond hope) to share all your most secret delights. There is nothing to be overcome in making him your friend; he and you join like raindrops on a window. But the Second Friend is the man who disagrees with you about everything... Of course he shares your interests; otherwise he would not become your friend at all. But he has approached them all at a different angle. he has read all the right books but has got the wrong thing out of every one... How can he be so nearly right, and yet, invariably, just not right? He is as fascinating (and infuriating) as a woman.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
1 month 4 days ago
It is quite possible to...

It is quite possible to be both. I look upon myself as a man. Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Avicenna
Avicenna
6 months 2 days ago
Medicine considers the human body as...

Medicine considers the human body as to the means by which it is cured and by which it is driven away from health.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
5 months 1 week ago
If you die, I will lie...

If you die, I will lie down beside you and I will stay there until the end, without eating or drinking, you will rot in my arms and I will love you as carcass: for you love nothing if you do not love everything.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Act 10, sc. 2
Philosophical Maxims
bell hooks
bell hooks
3 months 4 weeks ago
When television screens had only rare...

When television screens had only rare images of black folks, black people were more critically vigilant about these representations. Even when blackness was represented 'positiviely,' as it was in early black television shows like Julia, which focused on the life of a black nurse, the beauty standard was a reflection of white supremacist aesthetics.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
5 months 2 weeks ago
If God has made us…

If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Notebooks, c.1735-c.1750
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
1 month 4 days ago
I see a clock, but...

I see a clock, but I cannot envision the clockmaker. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one?

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
5 months 2 weeks ago
For in spite of language, in...

For in spite of language, in spite of intelligence and intuition and sympathy, one can never really communicate anything to anybody.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"Sermons in Cats"
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 2 weeks ago
A ruddy drop of manly blood...

A ruddy drop of manly blood The surging sea outweighs, The world uncertain comes and goes; The lover rooted stays.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Friendship
Philosophical Maxims
Montesquieu
Montesquieu
4 months 1 day ago
The Pope will make the king...

The Pope will make the king believe that three are only one, that the bread he eats is not bread...and a thousand other things of the same kind.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
No. 24. (Rica writing to Ibben)
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
6 months 1 week ago
The Dantean conceptions of Inferno were...

The Dantean conceptions of Inferno were childish and unworthy of the Divine imagination: fire and torture. Boredom is much more subtle. The inner torture of a mind unable to escape itself in any way, condemned to fester in its own exuding mental pus for all time, is much more fitting. Oh, yes, my friend, we have been judged, and condemned, too, and this is not Heaven, but hell.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 4 weeks ago
Our minds must have relaxation: rested,...

Our minds must have relaxation: rested, they will rise up better and keener. Just as we must not force fertile fields (for uninterrupted production will quickly exhaust them), so continual labor will break the power of our minds. They will recover their strength, however, after they have had a little freedom and relaxation.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 week ago
Since the only things we remember...

Since the only things we remember are humiliations and defeats, what is the use of all the rest?

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Gottlob frege
Gottlob frege
4 months 1 week ago
Every good mathematician is at least...

Every good mathematician is at least half a philosopher, and every good philosopher is at least half a mathematician.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Attributed to Frege in: A. A. B. Aspeitia (2000), Mathematics as grammar: 'Grammar' in Wittgenstein's philosophy of mathematics during the Middle Period, Indiana University, p. 25
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
1 month 1 week ago
Remember, that to change thy mind...

Remember, that to change thy mind upon occasion, and to follow him that is able to rectify thee, is equally ingenuous, as to find out at the first, what is right and just, without help. For of thee nothing is required, that is beyond the extent of thine own deliberation and judgment, and of thine own understanding.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
VII, 14
Philosophical Maxims
Henri Poincaré
Henri Poincaré
2 months 1 week ago
Or... they observe an astronomic phenomenon......

Or... they observe an astronomic phenomenon... an eclipse of the moon, and... suppose... this... is perceived simultaneously from all points of the earth. That is not altogether true, since the propagation of light is not instantaneous; if absolute exactitude were desired, there would be a correction... according to a complicated rule.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
5 months 2 weeks ago
An intellectual is a person who...

An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted without citation in Discovering Evolutionary Ecology: Bringing Together Ecology And Evolution (2006) by Peter J. Mayhew, p. 24
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
5 months 2 weeks ago
Suicide may also be regarded as...

Suicide may also be regarded as an experiment - a question which man puts to Nature, trying to force her to answer. The question is this: What change will death produce in a man's existence and in his insight into the nature of things? It is a clumsy experiment to make; for it involves the destruction of the very consciousness which puts the question and awaits the answer.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Vol. 2, Ch. 13, § 160
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
5 months 2 weeks ago
For my own part, not believing...

For my own part, not believing in universal selfishness, I have no difficulty in admitting that Communism would even now be practicable among the elite of mankind, and may become so among the rest.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
6 months 1 week ago
At this point of his effort...

At this point of his effort man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world. This must not be forgotten. This must be clung to because the whole consequence of a life can depend on it. The irrational, the human nostalgia, and the absurd that is born of their encounter, these are the three characters in the drama that must necessarily end with all the logic of which an existence is capable.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
4 months 6 days ago
Art expresses, it does not state;...

Art expresses, it does not state; it is concerned with existences in their perceived qualities, not with conceptions symbolized in terms.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 139
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach
4 months 2 weeks ago
The power of thought is the...

The power of thought is the light of knowledge, the power of will is the energy of character, the power of heart is love. Reason, love and power of will are perfections of man.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Introduction, Z. Hanfi, trans., in The Fiery Brook (1972), p. 99
Philosophical Maxims
Mozi
Mozi
1 month 3 weeks ago
When we try to develop and...

When we try to develop and procure benefits for the world with universal love as our standard, then attentive ears and keen eyes will respond in service to one another, then limbs will be strengthened to work for one another, and those who know the Tao will untiringly instruct others. Thus the old and those who have neither wife nor children will have the support and supply to spend their old age with, and the young and weak and orphans will have the care and admonition to grow up in. When universal love is adopted as the standard, then such are the consequent benefits. It is incomprehensible, then, why people should object to universal love when they hear it.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book 4; Universal Love III
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
1 month 4 days ago
We shall, therefore, assume the...

We shall, therefore, assume the complete physical equivalence of a gravitational field and a corresponding acceleration of the reference system.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Statement of the equivalence principle in Yearbook of Radioactivity and Electronics (1907)
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 week 1 day ago
A great man....
0
⚖0
Main Content / General
Epicurus
Epicurus
6 months 4 days ago
Moderation, in the pursuit of honors...

Moderation, in the pursuit of honors or riches, is the only security against disappointment and vexation. A wise man, therefore, will prefer the simplicity of rustic life to the magnificence of courts.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
3 months 1 week ago
At the speed of light there...

At the speed of light there is no sequence; everything happens at the same instant.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
4 months 3 weeks ago
None but God is wise…

None but God is wise.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in The Diegesis (1829) by Robert Taylor, p. 219
Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
6 months ago
When the Head and members are...

When the Head and members are despised, then the whole Christ is despised, for the whole Christ, Head and body, is that just man against whom deceitful lips speak iniquity (Ps. 30:19).

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p.425
Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
5 months 2 days ago
And when the physician said, "Sir,...

And when the physician said, "Sir, you are an old man," "That happens," replied Pausanias, "because you never were my doctor."

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Of Pausanias the Son of Phistoanax
Philosophical Maxims
Will Durant
Will Durant
2 months 4 days ago
Children and fools speak the truth;...

Children and fools speak the truth; and somehow they find happiness in their sincerity.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 1 : Our life begins
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
6 months 4 days ago
Recompense hatred with justice, and...

Recompense hatred with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
David Pearce
David Pearce
2 months 3 weeks ago
Any plea ... for institutionalized risk-assessment,...

Any plea ... for institutionalized risk-assessment, beefed-up bioethics panels, academic review bodies, worse-case scenario planning, more intensive computer simulations, systematic long-term planning and the institutionalized study of existential risks is admirable. But so is urgent action to combat the global pandemic of suffering. "The easiest pain to bear is someone else's"

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Objections, No 34
Philosophical Maxims
Empedocles
Empedocles
5 months 4 days ago
What needs saying…

What needs saying is worth saying twice.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
fr. 25
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
5 months 2 weeks ago
By nature a philosopher is not...

By nature a philosopher is not in genius and disposition half so different from a street porter, as a mastiff is from a greyhound.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter II, p. 17.
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
1 month 2 weeks ago
I am not alone in my...

I am not alone in my fear, nor alone in my hope, nor alone in my shouting. A tremendous host, an onrush of the Universe fears, hopes, and shouts with me. I am an improvised bridge, and when Someone passes over me, I crumble away behind Him.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
1 month 1 week ago
I can control my thoughts as...

I can control my thoughts as necessary; then how can I be troubled?

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(Hays translation) VII, 2
Philosophical Maxims
Mencius
Mencius
2 months 6 days ago
The way of learning is none...

The way of learning is none other than finding the lost mind.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
6A:11, as translated by Wing-tsit Chan in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (1963), p. 58
Philosophical Maxims
Peter Singer
Peter Singer
5 months 5 days ago
Those who claim to care about...

Those who claim to care about the wellbeing of human beings and the preservation of our environment should become vegetarians for that reason alone. They would thereby increase the amount of grain available to feed people elsewhere, reduce pollution, save water and energy, and cease contributing to the clearing of forests; moreover, since a vegetarian diet is cheaper than one based on meat dishes, they would have more money available to devote to famine relief, population control, or whatever social or political cause they thought most urgent. ... when nonvegetarians say that "human problems come first" I cannot help wondering what exactly it is that they are doing for human beings that compels them to continue to support the wasteful, ruthless exploitation of farm animals.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 6: Speciesism Today
Philosophical Maxims
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
5 months 3 weeks ago
Mahomet established a religion…

Mahomet established a religion by putting his enemies to death; Jesus Christ, by commanding his followers to lay down their own lives.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Thoughts on Religion and Philosophy (W. Collins, 1838), Ch. XVI, p. 202
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
5 months 1 week ago
'But what of the poor Ghosts...

But what of the poor Ghosts who never get into the omnibus at all?' 'Everyone who wishes it does. Never fear. There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 9, p. 72; part of this has also been rendered in a variant form, and quoted as:
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
5 months 3 weeks ago
'Tis a good word and a...

Tis a good word and a profitable desire, but withal absurd; for to make the handle bigger than the hand, the cubic longer than the arm, and to hope to stride further than our legs can reach, is both impossible and monstrous; or that man should rise above himself and humanity; for he cannot see but with his eyes, nor seize but with his hold. He shall be exalted, if God will lend him an extraordinary hand; he shall exalt himself, by abandoning and renouncing his own proper means, and by suffering himself to be raised and elevated by means purely celestial. It belongs to our Christian faith, and not to the stoical virtue, to pretend to that divine and miraculous metamorphosis.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 12
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
4 months 1 week ago
Hegel's theological discussion repeatedly asks what...

Hegel's theological discussion repeatedly asks what the true relation is between the individual man and a state that no longer satisfies his capacities but exists rather as an 'estranged' institution from which the active political interest of the citizens has disappeared. Hegel defined this state with almost the same categories as those of eighteenth century liberalism: the state rests on the consent of the individuals, it circumscribes their rights and duties and protects its members from those internal and external dangers that might threaten the perpetuation of the whole.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
P. 32
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert A. Simon
Herbert A. Simon
3 months 3 weeks 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. It is the task of knowledge to select from the whole class of possible consequences a more limited subclass, or even (ideally) a single set of consequences correlated with each strategy.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 78.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
2 months 5 days ago
In the lowest broad strata of...

In the lowest broad strata of the population, equally as in the highest and narrowest, are produced men of every kind of genius; man for man, your chance of genius is as good among the millions as among the units;-and class for class, what must it be! From all classes, not from certain hundreds now but from several millions, whatsoever man the gods had gifted with intellect and nobleness, and power to help his country, could be chosen: O Heavens, could,-if not by Tenpound Constituencies and the force of beer, then by a Reforming Premier with eyes in his head, who I think might do it quite infinitely better. Infinitely better. For ignobleness cannot, by the nature of it, choose the noble: no, there needs a seeing man who is himself noble, cognizant by internal experience of the symptoms of nobleness.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 week ago
We dread the future only when...

We dread the future only when we are not sure we can kill ourselves when we want to.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
4 months 5 days ago
The general fellowship of our human...

The general fellowship of our human situation has been rendered even more dubious than before, inasmuch as, though the old ties of caste have been loosened, a new restriction of the individual to some prescribed status in society is manifest. Less than ever, perhaps, is it possible for a man to transcend the limitations imposed by his social origins.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 2 weeks ago
There is always a certain meanness...

There is always a certain meanness in the argument of conservatism, joined with a certain superiority in its fact.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 week ago
The refutation of suicide: is it...

The refutation of suicide: is it not inelegant to abandon a world which has so willingly put itself at the service of our melancholy?

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
  • Load More

User login

  • Create new account
  • Reset your password

Social

☰ ˟
  • Main Feed
  • Philosophical Maxims

Civic

☰ ˟
  • Propositions
  • Issue / Solution

Users

☰ ˟
  • All users
  • Historical Figures

Who's new

  • Enzo Soltani
  • Søren Kierkegaard
  • Jesus
  • Friedrich Nietzsche
  • VeXed

Who's online

There are currently 0 users online.

CivilSimian.com created by AxiomaticPanic, CivilSimian, Kalokagathia