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Simone Weil
Simone Weil
1 month 4 weeks ago
God's love for us is not...

God's love for us is not the reason for which we should love him. God's love for us is the reason for us to love ourselves.

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p. 270
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
3 months 1 week ago
If a false thought is so...

If a false thought is so much as expressed boldly and clearly, a great deal has already been gained.

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p. 86e
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
4 months 1 week ago
Now, in the solemn silence before...

Now, in the solemn silence before God with the lilies and the birds, where accordingly there is nobody at all present, where accordingly there is no other intercourse for thee but with God-there indeed the rule holds good: either hold to Him/or despise Him. There is no excuse, for no one else is present, in any case no one is present in such a wise that thou canst hold to him without despising God; for precisely there in the silence it is clear how close God is to thee.

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Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
2 months 2 weeks ago
In the United States a man...

In the United States a man builds a house to spend his latter years in it and he sells it before the roof is on. He plants a garden and lets it just as the trees are coming into bearing. He brings a field into tillage and leaves other men to gather the crops. He embraces a profession and gives it up. He settles in a place which he soon afterward leaves to carry his changeable longings elsewhere. If his private affairs leave him any leisure he instantly plunges into the vortex of politics and if at the end of a year of unremitting labour he finds he has a few days' vacation, his eager curiosity whirls him over the vast extent of the United States, and he will travel fifteen hundred miles in a few days to shake off his happiness.

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Chapter XXIX.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
4 months ago
It would be better if they...

It would be better if they [rulers] compelled the Jews to work for their living, as they do in parts of Italy, than that, living without occupation, they can grow rich only by usury .

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art. 2
Philosophical Maxims
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
3 months 1 week ago
A sovereign shows himself to be...

A sovereign shows himself to be a tyrant if he disregards his honest advisors, or punishes them for what they have said.

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Philosophical Maxims
Plato
Plato
4 months 1 week ago
Of these not right forms of...

Of these not right forms of government, monarchy, when bound by good written rules, which we call laws, is the best of all the six; but without law it is hard and most oppressive to live with. The government of the few must be considered intermediate, both in good and in evil. The government of the multitude is weak in all respects and able to do nothing great, either good or bad, when compared with the other forms of government, therefore of all these governments when they are lawful, this is the worst, and when they are all lawless it is the best.

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Philosophical Maxims
Max Scheler
Max Scheler
2 months 3 days ago
Beyond all conscious lying and falsifying,...

Beyond all conscious lying and falsifying, there is a deeper "organic mendacity." Here the falsification is not formed in consciousness, but at the same stage of the mental process as the impressions and value feelings themselves: on the road of experience into consciousness. There is "organic mendacity" whenever a man's mind admits only those impressions which serve his "interest" or his instinctive attitude. Already in the process of mental reproduction and recollection, the contents of his experience are modified in this direction. He who is "mendacious" has no need to lie! In his case, the automatic process of forming recollections, impressions, and feelings is involuntarily slanted, so that conscious falsification becomes unnecessary.

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L. Coser, trans. (1973), pp. 77-78
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
1 week ago
What's interesting about the world today...

What's interesting about the world today is that the fundamental division is... a... sociological one between people that have better educations, that live in big urban agglomerations, that then can then benefit from... a global economy, versus people who live in... smaller cities and towns, or in the countryside... with more traditional values. That division exists almost universally, in Turkey... Hungary... the United States, in Britain... It does reflect different economic opportunities, but more fundamentally... it reflects a... way of life, that in the urban case is... liberal and open, but in some cases... people would say a little... too open and too tolerant of... people that want to break traditional norms that are still maintained by... other parts of the population. So it's really that cultural fight... that's at the center of populism, related to,.. but certainly not fundamentally driven by economic inequality.

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52:39:00
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert A. Simon
Herbert A. Simon
1 month 3 weeks ago
We are organization watchers in our...

We are organization watchers in our role as citizens. Increasing attention has been fixed in recent years upon the functioning of society's organizations: its large corporations and its governments. Hence this could also be described as a book for Everyman-for it proposes a way of thinking about organizational issues that concern us all.

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Simon (1975, p. ix); As cited in Stefano Franchi(2006) "Herbert simon, anti-philosopher." Computing and Philosophy. p. 34.
Philosophical Maxims
Epicurus
Epicurus
4 months 2 days ago
If you reject absolutely any single...

If you reject absolutely any single sensation without stopping to discriminate with respect to that which awaits confirmation between matter of opinion and that which is already present, whether in sensation or in feelings or in any immediate perception of the mind, you will throw into confusion even the rest of your sensations by your groundless belief and so you will be rejecting the standard of truth altogether. If in your ideas based upon opinion you hastily affirm as true all that awaits confirmation as well as that which does not, you will not escape error, as you will be maintaining complete ambiguity whenever it is a case of judging between right and wrong opinion.

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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
3 months 1 week ago
I have changed my mind about...

I have changed my mind about the testability and logical status of the theory of natural selection; and I am glad to have an opportunity to make a recantation.

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Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
3 months 3 weeks ago
The beginning is from God: for...

The beginning is from God: for the business which is in hand, having the character of good so strongly impressed upon it, appears manifestly to proceed from God, who is the author of good, and the Father of Lights. Now in divine operations even the smallest beginnings lead of a certainty to their end. And as it was said of spiritual things, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation," so is it in all the greater works of Divine Providence; everything glides on smoothly and noiselessly, and the work is fairly going on "before men are aware that it has begun. Nor should the prophecy of Daniel be forgotten, touching the last ages of the world: -"Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased;" clearly intimating that the thorough passage of the world (which now by so many distant voyages seems to be accomplished, or in course of accomplishment), and the advancement of the sciences, are destined by fate, that is, by Divine Providence, to meet in the same age.

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Aphorism 93
Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
4 months 1 week ago
Every art, and every system, and...

Every art, and every system, and in like manner every action and purpose aims, it is thought, at some good; for which reason a common and by no means a bad description of the good is, that at which all things aim.

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Philosophical Maxims
Judith Butler
Judith Butler
1 month 2 weeks ago
If nonviolence is to make sense...

If nonviolence is to make sense as an ethical and political position, it cannot simply repress aggression or do away with its reality; rather, nonviolence emerges as a meaningful concept precisely when destruction is most likely or seems most certain.

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p. 39
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
4 weeks ago
The only good that I can...

The only good that I can see in the demonstration of the truth of "Spiritualism" is to furnish an additional argument against suicide. Better live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to talk twaddle by a "medium" hired at a guinea a séance.

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Review in the Daily News (17 October 1871), quoted in Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley F.R.S (1900) edited by Leonard Huxley, Vol. 1, p. 452
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
3 months 2 weeks ago
Unless I am convinced by the...

Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.

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Statement in defense of his writings at the Diet of Worms (19 April 1521), as translated in The Nature of Protestantism (1963) by Karl Heim, p. 78
Philosophical Maxims
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei
6 days ago
I do not feel obliged to...

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.

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Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Schlegel
Friedrich Schlegel
2 months 1 week ago
There are people with whom everything...

There are people with whom everything they consider a means turns mysteriously into an end.

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Philosophical Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991) § 428
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
4 months 2 days ago
Heaven, in the production of things,...

Heaven, in the production of things, is sure to be bountiful to them, according to their qualities. Hence the tree that is flourishing, it nourishes, while that which is ready to fall, it overthrows.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
4 weeks ago
Regarded anatomically, the resemblances between the...

Regarded anatomically, the resemblances between the foot of Man and the foot of the Gorilla are far more striking and important than the differences. ...be the differences between the hand and foot of Man and those of the Gorilla what they may-the differences between those of the Gorilla and those of the lower Apes are much greater.

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Ch.2, p. 110
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
3 months 1 week ago
I believe that the abolition of...

I believe that the abolition of private ownership of land and capital is a necessary step toward any world in which the nations are to live at peace with one another.

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Ch. VI: International relations, p. 99
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
4 months 2 days ago
When I walk along with...

When I walk along with two others, they may serve me as my teachers. I will select their good qualities and follow them, their bad qualities and avoid them.

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Philosophical Maxims
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
2 months 3 days ago
The metaphysical apologia at least betrayed...

The metaphysical apologia at least betrayed the injustice of the established order through the incongruence of concept and reality. The impartiality of scientific language deprived what was powerless of the strength to make itself heard and merely provided the existing order with a neutral sign for itself. Such neutrality is more metaphysical than metaphysics.

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E. Jephcott, trans., p. 17.
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 1 week ago
The feeling of being ten thousand...

The feeling of being ten thousand years behind, or ahead, of the others, of belonging to the beginnings or to the end of humanity...

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Philosophical Maxims
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
1 month 3 weeks ago
The great reformers of the world...

The great reformers of the world turn into the great misanthropists, if circumstances or organisation do not permit them to act. Christ, if He had been a woman, might have been nothing but a great complainer. Peace be with the misanthropists! They have made a step in progress; the next will make them great philanthropists; they are divided but by a line. The next Christ will perhaps be a female Christ. But do we see one woman who looks like a female Christ? or even like "the messenger before" her "face", to go before her and prepare the hearts and minds for her? To this will be answered that half the inmates of Bedlam begin in this way, by fancying that they are "the Christ." People talk about imitating Christ, and imitate Him in the little trifling formal things, such as washing the feet, saying His prayer, and so on; but if anyone attempts the real imitation of Him, there are no bounds to the outcry with which the presumption of that person is condemned.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ptahhotep
Ptahhotep
3 months 3 days ago
Do not be arrogant because of...

Do not be arrogant because of your knowledge, but confer with the ignorant man as with the learned. For knowledge has no limits, and none has yet achieved perfection in it. Good speech is more hidden than malachite, yet it is found in the possession of women slaves at the millstones.

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Maxim no. 1.
Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
3 months ago
Diogenes the Cynic, when a little...

Diogenes the Cynic, when a little before his death he fell into a slumber, and his physician rousing him out of it asked him whether anything ailed him, wisely answered, "Nothing, sir; only one brother anticipates another,-Sleep before Death."

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Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
2 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
David Hume
David Hume
3 months 2 weeks ago
But such is the nature of...

But such is the nature of the human mind, that it always lays hold on every mind that approaches it; and as it is wonderfully fortified by an unanimity of sentiments, so is it shocked and disturbed by any contrariety. Hence the eagerness, which most people discover in a dispute; and hence their impatience of opposition, even in the most speculative and indifferent opinions.

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Part I, Essay 8: Of Parties in General
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
3 days ago
The Book had in a high...

The Book had in a high degree excited us to self-activity, which is the best effect of any book.

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Bk. I, ch. 4.
Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
4 months 1 week ago
It is absurd to hold that...

It is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs but not of being unable to defend himself with reason when the use of reason is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
3 days ago
The fine arts once divorcing themselves...

The fine arts once divorcing themselves from truth are quite certain to fall mad, if they do not die.

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Latter Day Pamphlet, No. 8.
Philosophical Maxims
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
2 months 1 week ago
We exhort the compromisers to open...

We exhort the compromisers to open their hearts to truth, to free themselves of their wretched and blind circumspection, of their intellectual arrogance, and of the servile fear which dries up their souls and paralyzes their movements. Let us therefore trust the eternal Spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unfathomable and eternal source of all life. The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too!

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"The Reaction in Germany" (1842) Often paraphrased as, "The urge to destroy is also a creative urge"
Philosophical Maxims
Diogenes of Sinope
Diogenes of Sinope
3 months 2 days ago
When Alexander the Great addressed him...

When Alexander the Great addressed him with greetings, and asked if he wanted anything, Diogenes replied "Yes, stand a little out of my sunshine."

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From Plutarch, Alexander, 14. Cf. Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 38, Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, v. 32
Philosophical Maxims
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
3 months 3 weeks ago
Rules necessary for demonstrations. To prove...

Rules necessary for demonstrations. To prove all propositions, and to employ nothing for their proof but axioms fully evident of themselves, or propositions already demonstrated or admitted; Never to take advantage of the ambiguity of terms by failing mentally to substitute definitions that restrict or explain them.

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Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
2 months 1 week 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
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
1 month 3 weeks ago
What concerns me alone I only...

What concerns me alone I only think, what concerns my friends I tell them, what can be of interest to only a limited public I write, and what the world ought to know is printed...

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B 52
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
1 month 1 week ago
My method is vertical rather than...

My method is vertical rather than horizontal so the scenery does not change but the texture does.

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Letter to The Listener October 1971, Letters of Marshall McLuhan (1987), p. 318
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 weeks 6 days ago
The philosophical anthropologist...
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Main Content / General
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
3 days ago
Ever, as before, does Madness remain...

Ever, as before, does Madness remain a mysterious-terrific, altogether infernal boiling-up of the Nether Chaotic Deep, through this fair-painted Vision of Creation, which swims thereon, which we name the Real.

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Bk. III, ch. 8.
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
3 months 2 weeks ago
The trade of insurance gives great...

The trade of insurance gives great security to the fortunes of private people, and by dividing among a great many that loss which would ruin an individual, makes it fall light and easy upon the whole society.

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Chapter I, Part III, p. 821.
Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
1 month 3 weeks ago
More and more it is becoming...

More and more it is becoming evident that what the West can most readily give to the East is its science and its scientific outlook. This is transferable from country to country, and from race to race, wherever there is a rational society.

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Ch. 1: "The Origins of Modern Science", p. 4
Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
3 months ago
Cato requested old men not to...

Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.

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Cato the Elder
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
3 months 1 week ago
The best work is not what...

The best work is not what is most difficult for you; it is what you do best.

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Act 6, sc. 2
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 1 week ago
Long before physics or psychology were...

Long before physics or psychology were born, pain disintegrated matter, and affliction the soul.

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Philosophical Maxims
Montesquieu
Montesquieu
1 month 4 weeks ago
Life was given to me as...

Life was given to me as a favor, so I may abandon it when it is one no longer.

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No. 76. (Usbek writing to Ibben)
Philosophical Maxims
Theodor Adorno
Theodor Adorno
1 month 4 weeks ago
By abstaining from all definite content,...

By abstaining from all definite content, whether as formal logic and theory of science or as the legend of Being beyond all beings, philosophy declared its bankruptcy regarding concrete social goals.

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p. 6
Philosophical Maxims
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
2 months 3 days ago
Subjective reason ... is inclined to...

Subjective reason ... is inclined to abandon the fight with religion by setting up two different brackets, one for science and philosophy, and one for institutionalized mythology, thus recognizing both of them. For the philosophy of objective reason there is no such way out. Since it hold to the concept of objective truth, it must take a positive or a negative stand with regard to the content of established religion.

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p. 12.
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
3 months 1 week ago
The heavens are as deep as...

The heavens are as deep as our aspirations are high.

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Quoted in Maturin M. Ballou (ed.) Pearls of Thought (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1881) p. 21
Philosophical Maxims
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