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Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
6 months 2 weeks ago
As to the objection that these...

As to the objection that these rules are common in the world, that it is necessary to define every thing and to prove every thing, and that logicians themselves have placed them among their art, I would that the thing were true and that it were so well known... But so little is this the case, that, geometricians alone excepted, who are so few in number that they are a single in a whole nation and long periods of time, we see no others that know it.

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Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
4 months 2 weeks ago
I am convinced we do not...

I am convinced we do not only love ourselves in others but hate ourselves in others too.

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F 54
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
4 months 6 days ago
It will be said, "Patriotism has...

It will be said, "Patriotism has welded mankind into states, and maintains the unity of states." But men are now united in states; that work is done; why now maintain exclusive devotion to one's own state, when this produces terrible evils for all states and nations? For this same patriotism which welded mankind into states is now destroying those same states. If there were but one patriotism say of the English only then it were possible to regard that as conciliatory, or beneficent. But when, as now, there is American patriotism, English, German, French, Russian, all opposed to one another, in this event, patriotism no longer unites, but disunites.

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Patriotism and Government
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
5 months 2 days ago
But the extraordinary insight which some...

But the extraordinary insight which some persons are able to gain of others from indications so slight that it is difficult to ascertain what they are, is certainly rendered more comprehensible by the view here taken.

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Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
6 months 3 weeks ago
A scholar who loves comfort is...

A scholar who loves comfort is not worthy of the name.

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Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
5 months 3 weeks 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
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
6 months 1 week ago
The only thing that will redeem...

The only thing that will redeem mankind is co-operation, and the first step towards co-operation lies in the hearts of individuals.

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p. 212
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
6 months 1 week ago
The law of simplicity and naïveté...

The law of simplicity and naïveté applies to all fine art, for it is compatible with what is most sublime. True brevity of expression consists in a man only saying what is worth saying, while avoiding all diffuse explanations of things which every one can think out for himself; that is, it consists in his correctly distinguishing between what is necessary and what is superfluous. On the other hand, one should never sacrifice clearness, to say nothing of grammar, for the sake of being brief. To impoverish the expression of a thought, or to obscure or spoil the meaning of a period for the sake of using fewer words shows a lamentable want of judgment.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean Jacques Rousseau
6 months 1 week ago
Virtue is a state of war…

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it means one always has some battle to wage against oneself.

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Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse (French), Sixième partie, Lettre VII Réponse (1761) Julie, or The New Heloise (English), Part Six, Letter VII Response, pg 560
Philosophical Maxims
Cisero
Cisero
6 months 3 weeks ago
After death the sensation...

After death the sensation is either pleasant or there is none at all. But this should be thought on from our youth up, so that we may be indifferent to death, and without this thought no one can be in a tranquil state of mind. For it is certain that we must die, and, for aught we know, this very day. Therefore, since death threatens every hour, how can he who fears it have any steadfastness of soul?

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section 74
Philosophical Maxims
Empedocles
Empedocles
5 months 3 weeks ago
But, when the elements have been...

But, when the elements have been mingled in the fashion of a man and come to the light of day, or in the fashion of the race of wild beasts or plants or birds, then men say that these come into being; and when they are separated, they call that woeful death. They call it not aright; but I too follow the custom, and call it so myself.

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fr. 9 As quoted by John Burnet, Early Greek philosophy (1908) p. 240
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
4 months 6 days ago
For us, with the rule of...

For us, with the rule of right and wrong given us by Christ, there is nothing for which we have no standard. And there is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.

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Bk. XIV, ch. 18
Philosophical Maxims
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
4 months 3 weeks ago
All things in nature become identical...

All things in nature become identical with the phenomena they present when submitted to the practices of our laboratories, whose problems no less than their apparatus express in turn the problems and interests of society as it is. This view may be compared with that of a criminologist maintaining that trustworthy knowledge of a human being can be obtained only by the well-tested and streamlined examining methods applied to a suspect in the hands of the metropolitan police.

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describing the pragmatist view, p. 49.
Philosophical Maxims
William Godwin
William Godwin
5 months 3 days ago
Government in reality, as has abundantly...

Government in reality, as has abundantly appeared, is a question of force, and not of consent. It is desirable that a government should be made as agreeable as possible to the ideas and inclinations of its subjects and that they should be consulted, as extensively as may be, respecting its construction and regulations. But, at last, the best constituted government that can be formed particularly for a large community, will contain many provisions that, far from having obtained the consent of all its members, encounter even in their outset a strenuous, thought ineffectual opposition.

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Book III, "Of Obedience"
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
7 months 1 week ago
Job endured everything

Job endured everything - until his friends came to comfort him, then he grew impatient.

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Philosophical Maxims
chanakya
chanakya
3 months 2 weeks ago
The world's biggest power is the...

The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman.

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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Mannheim
Karl Mannheim
2 months 3 days ago
The particular conception of ideology operates...

The particular conception of ideology operates primarily with a psychology of interests, while the total conception uses a more formal functional analysis, without any reference to motivations, confining itself to an objective description of the structural differences in minds operating in different social settings. The former assumes that this or that interest is the cause of a given lie or deception. The latter presupposes simply that there is a correspondence between a given social situation and a given perspective, point of view, or apperception mass. In this case, while an analysis of constellations of interests may often be necessary it is not to establish causal connections but to characterize the total situation. Thus interest psychology tends to be displaced by an analysis of the correspondence between the situation to be known and the forms of knowledge.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
6 months 1 week ago
Most people, at a crisis, feel...

Most people, at a crisis, feel more loyalty to their nation than to their class.

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Ch. 8: Economic Power
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
4 months 1 day ago
It is the duty...
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Confucius
Confucius
6 months 3 weeks ago
The Superior Man has nothing...

The Superior Man has nothing to compete for. But if he must compete, he does it in an archery match, wherein he ascends to his position, bowing in deference. Descending, he drinks (or has [the winner] drink) the ritual cup. Note: Bowing is a courtesy for the host who invites him as well drinking a cup.

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Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
5 months 1 week ago
Africans are always vicious... mostly inclined...

Africans are always vicious... mostly inclined to lasciviousness, vengeance, theft and lies.

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As quoted in David Johnson, 'Representing the Cape "Hottentots"
Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
6 months 1 week ago
I doubt not, but from self-evident...

I doubt not, but from self-evident Propositions, by necessary Consequences, as incontestable as those in Mathematics, the measures of right and wrong might be made out.

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Book IV, Ch. 3, sec. 18
Philosophical Maxims
Emperor Julian
Emperor Julian
2 months 2 weeks ago
The end and aim of the...

The end and aim of the Cynic philosophy, as indeed of every philosophy, is happiness, but happiness that consists in living according to nature, and not according to the opinions of the multitude.

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Oration to the Uneducated Cynics
Philosophical Maxims
Ernest Renan
Ernest Renan
3 months 1 day ago
As a rule, all heroism is...

As a rule, all heroism is due to a lack of reflection, and thus it is necessary to maintain a mass of imbeciles. If they once understand themselves the ruling men will be lost.

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Orlando, in Caliban, act 2, sc. 1 (1878).
Philosophical Maxims
Susan Neiman
Susan Neiman
3 months 3 weeks ago
I'm delighted to hear someone make...

I'm delighted to hear someone make the claim that there is moral progress because it can be such a incendiary thing to say, and its something that I say and deeply believe in.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
4 months 2 weeks ago
Perhaps even more than constituted authority,...

Perhaps even more than constituted authority, it is social uniformity and sameness that harass the individual most. His very "uniqueness," "separateness" and "differentiation" make him an alien, not only in his native place, but even in his own home. Often more so than the foreign born who generally falls in with the established. In the true sense one's native land, with its back ground of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home. A certain atmosphere of "belonging," the consciousness of being "at one" with the people and environment, is more essential to one's feeling of home. This holds good in relation to one's family, the smaller local circle, as well as the larger phase of the life and activities commonly called one's country. The individual whose vision encompasses the whole world often feels nowhere so hedged in and out of touch with his surroundings than in his native land.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
2 months 6 days ago
We are firmly convinced, and we...

We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations, as with individuals, our interests, soundly calculated, will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties; and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is taken on its word, when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thales of Miletus
Thales of Miletus
5 months 2 weeks ago
Place is the greatest thing….

Place is the greatest thing, as it contains all things.

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As quoted in Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, I, 35
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
6 months 6 days ago
Under no pretext should arms and...

Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary.

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Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League in London, March 1850
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
6 months 5 days ago
He sees as well as you...

He sees as well as you do that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions.

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Letter XXIX
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
6 months 1 week ago
Man is certainly crazy...

Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.

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Ch. 12
Philosophical Maxims
Max Stirner
Max Stirner
2 months 3 weeks ago
That the individual is of himself...

That the individual is of himself a world's history, and possesses his property in the rest of the world's history, goes beyond what is Christian. To the Christian the world's history is the higher thing, because it is the history of Christ or 'man'; to the egoist only his history has value, because he wants to develop only himself not the mankind-idea, not God's plan, not the purposes of Providence, not liberty, and the like. He does not look upon himself as a tool of the idea or a vessel of God, he recognizes no calling, he does not fancy that he exists for the further development of mankind and that he must contribute his mite to it, but he lives himself out, careless of how well or ill humanity may fare thereby.

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Cambridge 1995, p. 323
Philosophical Maxims
bell hooks
bell hooks
4 months 2 weeks 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
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
5 months 1 week ago
The people never give up their...

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

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Speech at a County Meeting of Buckinghamshire
Philosophical Maxims
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva
3 months 2 weeks ago
The gradual spread of sterility in...

The gradual spread of sterility in seeding plants would result in a global catastrophe that could eventually wipe out higher life forms, including humans, from the planet.

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On the terminator gene, from the book "Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply" (2001), p.83
Philosophical Maxims
Novalis
Novalis
5 months 3 days ago
We are on a mission: we...

We are on a mission: we are called to the cultivation of the earth.

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Fragment No. 32
Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
2 months 6 days 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
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 months 6 days ago
Life is the terrible condition

It's quite true that there were billions of years that I didn't exist that I was never bothered about.

Life itself is sitting in a room with a murderer, while eating a nice meal. You're just waiting for the meal to be over...

LIFE is the terrible condition.

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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Mannheim
Karl Mannheim
2 months 3 days ago
In attempting to expose the views...

In attempting to expose the views of another, one is forced to make one's own view appear infallible and absolute, which is a procedure altogether to be avoided if one is making a specifically non-evaluative investigation. The second possible approach is nevertheless to combine such a non-evaluative analysis with a definite epistemology. Viewed from the angle of this second approach there are two separate and distinct solutions to the problem of what constitutes reliable knowledge - the one solution may be termed relationism, and the other relativism.

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Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
5 months 1 day ago
The manufacturing worker almost always lives...

The manufacturing worker almost always lives in the countryside and in a more or less patriarchal relation to his landlord or employer; the proletarian lives, for the most part, in the city and his relation to his employer is purely a cash relation. The manufacturing worker is torn out of his patriarchal relation by big industry, loses whatever property he still has, and in this way becomes a proletarian.

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Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
6 months 1 week ago
When our life ceases to be...

When our life ceases to be inward and private, conversation degenerates into mere gossip. We rarely meet a man who can tell us any news which he has not read in a newspaper, or been told by his neighbor; and, for the most part, the only difference between us and our fellow is, that he has seen the newspaper, or been out to tea, and we have not. In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post-office.

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p. 491
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
6 months 1 day ago
Certainly it is correct to say:...

Certainly it is correct to say: Conscience is the voice of God.

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p. 75
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
6 months 1 week ago
If the Communists conquered the world,...

If the Communists conquered the world, it would be very unpleasant for a while, but not forever. But if the human race is wiped out, that is the end.

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Television interview on March 24, 1958, as quoted in The United States in World Affairs (1959), p. 12
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
6 months 1 week ago
An individual may perceive a way...

An individual may perceive a way of life, or a method of social organisation, by which more of the desires of mankind could be satisfied than under the existing method. If he perceives truly, and can persuade men to adopt his reform, he is justified. Without rebellion, mankind would stagnate, and injustice would be irremediable.

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Ch. 15: Power and moral codes
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
6 months 1 day ago
Philosophers often behave like little children...

Philosophers often behave like little children who scribble some marks on a piece of paper at random and then ask the grown-up "What's that?" - It happened like this: the grown-up had drawn pictures for the child several times and said "this is a man," "this is a house," etc. And then the child makes some marks too and asks: what's this then?

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p. 17e
Philosophical Maxims
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli
6 months 1 week ago
It is easier for the prince...

It is easier for the prince to make friends of those men who were contented under the former government, and are therefore his enemies, than of those who, being discontented with it, were favourable to him and encouraged him to seize it. 

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Ch. 20
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
2 months 6 days ago
If a due participation of office...

If a due participation of office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained? Those by death are few; by resignation, none.

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Letter to Elias Shipman and others of New Haven (12 July 1801). Often misquoted as, "few die and none resign".
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard
4 months 1 week ago
Take provocation, for instance, which is...

Take provocation, for instance, which is the opposite and the caricature of seduction. It says: "I know that you want to be seduced, and I will seduce you." Nothing could be worse than betraying this secret rule. Nothing could be less seductive than a provocative smile or inciteful behaviour, since both presuppose that one cannot be seduced naturally and that one needs to be blackmailed into it, or through a declaration of intent: "Let me seduce you"

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(p. 67)
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
4 months 6 days ago
We cannot pretend that we do...

We cannot pretend that we do not see the armed policeman who marches up and down beneath our window to guarantee our security while we eat our luxurious dinner, or look at the new piece at the theater, or that we are unaware of the existence of the soldiers who will make their appearance with guns and cartridges directly our property is attacked.

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Chapter XII, Conclusion-Repent Ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
5 months 1 week ago
Vice itself lost half its evil...

Vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its grossness.

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Volume iii, p. 332
Philosophical Maxims
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