Skip to main content
Image removed.

Main navigation

☰ ˟
  • Home
  • Articulation
  • Contact
Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
4 months 2 weeks ago
Obstinacy in a bad cause, is...

Obstinacy in a bad cause, is but constancy in a good.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Section 25
Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
5 months 2 weeks ago
I have no knowledge of myself...

I have no knowledge of myself as I am, but merely as I appear to myself.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
B 158
Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
4 months 2 weeks ago
If he is not Nature herself,...

If he is not Nature herself, he is certainly the nature of Nature, and is the soul of the Soul of the world, if he is not the soul herself.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As translated by Arthur Imerti
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
5 months 2 weeks ago
If a workman can conveniently spare...

If a workman can conveniently spare those three halfpence, he buys a pot of porter. If he cannot, he contents himself with a pint, and, as a penny saved is a penny got, he thus gains a farthing by his temperance.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter II, Part II, Article IV, p. 951.
Philosophical Maxims
Epictetus
Epictetus
5 months 3 weeks ago
Show that you know this only

Show that you know this only, how you may never either fail to get what you desire or fall into what you avoid.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book II, ch. 1, 37
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
5 months 2 weeks ago
There are also Idols formed by...

There are also Idols formed by the intercourse and association of men with each other, which I call Idols of the Market Place, on account of the commerce and consort of men there. For it is by discourse that men associate, and words are imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar. And therefore the ill and unfit choice of words wonderfully obstructs the understanding. Nor do the definitions or explanations wherewith in some things learned men are wont to guard and defend themselves, by any means set the matter right. But words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion, and lead men away into numberless empty controversies and idle fancies.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Aphorism 43
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
1 month 1 week ago
All things are the same,-familiar in...

All things are the same,-familiar in enterprise, momentary in endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were in the day of those whom we have buried.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
IX, 14
Philosophical Maxims
John Gray
John Gray
2 months 2 weeks ago
Evangelical atheists preach the need for...

Evangelical atheists preach the need for a scientific view of things, but a settled view does not go with scientific method. If we know anything it is that most of the theories that prevail at any one time are false. Scientific theories are not components of a world-view but tools we use to tinker with the world.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Sweet Morality (p. 224)
Philosophical Maxims
Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang
1 month 2 weeks ago
If the early Chinese people had...

If the early Chinese people had any chivalry, it was manifested not toward women and children, but toward old people. That feeling of chivalry found clear expression in Mencius in some such saying as, "The people with gray hair should not be seen carrying burdens on the street," which was expressed as the final goal of good government.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 193
Philosophical Maxims
Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton
3 months 4 days ago
An international socialism is the stated...

An international socialism is the stated ideal of most socialists; an international liberalism is the unstated tendency of the liberal. To neither system is it thinkable that men live, not by universal aspirations but by local attachments; not by a "solidarity" that stretches across the globe from end to end, but by obligations that are understood in terms which separate men from most of their fellows-in terms such as national history, religion, language, and the customs that provide the basis of legitimacy.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
How to be a Non-Liberal, Anti-Socialist Conservative, Intercollegiate Review: A Journal of Scholarship and Opinion
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
6 months 1 week ago
Science is a systematic method for...

Science is a systematic method for studying and working out those generalizations that seem to describe the behavior of the universe. It could exist as a purely intellectual game that would never affect the practical life of human beings either for good or evil, and that was very nearly the case in ancient Greece, for instance. Technology is the application of scientific findings to the tools of everyday life, and that application can be wise or unwise, useful or harmful. Very often, those who govern technological decisions are not scientists and know little about science.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 1 week ago
I do not believe that I...

I do not believe that I am now dreaming, but I cannot prove that I am not. I am, however, quite certain that I am having certain experiences, whether they be those of a dream or those of waking life.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948), p. 172
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 week ago
If there was a God of...

If there was a God of sorrow, he would grow black heavy wings, to soar not for the skies, but for inferno.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 3 weeks ago
But he has no fear; unconquered...

But he has no fear; unconquered he looks down from a lofty height upon his sufferings.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
3 months 2 weeks ago
When a man is taken in...

When a man is taken in a mystical sense, his qualities are often signified by his actions, and by the circumstances of things about him. So a Ruler is signified by his riding on a beast; a Warrior and Conqueror, by his having a sword and bow; a potent man, by his gigantic stature; a Judge, by weights and measures... the affliction or persecution which a people suffers in laboring to bring forth a new kingdom, by the pain of a woman in labor to bring forth a man-child; the dissolution of a body politic or ecclesiastic, by the death of a man or beast; and the revival of a dissolved dominion, by the resurrection of the dead.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Vol. I, Ch. 2: Of the Prophetic Language
Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
3 months 3 weeks ago
Nothing is more impressive than the...

Nothing is more impressive than the fact that as mathematics withdrew increasingly into the upper regions of ever greater extremes of abstract thought, it returned back to earth with a corresponding growth of importance for the analysis of concrete fact. ...The paradox is now fully established that the utmost abstractions are the true weapons with which to control our thought of concrete fact.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 2: "Mathematics as an Element in the History of Thought", p. 46
Philosophical Maxims
Arnold J. Toynbee
Arnold J. Toynbee
2 months 3 weeks ago
The equation of religion with belief...

The equation of religion with belief is rather recent.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Christianity Among the Religions of the World (New York: Scribner's, 1957) p. 7
Philosophical Maxims
Henri Poincaré
Henri Poincaré
2 months 5 days ago
It is the simple…

It is the simple hypotheses of which one must be most wary; because these are the ones that have the most chances of passing unnoticed.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Thermodynamique: Leçons professées pendant le premier semestre 1888-1889 (1892), Preface
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
6 months 1 week ago
It is important to remember that...

It is important to remember that the viciousness and wrongs of life stick out very plainly but that even at the worst times there is a great deal of goodness, kindness, and day-to-day decency that goes unnoticed and makes no headlines.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
3 months 3 weeks ago
A clash of doctrines is not...

A clash of doctrines is not a disaster - it is an opportunity.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 12: "Religion and Science", p. 259
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 week ago
The source of an emotion is...

The source of an emotion is very difficult to grasp, but it comes to just that. That holds for all phenomena, for faith, etc. Why did it begin, how did it develop? and so forth-only he who has the gift of divination can perceive where it really comes from. But it is not accessible to reflection.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 months 2 weeks ago
Pure justice....

Pure justice emerges from symmetry applied human life, and human beings as ends in themselves.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
2 months 2 days ago
Friend!-Will the ballot-box raise the Noblest...

Friend!-Will the ballot-box raise the Noblest to the chief place; does any sane man deliberately believe such a thing?

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
5 months 1 week ago
Money appears as measure (in Homer,...

Money appears as measure (in Homer, e.g. oxen) earlier than as medium of exchange,because in barter each commodity is still its own medium of exchange. But it cannot be its own or its own standard of comparison.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Notebook I, The Chapter on Money, p. 93.
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
3 months 3 weeks ago
School children and students who love...

School children and students who love God should never say: "For my part I like mathematics"; "I like French"; "I like Greek." They should learn to like all these subjects, because all of them develop that faculty of attention which, directed toward God, is the very substance of prayer.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
5 months 1 week ago
I squander untold effort making an...

I squander untold effort making an arrangement of my thoughts that may have no value whatever.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 33e
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 month 2 weeks ago
Necessity may be...
0
⚖0
Main Content / General
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
1 month 3 weeks ago
Until he extends the circle of...

Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Variant translation: Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.
Philosophical Maxims
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
4 months 1 week ago
We are firmly convinced that the...

We are firmly convinced that the most imperfect republic is a thousand times better than the most enlightened monarchy. In a republic, there are at least brief periods when the people, while continually exploited, is not oppressed; in the monarchies, oppression is constant. The democratic regime also lifts the masses up gradually to participation in public life--something the monarchy never does. Nevertheless, while we prefer the republic, we must recognise and proclaim that whatever the form of government may be, so long as human society continues to be divided into different classes as a result of the hereditary inequality of occupations, of wealth, of education, and of rights, there will always be a class-restricted government and the inevitable exploitation of the majorities by the minorities. The State is nothing but this domination and this exploitation, well regulated and systematised.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
5 months 1 week ago
Every parting gives...

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Vol. 2, Ch. 26, § 310, as translated by Eric F. J. Payne
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
5 months 1 week ago
Whatever you do, He will make...

Whatever you do, He will make good of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed him.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 1 week ago
The secret of happiness is this:...

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
1 month 1 week ago
All this world, all this rich,...

All this world, all this rich, endless flow of appearances is not a deception, a multicolored phantasmagoria of our mirroring mind. Nor is it absolute reality which lives and evolves freely, independent of our mind's power. It is not the resplendent robe which arrays the mystic body of God. Nor the obscurely translucent partition between man and mystery. All this world that we see, hear, and touch is that accessible to the human senses, a condensation of the two enormous powers of the Universe permeated with all of God.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
5 months 1 week ago
Let us now consider whether justice...

Let us now consider whether justice requires the toleration of the intolerant, and if so under what conditions. There are a variety of situations in which this question arises. Some political parties in democratic states hold doctrines that commit them to suppress the constitutional liberties whenever they have the power. Again, there are those who reject intellectual freedom but who nevertheless hold positions in the university. It may appear that toleration in these cases is inconsistent with the principles of justice, or at any rate not required by them.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 216
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
4 months 4 days ago
The range of socially permissible and...

The range of socially permissible and desirable satisfaction is greatly enlarged, but through this satisfaction, the Pleasure Principle is reduced-deprived of the claims which are irreconcilable with the established society. Pleasure, thus adjusted, generates submission.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 75
Philosophical Maxims
Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus
5 months 3 weeks ago
Do not be guilty of possessing...

Do not be guilty of possessing a library of learned books while lacking learning yourself.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to Christian Northoff (1497), as translated in Collected Works of Erasmus (1974), p. 115
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 week ago
A gifted humanity can only produce...

A gifted humanity can only produce skeptics, never saints.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
5 months 1 week ago
The only possible solution which will...

The only possible solution which will preserve Germany's honor and Germany's interest is, we repeat, a war with Russia.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Marx-Engels Gesamt-Ausgabe, Erste Abteilung, Volume 7, March to December 1848, p. 304.
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
3 months 4 weeks ago
I would say that teleology is...

I would say that teleology is theology, and that God is not a "because," but rather an "in order to."

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Cornel West
Cornel West
5 months 6 days ago
Anytime two human beings find genuine...

Anytime two human beings find genuine pleasure, joy, and love, the stars smile and the universe is enriched. Yet as long as that pleasure, joy, and love is still predicated on myths of black sexuality, the more fundamental challenge of humane interaction remains unmet.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(p85)
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
3 months 3 weeks ago
The free expression of the hopes...

The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
1 month 1 week ago
All those events in history were...

All those events in history were such dramas as we see now, only with different actors.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
.X, 27
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
4 months 1 week ago
The class of the wholly propertyless,...

The class of the wholly propertyless, who are obliged to sell their labor to the bourgeoisie in order to get, in exchange, the means of subsistence for their support. This is called the class of proletarians, or the proletariat.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
3 months 3 weeks ago
I have lived and slept in...

I have lived and slept in the same bed with English countesses and Prussian farm women... no woman has excited passions among women more than I have.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in Parted Lips : Lesbian Love Quotes Through the Ages (2002) by Simone Rich
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
3 months 3 weeks ago
Liberty, taking the word in its...

Liberty, taking the word in its concrete sense, consists in the ability to choose.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 3, Liberty
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
3 months 1 week ago
I am not advocating a morality...

I am not advocating a morality based on evolution. I am saying how things have evolved. I am not saying how we humans morally ought to behave.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 1. Why Are People?
Philosophical Maxims
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
3 months 1 week ago
Though the coming of the day...

Though the coming of the day is still the most inspiriting, yet day's departure, also, and the return of night refresh, renew, and quiet us; and in the pastures of the dusk we stand, like cattle, exulting in the absence of the load.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Toils And Pleasures.
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
4 months 2 weeks ago
Not only does democracy make every...

Not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but also clouds their view of their descendants and isolates them from their contemporaries. Each man is for ever thrown back on himself alone, and there is danger that he may be shut up in the solitude of his own heart.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book Two, Chapter II.
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
3 months 3 weeks ago
The Outsider cannot accept life as...

The Outsider cannot accept life as it is, who cannot consider his own existence or anyone else's necessary. He sees 'too deep and too much'. It is still a question of self-expression.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter Four The Attempt to Gain Control
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
1 month 1 week ago
You have your brush, you have...

You have your brush, you have your colours, you paint paradise, then, in you go.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in Journal of Modern Literature Vol. 2, No. 2, Nikos Kazantzakis
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

  • Søren Kierkegaard
  • Jesus
  • Friedrich Nietzsche
  • VeXed
  • Slavoj Žižek

Who's online

There are currently 0 users online.

CivilSimian.com created by AxiomaticPanic, CivilSimian, Kalokagathia