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Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
4 weeks ago
The office of the sovereign, be...

The office of the sovereign, be it a monarch or an assembly, consisteth in the end for which he was trusted with the sovereign power, namely the procuration of the safety of the people, to which he is obliged by the law of nature, and to render an account thereof to God, the Author of that law, and to none but Him. But by safety here is not meant a bare preservation, but also all other contentments of life, which every man by lawful industry, without danger or hurt to the Commonwealth, shall acquire to himself. And this is intended should be done, not by care applied to individuals, further than their protection from injuries when they shall complain; but by a general providence, contained in public instruction, both of doctrine and example; and in the making and executing of good laws to which individual persons may apply their own cases.

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The Second Part, Chapter 30: Of the Office of the Sovereign Representative
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
1 month 2 days ago
The secret is that only that...

The secret is that only that which can destroy itself is truly alive.

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Psychology and Alchemy
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
2 weeks 5 days ago
Power tends to reduce openness... Power...

Power tends to reduce openness... Power tries to solidify and stabilize its position by eradicating spaces open to play, or incalculable spaces.

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Philosophical Maxims
Theodor Adorno
Theodor Adorno
3 weeks 1 day ago
Bourgeois sport [wants] to differentiate itself...

Bourgeois sport [wants] to differentiate itself strictly from play. Its bestial seriousness consists in the fact that instead of remaining faithful to the dream of freedom by getting away from purposiveness, the treatment of play as a duty puts it among useful purposes and thereby wipes out the trace of freedom in it. This is particularly valid for contemporary mass music. It is only play as a repetition of prescribed models, and the playful release from responsibility which is thereby achieved does not reduce at all the time devoted to duty except by transferring the responsibility to the models, the following of which one makes into a duty for himself.

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p. 296
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
3 weeks 1 day ago
Moreover, nothing is so rare as...

Moreover, nothing is so rare as to see misfortune fairly portrayed; the tendency is either to treat the unfortunate person as though catastrophe were his natural vocation, or to ignore the effects of misfortune on the soul, to assume, that is, that the soul can suffer and remain unmarked by it, can fail, in fact, to be recast in misfortune's image.

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p. 193
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
2 months 6 days ago
Truth happens to an idea. It...

Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events. Its verity is in fact an event, a process: the process namely of its verifying itself, its veri-fication. Its validity is the process of its valid-ation.

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Lecture VI, Pragmatism's Conception of Truth
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
2 months 6 days ago
Communism is for us not a...

Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence.

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Vol. I, Part 1.
Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
2 months 1 week ago
This species works intentionally on its...

This species works intentionally on its own destruction (by war). This, however, does not keep the rational creatures of such a constantly advancing culture, even in the midst of war, from promising to mankind in coming centuries an unequivocal prospect of bliss which will never end.

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Kant, Immanuel (1996), page 185
Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
3 days ago
Pain will force even the truthful...

Pain will force even the truthful to speak falsely.

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Maxim 232
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
4 weeks 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.

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p. 75
Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
2 months 1 week ago
Wit and good nature meeting in...

Wit and good nature meeting in a fair young lady as they do in you make the best resemblance of an angel that we know; and he that is blessed with the conversation and friendship of a person so extraordinary enjoys all that remains of paradise in this world.

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Letter to Mary Clarke (7 May 1682), quoted in Maurice Cranston, John Locke: A Biography (1957; 1985), p. 221
Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
2 months 5 days ago
The first statement of the two...

The first statement of the two principles reads as follows. First: each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others. Second: social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a)reasonably expected to be to everyone's advantage, and (b) attached to positions and offices open to all.

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Chapter II, Section 11, pg. 60
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
3 months 1 week ago
Unpleasant, even dangerous, qualities can be...
Unpleasant, even dangerous, qualities can be found in every nation and every individual: it is cruel to demand that the Jew be an exception. In him, these qualities may even be dangerous and revolting to an unusual degree; and perhaps the young stock-exchange Jew is altogether the most disgusting invention of mankind.
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Philosophical Maxims
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
2 weeks 4 days ago
Nothing can well be imagined more...

Nothing can well be imagined more painful than the present position of woman, unless, on the one hand, she renounces all outward activity and keeps herself within the magic sphere, the bubble of her dreams; or, on the other, surrendering all aspiration, she gives herself to her real life, soul and body. For those to whom it is possible, the latter is best; for out of activity may come thought, out of mere aspiration can come nothing.

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Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
2 months 2 weeks ago
Here I stand; I can do...

Here I stand; I can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen!

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As reported in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 186; and in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed.
Philosophical Maxims
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
3 weeks 5 days ago
Language transcends us and yet, we...

Language transcends us and yet, we speak.

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p. 349
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 1 week ago
I once received a letter from...

I once received a letter from an eminent logician, Mrs. Christine Ladd Franklin, saying that she was a solipsist, and was surprised that there were no others. Coming from a logician, this surprise surprised me.

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Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948), Part III, chapter II, "Solipsism", p. 196
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 weeks 5 days ago
Suffering is admittedly one of the...

Suffering is admittedly one of the central problems of human existence; but this is because we have a suspicion that it is all for nothing. If we had a certainty about meaning, the suffering would be bearable. With no certainty of meaning, even comfort begins to feel futile.

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p. 89
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
1 month 1 day ago
The bourgeoisie ... lets him have...

The bourgeoisie ... lets him have the appearance of acting from a free choice, of making a contract with free, unconstrained consent, as a responsible agent who has attained his majority. Fine freedom, where the proletarian has no other choice than that of either accepting the conditions which the bourgeoisie offers him, or of starving, of freezing to death, of sleeping naked among the beasts of the forests!

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p. 112
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
4 days ago
The TV camera has no shutter....

The TV camera has no shutter. It does not deal with aspects or facets of objects in high resolution. It is a means of direct pick-up by the electrical groping over surfaces.

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Arts in society, Volume 3, 1964, p. 242
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
2 months 6 days ago
He blamed as severely what he...

He blamed as severely what he thought a bad action, when the motive was a feeling of duty, as if the agents had been consciously evil doers. He would not have accepted as a plea in mitigation for inquisitors, that they sincerely believed burning heretics to be an obligation of conscience. But though he did not allow honesty of purpose to soften his disapprobation of actions, it had its full effect on his estimation of characters. No one prized conscientiousness and rectitude of intention more highly, or was more incapable of valuing any person in whom he did not feel assurance of it.

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(pp. 49-50)
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
6 days ago
Death takes the mean man....
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Main Content / General
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
4 weeks ago
A Covenant not to defend my...

A Covenant not to defend my selfe from force, by force, is always voyd.

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The First Part, Chapter 14, p. 69
Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
2 months 3 weeks ago
It is not by change of...

It is not by change of place that we can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits.

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p. 433
Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
2 months 3 weeks ago
He who created us without our...

He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.

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St. Augustine, Sermo 169, 11, 13: PL 38, 923 as quoted in Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S. J.. Saved: A Bible Study Guide for Catholics (p. 15). Our Sunday Visitor. Kindle Edition.
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 2 days ago
Sadness makes you God's prisoner.

Sadness makes you God's prisoner.

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Philosophical Maxims
Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
3 weeks 1 day ago
Encratic language (the language produced and...

Encratic language (the language produced and spread under the protection of power) is statutorily a language of repetition; all official institutions of language are repeating machines: schools, sports, advertising, popular songs, news, all continually repeat the same structure, the same meaning, often the same words.

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The Pleasure of the Text
Philosophical Maxims
Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus
2 months 2 weeks ago
Though I certainly deserve no ill...

Though I certainly deserve no ill treatment from mortals, yet if the insults and repulses I receive were attended with any advantage to them, I would content myself with lamenting in silence my own unmerited indignities and man's injustice.

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Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
6 days ago
The more is given the less...

The more is given the less the people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase.

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Help for the Starving, Pt. III
Philosophical Maxims
Montesquieu
Montesquieu
3 weeks 2 days ago
Democratic and aristocratic states are not...

Democratic and aristocratic states are not in their own nature free. Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments; and even in these it is not always found. It is there only when there is no abuse of power. But constant experience shows us that every man who has power is inclined to abuse it; he goes until he finds limits. Is it not strange, though true, to say that virtue itself has need of limits?.To prevent this abuse, it is necessary that, by the arrangement of things, power shall stop power. A government may be so constituted, as no man shall be compelled to do things to which the law does not oblige him, nor forced to abstain from things which the law permits.

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Book XI, Chapter 4.
Philosophical Maxims
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
2 months 5 days ago
The only man for whom Hitler...

The only man for whom Hitler had "unqualified respect" was "Stalin the genius," and while in the case of Stalin and the Russian regime we do not... have the rich documentary material that is available for Germany, we nevertheless know since Khrushchev's speech before the Twentieth Party Congress that Stalin trusted only one man and that was Hitler.

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Part 3, Ch. 10
Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
2 months 3 weeks ago
By faithfulness we are collected and...

By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.

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As quoted in Footprints in Time : Fulfilling God's Destiny for Your Life (2007) by Jeff O'Leary, p. 223
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
4 days ago
Try not to have Emily exposed...

Try not to have Emily exposed to hours and hours of TV. It is a vile drug which permeates the nervous system, especially in the young.

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Letter to son Eric McLuhan, regarding one of Eric's daughters, 1976
Philosophical Maxims
Plato
Plato
3 months 4 days ago
My love, Alcibiades, which I hardly...

My love, Alcibiades, which I hardly like to confess, would long ago have passed away, as I flatter myself, if I saw you loving your good things, or thinking that you ought to pass life in the enjoyment of them. Socrates speaking to Alcibiades

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Philosophical Maxims
Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze
2 weeks 1 day ago
When Nietzsche praises egoism it is...

When Nietzsche praises egoism it is always in an aggressive or polemical way, against the virtues, against the virtue of disinterestedness. But in fact egoism is a bad interpretation of the will, just as atomism is a bad interpretation of force. In order for there to be egoism it is necessary for there to be an ego.

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p. 7
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
2 months 6 days ago
The more powerful and original a...

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

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Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
2 months 2 weeks ago
It is always necessary that the...

It is always necessary that the substance or essence of a person be good before there can be any good works and that good works follow and proceed from a person who is already good. Christ says in Matthew 7:18: "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit." ... The fruit does not make the tree good or bad but the tree itself is what determines the nature of the fruit. In the same way, a person first must be good or bad before doing a good or bad work.

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pp. 74-75
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
1 month 1 day ago
The more I think about it,...

The more I think about it, the more obvious it becomes to me that the Poles are une nation foutue [a finished nation] who can only continue to serve a purpose until such time as Russia herself becomes caught up into the agrarian revolution. From that moment Poland will have absolutely no raison d'étre any more. The Poles' sole contribution to history has been to indulge in foolish pranks at once valiant and provocative. Nor can a single moment be cited when Poland, even if only by comparison with Russia, has successfully represented progress or done anything of historical significance.

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Letter to Karl Marx
Philosophical Maxims
Montesquieu
Montesquieu
3 weeks 2 days ago
If I knew of…

If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman, because I am necessarily a man, and only accidentally am I French.

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I.
Philosophical Maxims
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
3 weeks 5 days ago
When scientists take part in activity...

When scientists take part in activity they transform themselves from scientists into acting beings, that is, they become elements, data, facts; as soon as they reflect on their activity, however, they are re-transformed into scientists. The trained specialist qua scientist looks upon himself as a chain of judgments and inferences; qua member of society, he regard himself as a mere object. The same holds for everyone. The individual is divided into innumerable functions, the interconnection of which are unknown. In society a man is pater familias under one aspect, business man under another, thinker under a third; to be more precise, he is not a human being at all, but all these aspects and many more in an inevitable succession.

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p. 155.
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
1 month 6 days ago
Whenever a separation is made between...

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

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Letter to M. de Menonville
Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
3 days ago
We are interested in others, when...

We are interested in others, when they are interested in us.

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Maxim 16
Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
1 month 3 weeks ago
"These Macedonians," said he, "are a...

"These Macedonians," said he, "are a rude and clownish people, that call a spade a spade."

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39 Philip
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 1 week ago
Why in any case, this glorification...

Why in any case, this glorification of man? How about lions and tigers? They destroy fewer animals or human lives than we do, and they are much more beautiful than we are. How about ants? They manage the Corporate State much better than any Fascist. Would not a world of nightingales and larks and deer be better than our human world of cruelty and injustice and war? The believers in Cosmic Purpose make much of our supposed intelligence, but their writings make one doubt it. If I were granted omnipotence, and millions of years to experiment in, I should not think Man much to boast of as the final result of all my efforts.

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Religion and Science, 1935
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
2 months 1 day ago
Kierkegaard writes: If Christianity were so...

Kierkegaard writes: If Christianity were so easy and cozy, why should God in his Scriptures have set Heaven and Earth in motion and threatened eternal punishments? - Question: But then in that case why is this Scriptures so unclear?

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p. 31e
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
3 months 1 week ago
Spontaneous love can reach the point...

Spontaneous love can reach the point of despair, shows that it is in despair, that even when it is happy it loves with the power of despair.

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Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
1 month 3 weeks ago
To have good sense…

To have good sense, is the first principle and fountain of writing well.

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Line 309
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 6 days ago
This bird sees the white man...

This bird sees the white man come and the Indian withdraw, but it withdraws not. Its untamed voice is still heard above the tinkling of the forge... It remains to remind us of aboriginal nature.

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March 23, 1856; of the crow
Philosophical Maxims
bell hooks
bell hooks
2 weeks 6 days ago
Hooks is a contentious writer, and...

Hooks is a contentious writer, and I don't always agree with her contentions, but Ain't I a Woman has an intellectual vitality and daring that should set new standards for the discussion of race and sex.

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Ellen Willis in No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays
Philosophical Maxims
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
2 months 5 days ago
Thinking withdraws radically and for its...

Thinking withdraws radically and for its own sake from this world and its evidential nature, whereas science profits from a possible withdrawal for the sake of specific results.

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p. 56
Philosophical Maxims
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