Skip to main content
Image removed.

Main navigation

☰ ˟
  • Home
  • Articulation
  • Contact
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months 1 week ago
As soon as men live entirely...

As soon as men live entirely in accord with the law of love natural to their hearts and now revealed to them, which excludes all resistance by violence, and therefore hold aloof from all participation in violence - as soon as this happens, not only will hundreds be unable to enslave millions, but not even millions will be able to enslave a single individual.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
V
Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
5 months 6 days ago
The claims of existing social arrangements...

The claims of existing social arrangements and of self interest have been duly allowed for. We cannot at the end count them a second time because we do not like the result.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter III, Section 23, pg. 135
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
5 months 1 week ago
From another side: is Achilles possible...

From another side: is Achilles possible with powder and lead? Or the Iliad with the printing press, not to mention the printing machine? Do not the song and saga of the muse necessarily come to an end with the printer's bar, hence do not the necessary conditions of epic poetry vanish?

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Introduction, p. 31.
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
4 months ago
But I say unto you, That...

But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
5:22, King James Version.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month 4 weeks ago
To me, in these circumstances, that...

To me, in these circumstances, that of "Hero-worship" becomes a fact inexpressibly precious; the most solacing fact one sees in the world at present. There is an everlasting hope in it for the management of the world. Had all traditions, arrangements, creeds, societies that men ever instituted, sunk away, this would remain. The certainty of Heroes being sent us; our faculty, our necessity, to reverence Heroes when sent: it shines like a polestar through smoke-clouds, dust-clouds, and all manner of down-rushing and conflagration.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Lucretius
Lucretius
5 months 3 weeks ago
Violence and injury....

Violence and injury enclose in their net all that do such things, and generally return upon him who began.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book V, lines 1152-1153 (tr. Rouse)
Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
4 months 1 week ago
The best doctor is the one...

The best doctor is the one you run for and can't find.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in Selected Thoughts from the French: XV Century - XX Century, with English Translations (1913) by James Raymond Solly, p. 67
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
4 months 1 week ago
Pour recueillir les biens inestimables qu'assure...

Pour recueillir les biens inestimables qu'assure la liberté de la presse, il faut savoir se soumettre aux maux inévitables qu'elle fait naître. Translation: In order to enjoy the inestimable benefits that the liberty of the press ensures, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils it creates.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter XI.
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months 1 week ago
The assertion that art may be...

The assertion that art may be good art and at the same time incomprehensible to a great number of people is extremely unjust, and its consequences are ruinous to art itself...it is the same as saying some kind of food is good but most people can't eat it.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
3 weeks 6 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
Cisero
Cisero
5 months 3 weeks ago
How long will men dare to...

How long will men dare to call anything expedient that is not right? Can odium and infamy be of service to any empire, which ought to be supported by glory and by the good-will of its allies? I was often at variance even with my friend Cato. He seemed to me to guard the treasury and the revenues too obstinately, to refuse everything to the farmers of the revenue, and many things to our allies; while we ought to be generous to our allies, and to deal with the farmers of the revenue as leniently as we individually do with our own tenants, especially as the union of orders to which such a course would conduce is for the well-being of the state.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book III, Sect. 22, as translated by Andrew P. Peabody
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
4 months ago
If your brother sins against you,...

If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(Matthew 18:15) (NIV)
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
5 months 1 week ago
If we take a survey of...

If we take a survey of ages and of countries, we shall find the women, almost - without exception - at all times and in all places, adored and oppressed. Man, who has never neglected an opportunity of exerting his power, in paying homage to their beauty, has always availed himself of their weakness He has been at once their tyrant and their slave.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months 1 week ago
All state obligations are against the...

All state obligations are against the conscience of a Christian: the oath of allegiance, taxes, law proceedings and military service.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter VII, Significance of Compulsory Service
Philosophical Maxims
Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann
2 months 4 days ago
There is nothing disastrous in the...

There is nothing disastrous in the temporary nature of our ideas. They are always that. But there may very easily be a train of evil in the self-deception which regards them as final. I think God will forgive us our skepticism sooner than our Inquisitions.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. VII: "The Making of Creeds", p. 236
Philosophical Maxims
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4 months 1 week ago
Is there in the whole world...

Is there in the whole world a being who would have the right to forgive and could forgive? I don't want harmony. From love for humanity I don't want it. I would rather be left with the unavenged suffering. I would rather remain with my unavenged suffering and unsatisfied indignation, even if I were wrong. Besides, too high a price is asked for harmony; it's beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it. And so I hasten to give back my entrance ticket, and if I am an honest man I am bound to give it back as soon as possible. And that I am doing. It's not God that I don't accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return him the ticket.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book II, Chapter 4: Rebellion (trans. Constance Garnett)
Philosophical Maxims
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
5 months 1 week ago
To what shall the character of...

To what shall the character of utility be ascribed, if not to that which is a source of pleasure?

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Théorie des peines et des récompenses (1811); translation by Richard Smith, The Rationale of Reward, J. & H. L. Hunt, London, 1825, Bk. 3, Ch. 1
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
3 months 3 days ago
Genes do indirectly control the manufacture...

Genes do indirectly control the manufacture of bodies, and the influence is strictly one way: acquired characteristics are not inherited. No matter how much knowledge and wisdom you acquire during your life, not one jot will be passed on to your children by genetic means. Each new generation starts from scratch.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 3. Immortal Coils
Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
3 months 3 weeks ago
The power of God is the...

The power of God is the worship He inspires. The worship of God is not a rule of safety - it is an adventure of the spirit, a flight after the unattainable. The death of religion comes with the repression of the high hope of adventure.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 12: "Religion and Science", pp. 268-269
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
5 months 6 days ago
This is the contradiction of racism,...

This is the contradiction of racism, colonialism, and all forms of tyranny: in order to treat a man like a dog, one must first recognize him as a man.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 1 week ago
In the North they…

In the North they are cool, sober, laborious, persevering, independent, jealous of their own liberties, and just to those of others, interested, chicaning, superstitious and hypocritical in their religion. In the South they are fiery, voluptuary, indolent, unsteady, independent, zealous for their own liberties, but trampling on those of others, generous, candid, without attachment or pretensions to any religion but that of the heart.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to François-Jean de Chastellux (September 2, 1785). archives.gov Also quoted in Thomas Jefferson, Writings, ed. Merrill D. Peterson (1984), p. 827
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 1 week ago
The horseman serves the horse, The...

The horseman serves the horse, The neatherd serves the neat, The merchant serves the purse, The eater serves his meat; 'Tis the day of the chattel, Web to weave, and corn to grind; Things are in the saddle, And ride mankind.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ode: Inscribed to W. H. Channing, st. 7
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
5 months 6 days ago
The world is sacred because it...

The world is sacred because it gives an inkling of a meaning that escapes us.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 280
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
4 months 1 week ago
If any ask me what a...

If any ask me what a free Government is, I answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the people think so, - and that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent judges of this matter.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
5 months 3 weeks ago
My mother spoke of Christ to...

My mother spoke of Christ to my father, by her feminine and childlike virtues, and, after having borne his violence without a murmur or complaint, gained him at the close of his life to Christ.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 351
Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
5 months 1 week ago
"...faith and repentance, i. e. believing...

"...faith and repentance, i. e. believing Jesus to be the Messiah, and a good life, are the indispensable conditions of the new covenant, to be performed by all those who would obtain eternal life. (The reasonableness, or rather necessity of which, that we may the better comprehend, we must a little look back to what was said in the beginning"

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
§ 106
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
5 months 1 week ago
Even in those cities which seem...

Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts florish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any experienced in a town when it is under siege.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
5 months 1 week ago
Our labour preserves us from three...

Our labour preserves us from three great evils -- weariness, vice, and want.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
3 weeks 6 days ago
No man can visualize four...

No man can visualize four dimensions, except mathematically ... I think in four dimensions, but only abstractly. The human mind can picture these dimensions no more than it can envisage electricity. Nevertheless, they are no less real than electro-magnetism, the force which controls our universe, within, and by which we have our being.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
3 months 5 days ago
The "message" of any medium or...

The "message" of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(p. 8)
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
5 months 1 week ago
Since labour is motion, time is...

Since labour is motion, time is its natural measure.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Notebook I, The Chapter on Money, p. 125.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 1 week ago
In matters of style, swim with...

In matters of style, swim with the current: in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in Careertracking: 26 success Shortcuts to the Top (1988) by James Calano and Jeff Salzman; though used in an address by Bill Clinton (31 March 1997), and sometimes cited to Notes on the State of Virginia (1787)
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 1 week ago
That we are overdone with banking...

That we are overdone with banking institutions which have banished the precious metals and substituted a more fluctuating and unsafe medium, that these have withdrawn capital from useful improvements and employments to nourish idleness, that the wars of the world have swollen our commerce beyond the wholesome limits of exchanging our own productions for our own wants, and that, for the emolument of a small proportion of our society who prefer these demoralizing pursuits to labors useful to the whole, the peace of the whole is endangered and all our present difficulties produced, are evils more easily to be deplored than remedied.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to Abbe Salimankis, 1810. ME 12:379
Philosophical Maxims
Willard van Orman Quine
Willard van Orman Quine
3 months 3 weeks ago
It is within science itself, and...

It is within science itself, and not in some prior philosophy, that reality is to be identified and described.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Theories and Things, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1981
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 1 week ago
We boil at different degrees. Eloquence

We boil at different degrees.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Eloquence
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
6 months 4 days ago
When the throne of God is...

When the throne of God is overturned, the rebel realizes that it is now his own responsibility to create the justice, order, and unity that he sought in vain within his own condition, and in this way to justify the fall of God. Then begins the desperate effort to create, at the price of crime and murder if necessary, the dominion of man.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months 1 week ago
The universal hypocrisy has so entered...

The universal hypocrisy has so entered into the flesh and blood of all classes of our modern society, it has reached such a pitch that nothing in that way can rouse indignation. Hypocrisy in the Greek means "acting," and acting-playing a part-is always possible. Chapter XII, Conclusion-Repent Ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand Variant Translation: Hypocrisy with good reason means the same as acting, and anybody can pretend - act a part.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
2 months 3 weeks ago
Sound knowledge respecting the habits and...

Sound knowledge respecting the habits and mode of life of the man-like Apes has been even more difficult of attainment than correct information regarding their structure.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch.1, p. 36
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
5 months 2 weeks ago
There is as much difference between...

There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 1. Of the Inconstancy of Our Actions, tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
3 months 2 weeks ago
Needless to say, I am not...

Needless to say, I am not opposed to woman suffrage on the conventional ground that she is not equal to it. I see neither physical, psychological, nor mental reasons why woman should not have the equal right to vote with man. But that can not possibly blind me to the absurd notion that woman will accomplish that wherein man has failed. If she would not make things worse, she certainly could not make them better. To assume, therefore, that she would succeed in purifying something which is not susceptible of purification, is to credit her with supernatural powers. Since woman's greatest misfortune has been that she was looked upon as either angel or devil, her true salvation lies in being placed on earth; namely, in being considered human, and therefore subject to all human follies and mistakes. Are we, then, to believe that two errors will make a right? Are we to assume that the poison already inherent in politics will be decreased, if women were to enter the political arena?

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 month 2 weeks ago
False men and shams....
0
⚖0
Main Content / General
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
5 months 6 days ago
The doctrine that there is as...

The doctrine that there is as much science in a subject as... mathematics in it, or as much... measurement or 'precision' in it, rests upon... misunderstanding.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Judith Butler
Judith Butler
3 months 1 week ago
If the immutable character of sex...

If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps this construct called 'sex' is as culturally constructed as gender; indeed, perhaps it was always already gender, with the consequence that the distinction between sex and gender turns out to be no distinction at all.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
5 months 2 weeks ago
No matter that we…

No matter that we may mount on stilts, we still must walk on our own legs. And on the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 13
Philosophical Maxims
Plato
Plato
6 months 5 days ago
Now in this island of Atlantis...

Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. This vast power, gathered into one, endeavored to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits, and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
3 months 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.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 1: "The Origins of Modern Science", p. 4
Philosophical Maxims
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
5 months 2 days ago
The 'Enlightenment', which discovered the liberties,...

The 'Enlightenment', which discovered the liberties, also invented the disciplines.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
4 months 1 week ago
The arbitrary rule of a just...

The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Refutation of Helvétius
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 months ago
The social contract....

The social contract between all people around the world only has one requirement: Don't kill. From there it's those who don't agree, those that agree but have some reactive justification, and those that agree and don't kill.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
4 months 1 week ago
You can never plan the future...

You can never plan the future by the past.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to a Member of the National Assembly (1791), Volume IV, p. 55.
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