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Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
2 months 3 days ago
All true metaphysics is taken from...

All true metaphysics is taken from the essential nature of the thinking faculty itself, and therefore in nowise invented, since it is not borrowed from experience, but contains the pure operations of thought, that is, conceptions and principles à priori, which the manifold of empirical presentations first of all brings into legitimate connection, by which it can become empirical knowledge, i.e. experience. ...mathematical physicists were thus quite unable to dispense with such metaphysical principles...

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Preface, Tr. Bax, 1883
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
1 week 6 days ago
Depression is a narcissistic malady.

Depression is a narcissistic malady.

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Philosophical Maxims
A. J. Ayer
A. J. Ayer
3 weeks 5 days ago
I see philosophy as a fairly...

I see philosophy as a fairly abstract activity, as concerned mainly with the analysis of criticism and concepts, and of course most usefully of scientific concepts.

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As quoted in Profile of Sir Alfred Ayer (June 1971) by Euro-Television, quoted in A.J. Ayer: A Life (1999), p. 2
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 months ago
Every hero becomes a bore at...

Every hero becomes a bore at last.

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Uses of Great Men
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 weeks 5 days ago
Only thoughts that are randomly born...

Only thoughts that are randomly born die. The other thoughts we carry with us without knowing them. They have abandoned themselves to forgetfulness so that they can be with us all the time.

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Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 1 day ago
They who know of no purer...

They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humility; but they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountain-head.

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Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
3 weeks ago
As long as politics is the...

As long as politics is the shadow cast on society by big business, the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance.

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Quoted in John Dewey and American Democracy by Robert Westbrook (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), p. 440
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Buber
Martin Buber
3 weeks ago
God ... desires His creature to...

God ... desires His creature to be able to oppose Him. He has given that creature freedom. ... When man turns away from evil with that whole measure of power with which he is able to rebel against God, then he has truly turned to God.

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p. 44
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
2 months 1 day ago
Life is a task to be...

Life is a task to be done. It is a fine thing to say defunctus est; it means that the man has done his task.

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"On the Sufferings of the World"
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 weeks 5 days ago
Anxiety - or the fanaticism of...

Anxiety - or the fanaticism of the worst.

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Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
2 months 3 days ago
The history of mankind can be...

The history of mankind can be seen, in the large, as the realization of Nature's secret plan to bring forth a perfectly constituted state as the only condition in which the capacities of mankind can be fully developed, and also bring forth that external relation among states which is perfectly adequate to this end.

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Eighth Thesis
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
2 months 2 weeks ago
The silent treasuring up of...

The silent treasuring up of knowledge; learning without satiety; and instructing others without being wearied: which one of these things belongs to me? To keep silently in mind what one has seen and heard, to study hard and never feel contented, to teach others tirelessly; have I done (all of) these things?

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Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
1 month 4 weeks ago
"And I say also this. I...

"And I say also this. I do not think the forest would be so bright, nor the water so warm, nor love so sweet, if there were no danger in the lakes."

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Hyoi, p. 76
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert A. Simon
Herbert A. Simon
1 week 2 days ago
At the time of its initial...

At the time of its initial publication, Public Administration helped to define this field of study and practice by introducing two major new emphases: an orientation toward human behavior and human relations in organizations, and an emphasis on the interaction between administration, politics, and policy. Without neglecting more traditional concerns with organization structure, Simon, Thompson, and Smithburg viewed administration in its behavioral and political contexts. The viewpoints they express still are at the center of public administration's concerns.

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Book abstract, 1991
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
3 weeks 5 days ago
For lack of empirical data I...

For lack of empirical data I have neither knowledge nor understanding of such forms of being, which are commonly called spiritual. ...Nevertheless, we have good reason to suppose that behind this veil there exists the uncomprehended absolute object which affects and influences us-and to suppose it even, or particularly, in the case of psychic phenomena about which no verifiable statements can be made.

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p.351
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
2 months 4 days ago
The natural price, therefore, is, as...

The natural price, therefore, is, as it were, the central price, to which the prices of all commodities are continually gravitating.

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Chapter VII, p. 69.
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
1 week 6 days ago
I have been taught that the...

I have been taught that the land should belong to those who till the soil. With all of his deep-seated sympathies with the Arabs, our comrade cannot possibly deny that the Jews in Palestine have tilled the soil. Tens of thousands of them, young and deeply devout idealists, have flocked to Palestine, there to till the soil under the most trying pioneer conditions. They have reclaimed wastelands and have turned them into fertile fields and blooming gardens. Now I do not say that therefore Jews are entitled to more rights than the Arabs, but for an ardent socialist to say that the Jews have no business in Palestine seems to me rather a strange kind of socialism.

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Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
2 months 4 weeks ago
Generals are usually a conservative force...

Generals are usually a conservative force who can be relied on to oppose social change.

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Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Just now
And see, a kind, refined lady...

And see, a kind, refined lady will devour the carcasses of these animals with full assurance that she is doing right, at the same time asserting two contradictory propositions: First, that she is, as her doctor assures her, so delicate that she cannot be sustained by vegetable food alone, and that for her feeble organism flesh is indispensable; and, secondly, that she is so sensitive that she is unable, not only herself to inflict suffering on animals, but even to bear the sight of suffering. Whereas the poor lady is weak precisely because she has been taught to live upon food unnatural to man; and she cannot avoid causing suffering to animals - for she eats them.

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Ch. IX
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Just now
God is the infinite ALL. Man...

God is the infinite ALL. Man is only a finite manifestation of Him. Or better yet: God is that infinite All of which man knows himself to be a finite part. God alone exists truly. Man manifests Him in time, space and matter. The more God's manifestation in man (life) unites with the manifestations (lives) of other beings, the more man exists. This union with the lives of other beings is accomplished through love. God is not love, but the more there is of love, the more man manifests God, and the more he truly exists... We acknowledge God only when we are conscious of His manifestation in us. All conclusions and guidelines based on this consciousness should fully satisfy both our desire to know God as such as well as our desire to live a life based on this recognition.

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Entry in Tolstoy's Diary
Philosophical Maxims
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
2 months 4 days ago
Speaking generally, he holds dominion, to...

Speaking generally, he holds dominion, to whom are entrusted by common consent affairs of state - such as the laying down, interpretation, and abrogation of laws, the fortification of cities, deciding on war and peace, &c. But if this charge belong to a council, composed of the general multitude, then the dominion is called a democracy; if the council be composed of certain chosen persons, then it is an aristocracy ; and, if, lastly, the care of affairs of state, and, consequently, the dominion rest with one man, then it has the name of monarchy.

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Ch. 2, Of Natural Right
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
1 month 5 days ago
In America a woman loses her...

In America a woman loses her independence for ever in the bonds of matrimony. While there is less constraint on girls there than anywhere else, a wife submits to stricter obligations. For the former, her father's house is a home of freedom and pleasure; for the latter, her husband's is almost a cloister.

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Book Three, Chapter X.
Philosophical Maxims
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek
6 months 6 days ago
Human rights

It is also crucial to bear in mind the interconnection between the Decalogue... and its modern obverse, the celebrated 'human Rights'. As the experience of our post-political liberal-permissive society amply demonstrates, human Rights are ultimately, at their core, simply Rights to violate the Ten Commandments. 'The right to privacy' — the right to adultery, in secret, where no one sees me or has the right to probe my life. 'The right to pursue happiness and to possess private property' -- the right to steal (to exploit others). 'Freedom of the press and of the expression of opinion' -- the right to lie. 'The right of free citizens to possess weapons' -- the right to kill. And, ultimately, 'freedom of religious belief' — the right to worship false gods.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 weeks 1 day ago
And, being assembled together with them,...

And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

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1:4-5 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 month 3 days ago
The deceiver...
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Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
3 weeks 1 day ago
As the great words of freedom...

As the great words of freedom and fulfillment are pronounced by campaigning leaders and politicians, on the screens and radios and stages, they turn into meaningless sounds which obtain meaning only in the context of propaganda, business, discipline, and relaxation. This assimilation of the ideal with reality testifies to the extent to which the ideal has been surpassed. It is brought down from the sublimated realm of the soul or the spirit or the inner man, and translated into operational terms and problems. Here are the progressive elements of mass culture. The perversion is indicative of the fact that advanced industrial society is confronted with the possibility of a materialization of ideals. The capabilities of this society are progressively reducing the sublimated realm in which the condition of man was represented, idealized, and indicted. Higher culture becomes part of the material culture. In this transformation, it loses the greater part of its truth.

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pp. 57-58
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
2 months 1 week ago
Those who read and rightly understand...

Those who read and rightly understand my teaching will not start an insurrection; they have not learned that from me.

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p. 65
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
1 month 4 weeks ago
Always remember that it is impossible...

Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
1 month 4 weeks ago
I construct my memories with my...

I construct my memories with my present. I am lost, abandoned in the present. I try in vain to rejoin the past: I cannot escape.

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Philosophical Maxims
Antisthenes
Antisthenes
1 month 2 weeks ago
One should attend….

One should attend to one's enemies, for they are the first persons to detect one's errors.

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§ 5
Philosophical Maxims
John Searle
John Searle
2 days ago
An utterance can have Intentionality, just...

An utterance can have Intentionality, just as a belief has Intentionality, but whereas the Intentionality of the belief is intrinsic the Intentionality of the utterance is derived.

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P. 27.
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
2 months ago
The hell to be endured hereafter,...

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning our characters in the wrong way.

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Ch. 4
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 weeks 5 days ago
God is what survives the evidence...

God is what survives the evidence that nothing deserves to be thought.

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Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
3 weeks 5 days ago
Every interpretation is hypothetical, for it...

Every interpretation is hypothetical, for it is a mere attempt to read an unfamiliar text. An obscure dream, taken by itself, can rarely be interpreted with any certainty, so that I attach little importance to the interpretation of single dreams. With a series of dreams we can have more confidence in our interpretations, for the later dreams correct the mistakes we have made m handling those that went before. We are also better able, in a dream series, to recognize the important contents and basic themes.

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p. 14
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
2 months 2 weeks ago
To rank the effort above the...

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

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Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
1 week 3 days ago
Do we write books so that...

Do we write books so that they shall merely be read? Don't we also write them for employment in the household? For one that is read from start to finish, thousands are leafed through, other thousands lie motionless, others are jammed against mouseholes, thrown at rats, others are stood on, sat on, drummed on, have gingerbread baked on them or are used to light pipes.

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E 65
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
1 week 6 days ago
The most disheartening tendency common among...

The most disheartening tendency common among readers is to tear out one sentence from a work, as a criterion of the writer's ideas or personality.

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Philosophical Maxims
Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
1 week 5 days ago
I believe in the possible realization...

I believe in the possible realization of a world in which man can be much, even if he has little; a world in which the dominant motivation of existence is not consumption; a world in which "man" is the end, first and last; a world in which man can find the way of giving a purpose to his life as well as the strength to live free and without illusions.

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Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
2 months 2 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
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
2 months ago
Each pursues his private interest and...

Each pursues his private interest and only his private interest; and thereby serves the private interests of all, the general interest, without willing it or knowing it. The real point is not that each individual's pursuit of his private interest promotes the totality of private interests, the general interest. One could just as well deduce from this abstract phrase that each individual reciprocally blocks the assertion of the others' interests, so that, instead of a general affirmation, this war of all against all produces a general negation.

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Notebook I, The Chapter on Money, p. 76.
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
2 months 3 weeks ago
We all have a weakness for...

We all have a weakness for beauty.

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Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
1 week 3 days ago
A handful of soldiers is always...

A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments.

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E 19
Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
2 months 2 days ago
Freedom of Men under Government is,...

Freedom of Men under Government is, to have a standing Rule to live by, common to every one of that Society, and made by the Legislative Power erected in it; a Liberty to follow my own Will in all things, where the Rule prescribes not; and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, Arbitrary Will of another Man: as Freedom of Nature is, to be under no other restraint but the Law of Nature.

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Second Treatise of Civil Government, Ch. IV, sec. 21
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 1 day ago
Most of the luxuries, and many...

Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.

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p. 18
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
1 month 5 days ago
The main business of religions is...

The main business of religions is to purify, control, and restrain that excessive and exclusive taste for well-being which men acquire in times of equality.

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Book One, Chapter V.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
2 months 2 days ago
It is from the Bible that...

It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.

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A Letter: Being an Answer to a Friend, on the publication of The Age of Reason" (12 May 1797), published in an 1852 edition of The Age of Reason, p. 205
Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
2 months 2 days ago
Let me give two cautions....

Let me give two cautions. 1) The one is, that you keep them to the practice of what you would have grow into a habit with them, by kind words, and gentle admonitions, rather as minding them of what they forget, than by harsh rebukes and chiding, as if they were wilfully guilty. 2) Another thing you are to take care of, is, not to endeavour to settle too many habits at once, lest by variety you confound them, and so perfect none. When constant custom has made any one thing easy and natural to 'em, and they practice it without reflection, you may then go on to another.

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Sec. 66
Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
1 month 4 weeks ago
The hazards of the generalized prisoner's...

The hazards of the generalized prisoner's dilemma are removed by the match between the right and the good.

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Chapter IX, Section 86, p. 577
Philosophical Maxims
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
2 weeks 6 days ago
Reason as an organ for perceiving...

Reason as an organ for perceiving the true nature of reality and determining the guiding principles of our lives has come to be regarded as obsolete.

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p. 18.
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard
3 days ago
Dying is nothing. You have to...

Dying is nothing. You have to know how to disappear. Dying comes down to a biological chance and that is of no consequence. Disappearing is of a far higher order of necessity. You must not leave it to biology to decide when you will disappear. To disappear is to pass into an enigmatic state which is neither life nor death. Some animals know how to do this, as do savages, who withdraw while still alive, from the sight of their own people.

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Philosophical Maxims
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