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Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
4 months 1 week ago
But Don Quixote was converted. Yes...

But Don Quixote was converted. Yes - and died, poor soul. But the other, the real Don Quixote, he who remained on earth and lives among us with his spirit - this Don Quixote was not converted, this Don Quixote continues to incite us to make ourselves ridiculous, this Don Quixote must never die.

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Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
4 months 2 weeks ago
It is not politics that can...

It is not politics that can bring true liberty to the soul; that must be achieved, if at all, by philosophy;

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"The Irony of Liberalism"
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 3 weeks ago
The majority, oppressing an individual, is...

The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.

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Letter to Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Kuhn
Thomas Kuhn
2 months 2 weeks ago
These three classes of problems-determination of...

These three classes of problems-determination of significant fact, matching of facts with theory, and articulation of theory-exhaust, I think, the literature of normal science, both empirical and theoretical. They do not, of course, quite exhaust the entire literature of science. There are also extraordinary problems, and it may well be their resolution that makes the scientific enterprise as a whole so particularly worthwhile. But extraordinary problems are not to be had for the asking. They emerge only on special occasions prepared by the advance of normal research.

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p. 34
Philosophical Maxims
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
2 months 1 week ago
He not only overflowed with learning...

He not only overflowed with learning but stood in the slops.

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On Macaulay; reported in Hesketh Pearson, The Smith of Smiths (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1934), p. 180
Philosophical Maxims
John Gray
John Gray
3 months ago
Tyranny offers relief from the burden...

Tyranny offers relief from the burden of sanity and a licence to enact forbidden impulses of hatred and violence. By acting on these impulses and releasing them in their subjects tyrants give people a kind of happiness, which as individuals they may be incapable of achieving.

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An Old Chaos: What a Tyrant Can Do For You (p. 57)
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
4 months 6 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
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
5 months 2 weeks ago
Worte sind Taten. Words are deeds....

Worte sind Taten. Words are deeds.

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p. 50e
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
4 months 6 days ago
"What I believe" is a process...

"What I believe" is a process rather than a finality. Finalities are for gods and governments, not for the human intellect. While it may be true that Herbert Spencer's formulation of liberty is the most important on the subject, as a political basis of society, yet life is something more than formulas. In the battle for freedom, as Ibsen has so well pointed out, it is the struggle for, not so much the attainment of, liberty, that develops all that is strongest, sturdiest and finest in human character.

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Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
3 months 3 weeks ago
Media, by altering the environment, evoke...

Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perception...When these ratios change, men change.

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Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
6 months 1 day ago
There never was in the world...

There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.

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Book II, Ch. 37. Of the Resemblance of Children to their Fathers
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 2 weeks ago
To fear is to die every...

To fear is to die every minute.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 3 weeks ago
Your favour of July 31, was...

Your favour of July 31, was duly received, and was read with peculiar pleasure. The sentiments breathed through the whole do honor to both the head and heart of the writer. Mine on the subject of slavery of negroes have long since been in possession of the public, and time has only served to give them stronger root. The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of these people, and it is a moral reproach to us that they should have pleaded it so long in vain, and should have produced not a single effort, nay I fear not much serious willingness to relieve them & ourselves from our present condition of moral & political reprobation.

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Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
4 months 1 week ago
It is because of my wretchedness...

It is because of my wretchedness that I am "I." It is on account of the wretchedness of the universe that, in a sense, God is "I" (that is to say a person).

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p. 83
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
1 month 1 week ago
I do not believe in...

I do not believe in a God who maliciously or arbitrarily interferes in the personal affairs of mankind. My religion consists of a humble admiration for the vast power which manifests itself in that small part of the universe which our poor, weak minds can grasp!

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Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
1 month 3 weeks ago
The Plan of the System, may...

The Plan of the System, may aim at a Natural or an Artificial System. But no classes can be absolutely artificial, for if they were, no assertions could be made concerning them.

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Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
5 months 3 weeks ago
In any race between human numbers...

In any race between human numbers and natural resources, time is against us.

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Chapter 12 (p. 113)
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
4 months 1 week ago
The philosophical thought of Kant, the...

The philosophical thought of Kant, the supreme flower of the Germanic people, has its roots in the religious feeling of Luther, and it is not possible for Kantism, especially the practical part of it, to take root and bring forth flower and fruit in peoples who have not undergone the experience of the Reformation and who perhaps were incapable of experiencing it. Kantism is Protestant, and we Spaniards are fundamentally Catholic. And if Krause struck some roots here - more numerous and more permanent than is commonly supposed - it is because Krause has roots in pietism, and pietism, as Ritschl has demonstrated in his Geschichte des Pietismus, has specifically Catholic roots and may be described as the irruption, or rather the persistence of Catholic mysticism in the heart of Protestant rationalism. And this explains why not a few Catholic thinkers in Spain became followers of Krause.

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Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
6 months 2 days ago
There is another ground of hope...

There is another ground of hope that must not be omitted. Let men but think over their infinite expenditure of understanding, time, and means on matters and pursuits of far less use and value; whereof, if but a small part were directed to sound and solid studies, there is no difficulty that might not be overcome.

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Aphorism 111
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
3 months 2 weeks ago
There is one particular property of...

There is one particular property of living things, however, that I want to single out as explicable only by Darwinian selection. This property is the one that has been the recurring topic of this book: adaptive complexity.

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Chapter 11 "Doomed Rivals" (p. 288)
Philosophical Maxims
Diogenes of Sinope
Diogenes of Sinope
5 months 1 week ago
He used to reason as follows:...

He used to reason as follows: 'Everything belongs to the gods; the wise are friends of the gods; friends hold all things in common; ergo, everything belongs to the wise.'

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Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 37, as reported in Diogenes the Cynic: Sayings and Anecdotes as translated by Robin Hard (Oxford: 2012), p. 13
Philosophical Maxims
Isaiah Berlin
Isaiah Berlin
4 months 2 weeks ago
The fundamental sense of freedom is...

The fundamental sense of freedom is freedom from chains, from imprisonment, from enslavement by others. The rest is extension of this sense, or else metaphor.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 3 weeks ago
It has always been denied by...

It has always been denied by the republican party in this country, that the Constitution had given the power of incorporation to Congress. On the establishment of the Bank of the United States, this was the great ground on which that establishment was combated; and the party prevailing supported it only on the argument of its being an incident to the power given them for raising money.

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Letter to Dr. Maese, 1809. ME 12:231
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
4 months 2 weeks ago
Did ye never read in the...

Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

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21:27-42 and 44 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Will Durant
Will Durant
2 months 1 week ago
Youth is learning to read (which...

Youth is learning to read (which is all that one learns in school), and is learning where and how to find what he may later need to know (which is the best of the arts that he acquires in college). Nothing learned from a book is worth anything until it is used and verified in life; only then does it begin to affect behavior and desire. It is Life that educates, and perhaps love more than anything else in life.

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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
5 months 3 weeks ago
Capitals accumulate faster than the population;...

Capitals accumulate faster than the population; thus wages; thus population; thus grain prices; thus the difficulty of production and hence the exchange values.

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Notebook III, The Chapter on Capital, p. 271.
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
4 months 2 weeks ago
The recognition by one person of...

The recognition by one person of another's personality takes place by means to some extent identical to the means by which he is conscious of his own personality. The idea of the second personality, which is as much as to say that second personality itself, enters within the direct consciousness of the first person, and is immediately perceived as his ego, though less strongly. At the same time, the opposition between the two persons is perceived, so that the externality of the second is perceived.

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Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
4 months 3 weeks ago
Old religious factions are volcanoes burnt...

Old religious factions are volcanoes burnt out.

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Speech on the Petition of the Unitarians
Philosophical Maxims
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
4 months 3 weeks ago
The will is the living principle...

The will is the living principle of the rational soul, is indeed itself reason, when purely and simply apprehended. That reason is itself active, means, that the pure will, as such, rules and is effectual. The infinite reason alone lies immediately and entirely in the purely spiritual order. The finite being lives necessarily at the same time in a sensuous order; that is to say, in one which presents to him other objects than those of pure reason; a material object, to be advanced by instruments and powers, standing indeed under the immediate command of the will, but whose efficacy is conditional also on its own natural laws.

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Jane Sinnett, trans 1846 p.104
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
1 month 2 weeks ago
..If you are troubled by external...

..If you are troubled by external circumstances, it is not the circumstances that trouble you, but your own perception of them - and they are in your power to change at any time.

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Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
5 months 3 weeks ago
The utilitarian doctrine is, that happiness...

The utilitarian doctrine is, that happiness is desirable, and the only thing desirable, as an end; all other things being only desirable as means to that end.

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Ch. 4
Philosophical Maxims
Averroes
Averroes
6 months 1 week ago
To master this instrument the religious...

To master this instrument the religious thinker must make a preliminary study of logic, just as the lawyer must study legal reasoning. This is no more heretical in the one case than in the other. And logic must be learned from the ancient masters, regardless of the fact that they were not Muslims.

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Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
1 month 3 weeks ago
The 'Diagnosis', or Scheme of the...

The 'Diagnosis', or Scheme of the Characters, comes, in the order of philosophy, after the Classification. The characters do not 'make' the classes, they only enable us to 'recognize' them. The Diagnosis is an Artificial Key to a Natural System.

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Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
4 months 3 days ago
One has to do something new...

One has to do something new in order to see something new.

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J 1770
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
4 months 2 weeks ago
You have heard that it was...

You have heard that it was said, "Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth." But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

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5:38-41 (NIV)
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
5 months 3 weeks ago
You come from attending the funeral...

You come from attending the funeral of mankind to attend to a natural phenomenon. A little thought is sexton to all the world.

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p. 490
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
4 months 2 weeks ago
Sudden Glory, is the passion which...

Sudden Glory, is the passion which maketh those Grimaces called LAUGHTER.

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The First Part, Chapter 6, p. 27 (italics and spelling as per text)
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 2 weeks ago
The more one is obsessed with...

The more one is obsessed with God, the less one is innocent. Nobody bothered about him in paradise. The fall brought about this divine torture. It's not possible to be conscious of divinity without guilt. Thus God is rarely to be found in an innocent soul.

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Philosophical Maxims
Will Durant
Will Durant
2 months 1 week ago
This, evidently was not a minor...

This, evidently was not a minor civilization, produced by inferior people. It ranks with the highest civilizations of history, and some, like Keyserling, would place it at the head and summit of all. The British conquest of India was the invasion and destruction of a high civilization by a trading company utterly without scruple or principle, careless of art, greedy of gain, overrunning with fire and sword a country temporarily disordered and helpless, bribing and murdering, annexing and stealing, and beginning that career of illegal and "legal" plunder which has now gone on ruthlessly for one hundred and seventy-three years, and goes on at this moment while in our secure comfort we write and read. Those who have seen the unspeakable poverty and physiological weakness of the Hindus today will hardly believe that it was the wealth of eighteenth century India which attracted the commercial pirates of England and France.

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Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
4 months 4 weeks ago
The possibility of divorce renders both...

The possibility of divorce renders both marriage partners stricter in their observance of the duties they owe to each other. Divorces help to improve morals and to increase the population.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
5 months 2 weeks ago
Resting on your laurels is as...

Resting on your laurels is as dangerous as resting when you are walking in the snow. You doze off and die in your sleep.

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p. 35e
Philosophical Maxims
Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch
4 months 2 weeks ago
The notion that one will not...

The notion that one will not survive a particular catastrophe is, in general terms, a comfort since it is equivalent to abolishing the catastrophe.

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The Message to the Planet (1989) p. 532.
Philosophical Maxims
Mencius
Mencius
2 months 2 weeks ago
The great man is the...

The great man is the one who does not lose his child's heart.

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Book 4, pt. 2, v. 12
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
4 months 4 weeks ago
In countries where associations are free,...

In countries where associations are free, secret societies are unknown. In America there are factions, but no conspiracies.

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Chapter XII.
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 month 2 weeks ago
Perhaps we cannot...
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Main Content / General
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 3 weeks ago
Thus mathematics may be defined as...

Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.

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Ch. 5: Mathematics and the Metaphysicians
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
4 months 6 days ago
Phenomenology is not a philosophy; it...

Phenomenology is not a philosophy; it is a philosophical method, a tool. It is like an adjustable spanner that can be used for dismantling a refrigerator or a car, or used for hammering in nails, or even for knocking somebody out.

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p. 92
Philosophical Maxims
William Godwin
William Godwin
4 months 3 weeks ago
One principle, that I believe is...

One principle, that I believe is wanting in you, and all our too fervent and impetuous reformers, is the thought, that almost every institution or form of society is good in its place, and in the period of time to which it belongs. How many beautiful and admirable effects grew out of Popery and the monastic institutions, in the period, when they were in their genuine health and vigour! To them we owe almost all our logic and our literature. What excellent effects do we reap, even at this day, from the feudal system and from chivalry! In this point of view, nothing can, perhaps, be more worthy of our applause than the English constitution.

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Letter to Percy Bysshe Shelley (4 March 1812), quoted in Thomas Jefferson Hogg, The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. II (1858), p. 86
Philosophical Maxims
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre
1 month 3 weeks ago
Nothing great has great beginnings...

Nothing great has great beginnings.

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XXIII, p. 73
Philosophical Maxims
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
5 months 2 weeks ago
The new governmental reason does not...

The new governmental reason does not deal with what I would call the things in themselves of governmentality, such as individuals, things, wealth, and land. It no longer deals with these things in themselves. It deals with the phenomena of politics, that is to say, interests, which precisely constitute politics and its stakes; it deals with interests, or that respect in which a given individual, thing, wealth, and so on interests other individuals or the collective body of individuals. ... In the new regime, government is basically no longer to be exercised over subjects and other things subjected through these subjects. Government is now to be exercised over what we could call the phenomenal republic of interests. The fundamental question of liberalism is: What is the utility value of government and all actions of government in a society where exchange determines the value of things?

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Lecture 2, January 17, 1979, pp. 45-46
Philosophical Maxims
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