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Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 1 week ago
Treat your inferiors…

Treat your inferiors as you would be treated by your betters.

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Line 11 This can be related to other expressions on the ethics of reciprocity, often referred to as the variants of the Golden Rule.
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
4 months 3 weeks ago
Hegel once observed that comedy is...

Hegel once observed that comedy is in act superior to tragedy and humourous reasoning superior to grandiloquent reasoning. Although Lincoln does not possess the grandiloquence of historical action, as an average man of the people he has its humour.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
3 weeks 1 day ago
We are firmly convinced, and we...

We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations, as with individuals, our interests, soundly calculated, will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties; and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is taken on its word, when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.

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Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
5 months ago
There is no pleasure to me...

There is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to tell it to.

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Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
5 months ago
For a desperate disease a desperate...

For a desperate disease a desperate cure.

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Book II, Ch. 3. The Custom of the Isle of Cea
Philosophical Maxims
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre
2 weeks 6 days ago
All pain is a punishment, and...

All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice.

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"Fifth Dialogue," p. 149
Philosophical Maxims
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
3 months 2 weeks ago
Virtue can only flourish amongst equals....

Virtue can only flourish amongst equals.

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A Vindication of the Rights of Men
Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
3 weeks 1 day ago
Natural Groups are best described, not...

Natural Groups are best described, not by any definition which marks their boundaries, but by a 'Type' which marks their centre. The Type of any natural group is an example which possesses in a marked degree all the leading characters of the class.

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Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
5 months 3 weeks ago
The worst readers are those who...
The worst readers are those who behave like plundering troops: they take away a few things they can use, dirty and confound the remainder, and revile the whole.
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Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 2 weeks ago
It is more blessed to give...

It is more blessed to give than to receive.

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Acts 20:35b
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
3 months 2 weeks ago
Big industry, competition and generally the...

Big industry, competition and generally the individualistic organization of production have become a fetter which it must and will shatter.

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Philosophical Maxims
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle
2 weeks 4 days ago
For it has been truly observed...

For it has been truly observed by a great philosopher, that truth does more easily emerge out of error than confusion.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month 1 week ago
Curious, if we will reflect on...

Curious, if we will reflect on it, this of having no books. Except by what he could see for himself, or hear of by uncertain rumor of speech in the obscure Arabian Desert, he could know nothing. The wisdom that had been before him or at a distance from him in the world, was in a manner as good as not there for him. Of the great brother souls, flame-beacons through so many lands and times, no one directly communicates with this great soul. He is alone there, deep down in the bosom of the Wilderness; has to grow up so,-alone with Nature and his own Thoughts. But, from an early age, he had been remarked as a thoughtful man.

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Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
4 months 3 weeks ago
The poet is, etymologically, the maker....

The poet is, etymologically, the maker. Like all makers, he requires a stock of raw materials - in his case, experience. Now experience is not a matter of having actually swum the Hellespont, or danced with the dervishes, or slept in a doss-house. It is a matter of sensibility and intuition, of seeing and hearing the significant things, of paying attention at the right moments, of understanding and co-ordinating. Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. It is a gift for dealing with the accidents of existence, not the accidents themselves. By a happy dispensation of nature, the poet generally possesses the gift of experience in conjunction with that of expression. What he says so well is therefore intrinsically of value.

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p. 5
Philosophical Maxims
Antonio Negri
Antonio Negri
1 month 2 weeks ago
The capitalist call workers to the...

The capitalist call workers to the factory, for example, directing them to collaborate and communicate in production and giving them the means to do so. In the paradigm of immaterial production, in contrast, labor itself tends to produce the means of interaction, communication, and cooperation for production directly. Affective labor always directly constructs a relationship.

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147
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
3 months 2 weeks ago
And though this may seem to...

And though this may seem to subtile a deduction of the Lawes of Nature, to be taken notice of by all men;whereof the most part are too busie in getting food, and the rest too negligent to understand; yet to leave all men unexcusable, they have been contracted into one easie sum, intelligble, even to the meanest capacity; and that is, Do not that to another, which thou wouldest not have done to thyselfe; which sheweth him, that he has no more to do in learning the Lawes of Nature, but, when weighing the actions of other men with his own, they seem too heavy, to put them into the other part of the balance, and his own into their place, that his own passions, and selfe love, may adde nothing to the weight; and then there is none of these Laws of Nature that will not appear unto him very reasonable.

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The First Part, Chapter 15, p. 79
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
4 months 3 weeks ago
All those to whom I looked...

All those to whom I looked up, were of opinion that the pleasure of sympathy with human beings, and the feelings which made the good of others, and especially of mankind on a large scale, the object of existence, were the greatest and surest sources of happiness. Of the truth of this I was convinced, but to know that a feeling would make me happy if I had it, did not give me the feeling.

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(p. 138)
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 months 2 weeks ago
Skepticism is the sadism of embittered...

Skepticism is the sadism of embittered souls.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
4 months 2 weeks ago
We are asleep. Our Life is...

We are asleep. Our Life is a dream. But we wake up sometimes, just enough to know that we are dreaming.

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Philosophical Maxims
Max Stirner
Max Stirner
1 month 1 week ago
Yes, so it is that knowledge...

Yes, so it is that knowledge itself must die in order to blossom forth again in death as will; the freedom of thought, belief, and conscience, these wonderful flowers of three centuries will sink back into the lap of mother earth so that a new freedom, the freedom will, will be nourished with its most noble juices.

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p. 19
Philosophical Maxims
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
1 month 1 week ago
Let every man be occupied, and...

Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the highest employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the consciousness that he has done his best.

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Vol. I, ch. 6, "Of Occupation", p. 178
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
4 months 3 weeks ago
How very paltry and limited the...

How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do.

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Vol. 2, Ch. 3, § 39
Philosophical Maxims
Ernest Renan
Ernest Renan
1 month 2 weeks ago
The regeneration of the inferior…

The regeneration of the inferior or bastard races by the superior ones is consistent with God's plans for humanity. The man of the people, in our countries, is always a fallen aristocrat; his hands are made to handle the sword rather than the laborer's tools. He prefers warring to working, that is, he returns to his original calling.

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93, as translated by Asselin Charles, in "Colonial Discourse Since Christopher Columbus," Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 26, No. 2 (November 1995), 147
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
4 months 3 weeks ago
What interest, zest, or excitement can...

What interest, zest, or excitement can there be in achieving the right way, unless we are enabled to feel that the wrong way is also a possible and a natural way, - nay, more, a menacing and an imminent way? And what sense can there be in condemning ourselves for taking the wrong way, unless we need have done nothing of the sort, unless the right way was open to us as well? I cannot understand the willingness to act, no matter how we feel, without the belief that acts are really good and bad.

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The Dilemma of Determinism, 1884
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 2 weeks ago
You shall know the truth, and...

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

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8:32
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
5 months 1 day ago
Further, it will not be amiss...

Further, it will not be amiss to distinguish the three kinds and, as it were, grades of ambition in mankind. The first is of those who desire to extend their own power in their native country, a vulgar and degenerate kind. The second is of those who labor to extend the power and dominion of their country among men. This certainly has more dignity, though not less covetousness. But if a man endeavor to establish and extend the power and dominion of the human race itself over the universe, his ambition (if ambition it can be called) is without doubt both a more wholesome and a more noble thing than the other two. Now the empire of man over things depends wholly on the arts and sciences. For we cannot command nature except by obeying her.

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Aphorism 129
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month 1 week ago
At bottom, as was said above,...

At bottom, as was said above, we are to consider Luther as a Prophet Idol-breaker; a bringer-back of men to reality. It is the function of great men and teachers.

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Philosophical Maxims
Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
1 month 2 weeks ago
There is an unquestionable relationship between...

There is an unquestionable relationship between economic development and liberal democracy, which one can observe simply by looking around the world. But the exact nature of that relationship is more complicated than it first appeared, and is not adequately explained by any of the theories presented up to this point. The logic of modern natural science and the industrialization process it fosters does not point in a single direction in the sphere of politics, as it does in the sphere of economics. Liberal democracy is compatible with industrial maturity, and is preferred by the citizens of many industrially advanced states, but there does not appear to be a necessary connection between the two. The Mechanism underlying our directional history leads equally well to a bureaucratic-authoritarian future as to a liberal one. We will therefore have to look elsewhere in trying to understand the current crisis of authoritarianism and the worldwide democratic revolution.

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p. 125
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
2 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
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 months 1 week ago
The tool....
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Karl Marx
Karl Marx
4 months 3 weeks ago
A man cannot become a child...

A man cannot become a child again, or he becomes childish.

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Introduction, p. 31.
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
3 months 5 days ago
The child shows its individual tendencies...

The child shows its individual tendencies in its plays, in its questions, in its association with people and things. But it has to struggle with everlasting external interference in its world of thought and emotion. It must not express itself in harmony with its nature, with its growing personality. It must become a thing, an object. Its questions are met with narrow, conventional, ridiculous replies, mostly based on falsehoods; and, when, with large, wondering, innocent eyes, it wishes to behold the wonders of the world, those about it quickly lock the windows and doors, and keep the delicate human plant in a hothouse atmosphere, where it can neither breathe nor grow freely.

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Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
2 months 3 weeks ago
The error arises from the learned...

The error arises from the learned jurists deceiving themselves and others, by asserting that government is not what it really is, one set of men banded together to oppress another set of men, but, as shown by science, is the representation of the citizens in their collective capacity.

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Chapter VI, Attitude of Men of the Present Day to War Variant translation: Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
1 week 5 days ago
If I was not a...

If I was not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. ... I cannot tell if I would have done any creative work of importance in music, but I do know that I get most joy in life out of my violin.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
3 weeks 1 day ago
We took the liberty to make...

We took the liberty to make some enquiries concerning the ground of their pretentions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation.

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Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
5 months 1 week ago
We are He, since we are...

We are He, since we are His body and since He was made man in order to be our Head.

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p.432
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
3 months 3 weeks ago
Nothing less will content me, than...

Nothing less will content me, than whole America.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
3 weeks 1 day ago
I consider the foundation of the...

I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That "all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people." To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition. The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill, have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States, by the Constitution... They are not among the powers specially enumerated...

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Opinion against the constitutionality of a National Bank (1791), also quoted in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson "Memorial Edition" (20 Vols., 1903-04) edited by Andrew A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, Vol. 3, p. 146
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
3 months 5 days ago
It is true that parents today...

It is true that parents today are learning to enhance the physical qualities of their children. But their minds and characters they cannot mould. The antiquated system of education and our perverse social influences unfortunately do that. In view of the numerous misfit and marred children these institutions have created, I am quite content not to have contributed any of my own.

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Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
5 months 2 weeks ago
The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is...

The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity, a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 2 weeks ago
O my Father, if this cup...

O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

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26:42 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
3 months 2 days ago
The sure conviction that we could...

The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle.

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K 27
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
3 weeks 1 day ago
To the existence of banks of...

To the existence of banks of discount for cash... there can be no objection, because there can be no danger of abuse, and they are a convenience both to merchants and individuals. I think they should even be encouraged, by allowing them a larger than legal interest on short discounts, and tapering thence, in proportion as the term of discount is lengthened, down to legal interest on those of a year or more. Even banks of deposit, where cash should be lodged, and a paper acknowledgment taken out as its representative, entitled to a return of the cash on demand, would be convenient for remittances, travelling persons, etc. But, liable as its cash would be to be pilfered and robbed, and its paper to be fraudulently re-issued, or issued without deposit, it would require skilful and strict regulation.

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ME 13:431
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
3 months 2 weeks ago
Mere imagination would indeed be mere...

Mere imagination would indeed be mere trifling; only no imagination is mere.

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Vol. VI, par. 286
Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
3 months 3 weeks ago
If there is one realm in...

If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime, it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief, but you can't deny a kind of respect for the great criminal.

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Philosophical Maxims
John Gray
John Gray
1 month 4 weeks ago
While the Marxist faith in central...

While the Marxist faith in central planning is now confined to a few dingy sects, a quasi-religious belief in free markets continues to shape the policies of governments.Many writers have pointed to the havoc and ruin that have accompanied the imposition of free markets across the world. Whether in Africa, Asia, Latin America or post-communist Europe, policies of wholesale privatisation and structural adjustment have led to declining economic activity and social dislocation on a massive scale.

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"The end of the world as we know it," The Guardian
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
4 months 3 weeks ago
Man is always separated from what...

Man is always separated from what he is by all the breadth of the being which he is not. He makes himself known to himself from the other side of the world and he looks from the horizon toward himself to recover his inner being.

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Philosophical Maxims
Proclus
Proclus
4 months 6 days ago
A transition, therefore, is not undeservedly...

A transition, therefore, is not undeservedly made from sense to consideration, and from this to the nobler energies of intellect. Hence, as the certain knowledge of numbers received its origin among the Phœnicians, on account of merchandise and commerce, so geometry was found out among the Egyptians from the distribution of land. When Thales, therefore, first went into Egypt, he transferred this knowledge from thence into Greece: and he invented many things himself, and communicated to his successors the principles of many. Some of which were, indeed, more universal, but others extended to sensibles.

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Chap. IV.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
4 months 3 weeks ago
A man who is so exceedingly...

A man who is so exceedingly civil that for the sake of quietude and a peaceable name will silently see the community imposed upon, or their rights invaded, may, in his principles, be a good man, but cannot be stiled a useful one, neither does he come up to the full mark of his duty; for silence becomes a kind of crime when it operates as a cover or an encouragement to the guilty. 

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"To the People of America", Pennsylvania Packet, January 23, 1779
Philosophical Maxims
Al-Ghazali
Al-Ghazali
3 months 4 weeks ago
We attest that He is the...

We attest that He is the Willer of all things that are, the ruler of all originated phenomena; there does not come into the visible or invisible world anything meager or plenteous, small or great, good or evil, or any advantage or disadvantage, belief or unbelief, knowledge or ignorance, success or failure, increase or decrease, obedience or disobedience, except by His will. What He wills is, and what He does not, will not; there is not a glance of the eye, nor a stray thought of the heart that is not subject to His will. He is the Creator, the Restorer, the Doer of whatsoever He wills. There is none that rescinds His command, none that supplements His decrees, none that dissuades a servant from disobeying Him, except by His help and mercy, and none has power to obey Him except by His will.

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Ihyaa 'Ulum al-Deen. Beirut: Dar Ibn Hazm (2005), p. 107.
Philosophical Maxims
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