Skip to main content

Main navigation

☰ ˟
  • Home
  • Articulation
  • Contact
  • Shop
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 3 weeks ago
I have all the defects of...

I have all the defects of other people yet everything they do seems to me inconceivable.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach
1 month 4 weeks ago
Feuerbach is saying: No, wait a...

Feuerbach is saying: No, wait a minute - if you are going to be allowed to go on living as you are living, then you also have to admit that you are not Christians. Feuerbach has understood the requirements but cannot force himself to submit to them - ergo, he prefers to renounce being a Christian. And now, no matter how great a responsibility he must bear, he takes a position that is not unsound, that is, it is wrong of established Christendom to say that Feuerbach is attacking Christianity; it is not true, he is attacking the Christians by demonstrating that their lives do not correspond to the teachings of Christianity.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Soren Kierkegaard, Journals X2A 163
Philosophical Maxims
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
3 weeks 1 day ago
There are evils, as someone has...

There are evils, as someone has pointed out, that have the ability to survive identification and go on for ever - money, for instance, or war.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Dean's December (1982) [Penguin Classics, 1998, ISBN 0-140-18913-0], ch. 13, p. 140
Philosophical Maxims
Arnold J. Toynbee
Arnold J. Toynbee
1 week 4 days ago
Religion holds the solution to all...

Religion holds the solution to all problems of human relationship, whether they are between parents and children or nation and nation. Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God. When threats force him to look at the limitations of his human power, he's often ready to seek his spiritual one. What we need is patience and awe of God's plan in human history!

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
In Quote: The Weekly Digest, vol. 38, no. 19 (8 November 1959) p. 13
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
1 month 3 weeks ago
All the evolution we know of...

All the evolution we know of proceeds from the vague to the definite.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Vol. VI, par. 191
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
1 month 3 weeks ago
Some propose mere welfare measures -...

Some propose mere welfare measures - while others come forward with grandiose systems of reform which, under the pretense of re-organizing society, are in fact intended to preserve the foundations, and hence the life, of existing society. Communists must unremittingly struggle against these bourgeois socialists because they work for the enemies of communists and protect the society which communists aim to overthrow.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Diogenes of Sinope
Diogenes of Sinope
2 months 2 weeks ago
Boasting, like gilded armour, is very...

Boasting, like gilded armour, is very different inside from outside.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Stobaeus, iii. 22. 40
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 3 weeks ago
Without will, no conflict: no tragedy...

Without will, no conflict: no tragedy among the abulic. Yet the failure of will can be experienced more painfully than a tragic destiny.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
3 months 1 week ago
The Mass is the greatest blasphemy...

The Mass is the greatest blasphemy of God, and the highest idolatry upon earth, an abomination the like of which has never been in Christendom since the time of the Apostles.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
171
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 months 4 weeks ago
Whoso walketh in solitude, And inhabiteth...

Whoso walketh in solitude, And inhabiteth the wood, Choosing light, wave, rock, and bird, Before the money-loving herd, Into that forester shall pass From these companions power and grace.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Wood-notes, no. II, st. 4
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
1 month 2 weeks ago
Religion is better described than defined...

Religion is better described than defined and better felt than described. But if there is any one definition that latterly has obtained acceptance, it is that of Schleiermacher, to the effect that religion consists in the simple feeling of a relationship of dependence upon something above us and a desire to establish relations with this mysterious power.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
3 months 1 day ago
It is forbidden to kill….

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"Rights", 1771
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
4 months ago
A line by Thomas à Kempis...

A line by Thomas à Kempis which perhaps could be used as a motto sometime. He says of Paul: Therefore he turned everything over to God, who knows all, and defended himself solely by means of patience and humility . . . . He did defend himself now and then so that the weak would not be offended by his silence.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
2 months 3 weeks ago
Philosophers should consider the fact that...

Philosophers should consider the fact that the greatest happiness principle can easily be made an excuse for a benevolent dictatorship. We should replace it by a more modest and more realistic principle - the principle that the fight against avoidable misery should be a recognized aim of public policy, while the increase of happiness should be left, in the main, to private initiative.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in 1,001 Pearls of Wisdom (2006) by David Ross
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
3 months 1 week ago
Throughout your treatment you forget that...

Throughout your treatment you forget that you said that 'free-will' can do nothing without grace, and you prove that 'free-will' can do all things without grace! Your inferences and analogies "For if man has lost his freedom, and is forced to serve sin, and cannot will good, what conclusion can more justly be drawn concerning him, than that he sins and wills evil necessarily?

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 149
Philosophical Maxims
George Berkeley
George Berkeley
2 months 5 days ago
I entirely agree with you, as...

I entirely agree with you, as to the ill tendency of the affected doubts of some philosophers, and fantastical conceit of others. I am even so far gone of late in this way of think, that I have quitted several of the sublime notions I had got in their schools for vulgar opinions. And I give it you on my word, since this revolt from metaphysical notions to the plain dictates of nature and common sense, I find my understanding strangely enlightened, so that I can now easily comprehend a great many thing which before were all mystery and riddle.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Said by Philonous (Berkeley) to Hylas in the opening of dialog 1 with reference to the recent surge philosophic endeavors (Locke, Newton, et al) that seemed to lead to skepticism about the existence of the world.
Philosophical Maxims
Antisthenes
Antisthenes
2 months 2 weeks ago
Being asked what learning is…..

Being asked what learning is the most necessary, he replied, "How to get rid of having anything to unlearn.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
" § 7
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
2 months 4 weeks ago
'But you must see that if...

But you must see that if two things are alike, then it is a further question whether the first is copied from the second, or the second from the first, or both from a third.''What would the third be?''Some have thought that all these loves were copies of our love for the Landlord.'

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Pilgrim's Regress 59
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 3 weeks ago
Sooner or later, each desire must...

Sooner or later, each desire must encounter its lassitude: its truth . . .

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
3 months 6 days ago
How many we know who have...

How many we know who have fled the sweetness of a tranquil life in their homes, among their friends, to seek the horror of uninhabitable deserts; who have flung themselves into humiliation, degradation, and the contempt of the world, and have enjoyed these and even sought them out.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 14 (tr. Donald M. Frame)
Philosophical Maxims
Cornel West
Cornel West
2 months 3 weeks ago
Justice is what love looks like...

Justice is what love looks like in public.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Brother West (2009), p. 232
Philosophical Maxims
Judith Butler
Judith Butler
1 month 1 day ago
Guilt has to be understood not...

Guilt has to be understood not only as a way of checking one's own destructiveness, but as a mechanism for safeguarding the life of the other, one that emerges from our own need and dependency, from a sense that this life is not a life without another life. Indeed, when it turns into a safeguarding action, I am not sure it should still be called "guilt." If we do still use that term, we could conclude that "guilt" is strangely generative or that its productive form is reparation.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 93
Philosophical Maxims
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
3 weeks 1 day ago
Conquered people tend to be witty....

Conquered people tend to be witty.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Mr. Sammler's Planet, (1976), p. 98
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
2 months 4 weeks ago
[Mortals] say of some temporal suffering,...

[Mortals] say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say "Let me have but this and I'll take the consequences": little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin. Both processes begin even before death.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 9
Philosophical Maxims
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1 month 4 weeks ago
In dreams you sometimes fall from...

In dreams you sometimes fall from a height, or are stabbed, or beaten, but you never feel pain unless, perhaps, you really bruise yourself against the bedstead, then you feel pain and almost always wake up from it. It was the same in my dream. I did not feel any pain, but it seemed as though with my shot everything within me was shaken and everything was suddenly dimmed, and it grew horribly black around me. I seemed to be blinded, and it benumbed, and I was lying on something hard, stretched on my back; I saw nothing, and could not make the slightest movement.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Lucretius
Lucretius
3 months 1 week ago
But if one should…

But if one should guide his life by true principles, man's greatest riches is to live on a little with contented mind; for a little is never lacking.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book V, lines 1117-1119 (tr. Rouse)
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
4 weeks ago
People try to do all sorts...

People try to do all sorts of clever and difficult things to improve life instead of doing the simplest, easiest thing-refusing to participate in activities that make life bad.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 210
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
1 month 2 weeks ago
If a young girl is being...

If a young girl is being forced into a brothel she will not talk about her rights. In such a situation the word would sound ludicrously inadequate.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 63
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
3 months 3 weeks ago
The words that reverberate for us...

The words that reverberate for us at the confines of this long adventure of rebellion are not formulas for optimism, for which we have no possible use in the extremities of our unhappiness, but words of courage and intelligence which, on the shores of the eternal seas, even have the qualities of virtue.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1 month 4 weeks 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
Peter Singer
Peter Singer
2 months 2 weeks ago
Those who claim to care about...

Those who claim to care about the wellbeing of human beings and the preservation of our environment should become vegetarians for that reason alone. They would thereby increase the amount of grain available to feed people elsewhere, reduce pollution, save water and energy, and cease contributing to the clearing of forests; moreover, since a vegetarian diet is cheaper than one based on meat dishes, they would have more money available to devote to famine relief, population control, or whatever social or political cause they thought most urgent. ... when nonvegetarians say that "human problems come first" I cannot help wondering what exactly it is that they are doing for human beings that compels them to continue to support the wasteful, ruthless exploitation of farm animals.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 6: Speciesism Today
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 month 3 weeks ago
Suffer it to be so now:...

Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
3:15 (KJV) Said to John the Baptist.
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
1 month 1 week ago
Before one blames, one should always...

Before one blames, one should always find out whether one cannot excuse. To discover little faults has been always the particularity of such brains that are a little or not at all above the average. The superior ones keep quiet or say something against the whole and the great minds transform without blaming.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
K 39 Variant translation: Before we blame we should first see whether we cannot excuse.
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
3 months 3 weeks ago
Homer tells us also that Sisyphus...

Homer tells us also that Sisyphus had put Death in chains. Pluto could not endure the sight of his deserted, silent empire. He dispatched the god of war, who liberated Death from the hands of her conqueror.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Büchner
Georg Büchner
1 month 4 weeks ago
Dying people often become childish Act...

Dying people often become childish.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Act II.
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
1 month 3 weeks 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.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 14
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
2 months 3 days ago
In America, conscription is unknown; men...

In America, conscription is unknown; men are enlisted for payment. Compulsory recruitment is so alien to the ideas and so foreign to the customs of the people of the United States that I doubt whether they would ever dare to introduce it into their law.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter XIII.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
2 weeks ago
Whether we take these characters then,...

Whether we take these characters then, or such minor ones as those which are derivable from the proportional length of the spines in the cervical vertebrae, and the like, there is no doubt whatsoever as to the marked difference between Man and the Gorilla; but there is as little, that equally marked differences, of the very same order, obtain between the Gorilla and the lower apes.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch.2, p. 92
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
1 month 4 weeks ago
He had no failings which were...

He had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause; to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate passion for fame; a passion which is the instinct of all great souls.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The reference is to Charles Townshend
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 3 weeks ago
"Where do you get those superior...

"Where do you get those superior airs of yours?" "I've managed to survive, you see, all those nights when I wondered: am I going to kill myself at dawn?"

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
1 month 3 weeks ago
Matters of religion should never be...

Matters of religion should never be matters of controversy. We neither argue with a lover about his taste, nor condemn him, if we are just, for knowing so human a passion.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. VI
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
3 months 1 week ago
Death is a friend of ours;...

Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
An Essay on Death, published in The Remaines of the Right Honourable Francis Lord Verulam (1648), which may not have been written by Bacon
Philosophical Maxims
Susan Neiman
Susan Neiman
2 weeks 5 days ago
How do we remember the parts...

How do we remember the parts of our histories we'd rather forget?

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Repression and revision are always options.
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
1 month 1 week ago
The key to understanding Crowley is...

The key to understanding Crowley is the same as the key to understanding the Marquis de Sade. Both wasted an immense amount of energy screaming defiance at the authority they resented so much, and lacked the insight to see that they were shaking their fists at an abstraction.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 29
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Büchner
Georg Büchner
1 month 4 weeks ago
Murder begins where self-defense ends. Act...

Murder begins where self-defense ends.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Act I.
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
3 months ago
An irrational fear should never be...

An irrational fear should never be simply let alone, but should be gradually overcome by familiarity with its fainter forms.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
On Education, Especially in Early Childhood (1926), Ch. 4: Fear
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
2 months 4 weeks ago
We are spinning our own fates,...

We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar. ...Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 4
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 weeks 4 days ago
Eternal vigilance...
0
⚖0
Main Content / General
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
2 weeks ago
Missionaries, whether of philosophy or of...

Missionaries, whether of philosophy or of religion, rarely make rapid way, unless their preachings fall in with the prepossessions of the multitude of shallow thinkers, or can be made to serve as a stalking-horse for the promotion of the practical aims of the still larger multitude, who do not profess to think much, but are quite certain they want a great deal.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 month 3 weeks ago
I am he that liveth, and...

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Revelation 1:18-19
Philosophical Maxims
  • Load More

User login

  • Create new account
  • Reset your password

Social

☰ ˟
  • Main Feed
  • Philosophical Maxims

Civic

☰ ˟
  • Propositions
  • Issue / Solution

Who's new

  • Søren Kierkegaard
  • Jesus
  • Friedrich Nietzsche
  • VeXed
  • Slavoj Žižek

Who's online

There are currently 1 users online.
  • comfortdragon

CivilSimian.com created by AxiomaticPanic, CivilSimian, Kalokagathia