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Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
5 months 3 weeks ago
What are the earth and all...

What are the earth and all its interests beside the deep surmise which pierces and scatters them?

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Philosophical Maxims
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
3 months 2 weeks ago
Old and young, we are all...

Old and young, we are all on our last cruise.

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Crabbed Age and Youth.
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
2 months 5 days ago
Mercy often means…

Mercy often means giving death, not life.

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line 329
Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
5 months 2 weeks ago
The even larger difference between rich...

The even larger difference between rich and poor makes the latter even worse off, and this violates the principle of mutual advantage.

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Chapter II, Section 13, pg. 79
Philosophical Maxims
Zeno of Citium
Zeno of Citium
5 months 2 days ago
We have two ears and one...

We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.

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As quoted in Diogenes Laërtius Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, vii. 23.
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 2 weeks ago
We must suffer to the end,...

We must suffer to the end, to the moment when we stop believing in suffering.

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Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
5 months 3 weeks ago
Have patience awhile; slanders are not...

Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; erelong she shall appear to vindicate thee.

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As quoted in Gems of Thought (1888) edited by Charles Northend
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
4 months 2 weeks ago
In the case of colors, there...

In the case of colors, there is a tridimensional spread of feelings. Originally all feelings may have been connected in the same way, and the presumption is that the number of dimensions was endless. For development essentially involves a limitation of possibilities. But given a number of dimensions of feeling, all possible varieties are obtainable by varying the intensities of the different elements.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
4 months 3 days ago
Perhaps even more than constituted authority,...

Perhaps even more than constituted authority, it is social uniformity and sameness that harass the individual most. His very "uniqueness," "separateness" and "differentiation" make him an alien, not only in his native place, but even in his own home. Often more so than the foreign born who generally falls in with the established. In the true sense one's native land, with its back ground of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home. A certain atmosphere of "belonging," the consciousness of being "at one" with the people and environment, is more essential to one's feeling of home. This holds good in relation to one's family, the smaller local circle, as well as the larger phase of the life and activities commonly called one's country. The individual whose vision encompasses the whole world often feels nowhere so hedged in and out of touch with his surroundings than in his native land.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bernard Williams
Bernard Williams
4 months 4 days ago
Deniers do not get their views...

Deniers do not get their views just from simple mistakes about language and truth. Rather, they believe that there is something to worry about in important areas of our thought and in traditional interpretations of those areas; they sense that it has something to do with truth; and (no doubt driven by the familiar desire to say something at once hugely general, deeply important, and reassuringly simple) they extend their worry to the notion of truth itself.

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p. 6
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 2 weeks ago
Every man is a new method....

Every man is a new method.

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"The Natural History of Intellect", p. 28
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises
2 months 6 days ago
People do not cooperate under the...

People do not cooperate under the division of labor because they love or should love one another. They cooperate because this best serves their own interests. Neither love nor charity nor any other sympathetic sentiments but rightly understood selfishness is what originally impelled man to adjust himself to the requirements of society, to respect the rights and freedoms of his fellow men and to substitute peaceful collaboration for enmity and conflict.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 3 weeks ago
I am sorry to say that...

I am sorry to say that at the moment I am so busy as to be convinced that life has no meaning whatever... I do not see that we can judge what would be the result of the discovery of truth, since none has hitherto been discovered.

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Letter to Will Durant, 20 June, 1931
Philosophical Maxims
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
4 months 1 week ago
If the subjectivist view hold true,...

If the subjectivist view hold true, thinking cannot be of any help in determining the desirability of any goal in itself. The acceptability of ideals, the criteria for our actions and beliefs, the leading principles of ethics and politics, all our ultimate decisions are made to depend upon factors other than reason. They are supposed to be matters of choice and predilection, and it has become meaningless to speak of truth in making practical, moral or esthetic decisions.

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pp. 7-8.
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
3 months 2 weeks ago
It is perhaps typical of very...

It is perhaps typical of very creative minds that they hit very large nails not quite on the head.

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Kenneth Boulding in McLuhan: Hot & Cool (1967) p. 68
Philosophical Maxims
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri
6 months 3 days ago
Behold a God…

Behold a God more powerful than I who comes to rule over me.

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Chapter I (tr. Barbara Reynolds); of love.
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
5 months 2 weeks ago
Frazer is much more savage than...

Frazer is much more savage than most of his savages, for they are not as far removed from the understanding of spiritual matter as a twentieth-century Englishman. His explanations of primitive practices are much cruder than the meaning of these practices themselves.

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Ch. 7 : Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough, p. 131
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months 2 weeks ago
Several times I asked myself, "Can...

Several times I asked myself, "Can it be that I have overlooked something, that there is something which I have failed to understand? Is it not possible that this state of despair is common to everyone?" And I searched for an answer to my questions in every area of knowledge acquired by man. For a long time I carried on my painstaking search; I did not search casually, out of mere curiosity, but painfully, persistently, day and night, like a dying man seeking salvation. I found nothing.

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Pt. I, ch. 5
Philosophical Maxims
Henry George
Henry George
1 month 2 weeks ago
I am firmly convinced, as I...

I am firmly convinced, as I have already said, that to effect any great social improvement, it is sympathy rather than self-interest, the sense of duty rather than the desire for self-advancement, that must be appealed to. Envy is akin to admiration, and it is the admiration that the rich and powerful excite which secures the perpetuation of aristocracies.

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Ch. 21 : Conclusion
Philosophical Maxims
Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann
2 months 2 weeks ago
There can be no liberty for...

There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the information by which to detect lies.

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What Modern Liberty Means, p. 64
Philosophical Maxims
Epicurus
Epicurus
6 months 1 week ago
The wealth required by nature is...

The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.

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Philosophical Maxims
José Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset
4 months 1 week ago
Even to-day, in spite of some...

Even to-day, in spite of some signs which are making a tiny breach in that sturdy faith, even to-day, there are few men who doubt that motorcars will in five years' time be more comfortable and cheaper than to-day. They believe in this as they believe that the sun will rise in the morning. The metaphor is an exact one. For, in fact, the common man, finding himself in a world so excellent, technically and socially, believes that it has been produced by nature, and never thinks of the personal efforts of highly-endowed individuals which the creation of this new world presupposed. Still less will he admit the notion that all these facilities still require the support of certain difficult human virtues, the least failure of which would cause the rapid disappearance of the whole magnificent edifice.... These traits together make up the well-known psychology of the spoilt child. Chap.

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VI: The Dissection Of The Mass-Man Begins
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
5 months 3 weeks ago
Ramsgate is full of Jews and...

Ramsgate is full of Jews and fleas.

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MEKOR IV, 490, 25 August 1879
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 2 weeks ago
To reckon on anything at all,...

To reckon on anything at all, here or elsewhere, is to afford proofs that we are still burdened with chains. The reprobate aspires to paradise; this aspiration disparages, compromises him. To be free is to rid yourself forever of the notion of reward, it is to expect nothing of men or gods, it is to renounce not only this world and all worlds but salvation itself-it is to destroy even the notion of it, that chain among chains.

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Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
4 months 1 week ago
By virtue of the way it...

By virtue of the way it has organized its technological base, contemporary industrial society tends to be totalitarian. For "totalitarian" is not only a terroristic political coordination of society, but also a non-terroristic economic-technical coordination which operates through the manipulation of needs by vested interests.

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p. 5
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
5 months 2 weeks ago
A thing forgotten on one day...

A thing forgotten on one day will be remembered on the next. Something we have made the most strenuous efforts to recall, but all in vain, will, soon after... saunter into the mind... The sphere of possible recollection may be wider than we think, and... apparent oblivion is no proof against possible recall under other conditions.

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Ch. 16
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
4 months 6 days ago
The Hebrews took for their idol,...

The Hebrews took for their idol, not something made of metal or wood, but a race, a nation, something just as earthly. Their religion is essentially inseparable from such idolatry, because of the notion of the "chosen people".

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Section 2
Philosophical Maxims
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
4 months 1 week ago
In the subjectivist view, when 'reason'...

In the subjectivist view, when 'reason' is used to connote a thing or idea rather than an act, it refers exclusively to the relation of such an object or concept to a purpose, not to the object or concept itself. It means that the thing or the idea is good for something else. There is no reasonable aim as such, and to discuss the superiority of one aim over another in terms of reason becomes meaningless. From the subjective approach, such a discussion is possible only if both aims serve a third and higher one, that is, if they are means, not ends.

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p. 6.
Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
6 months 3 weeks ago
It is absurd to hold that...

It is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs but not of being unable to defend himself with reason when the use of reason is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs.

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Philosophical Maxims
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
4 months 2 weeks ago
Situation seems to be the mould...

Situation seems to be the mould in which men's characters are formed.

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Letter 23
Philosophical Maxims
Diogenes of Sinope
Diogenes of Sinope
5 months 1 week ago
When Alexander the Great addressed him...

When Alexander the Great addressed him with greetings, and asked if he wanted anything, Diogenes replied "Yes, stand a little out of my sunshine."

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From Plutarch, Alexander, 14. Cf. Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 38, Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, v. 32
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
4 months 1 week ago
The philosophy of the soul of...

The philosophy of the soul of my people appears to me as an expression of an inward tragedy analogous to the tragedy of the soul of Don Quixote, as the expression of conflict between what the world is as scientific reason shows it to be and what we wish that it might be, as our religious faith affirms it to be. And in this philosophy is to be found the explanation of what is usually said about us - namely, that we are fundamentally irreducible to Kultur - or in other words, that we refuse to submit to it. No, Don Quixote does not resign himself either to the world, or to science or logic, or to art or esthetics, or to morality or ethics.

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Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
4 months 3 weeks ago
It is the dissimilarities and inequalities...

It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too.

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Book Three, Chapter XVIII.
Philosophical Maxims
Emperor Julian
Emperor Julian
2 months ago
Let us not admit discourses by...

Let us not admit discourses by Epicureans or Pyrrhonists - though indeed the gods have already in their wisdom destroyed their works, so that most of their books are no longer available. Nevertheless, there is no reason why I should not, by way of example, mention these works too, to show what sort of discourses priests must especially avoid; and if such discourses, then much more must they avoid such thoughts.

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Fragmentum Epistulae, 288a-305d
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
5 months 2 weeks ago
The word "art" does not designate...

The word "art" does not designate the concept of a mere eventuality; it is a concept of rank.

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p. 125
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
6 months 2 weeks ago
It is only afterward that a...

It is only afterward that a new idea seems reasonable. To begin with, it usually seems unreasonable.

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Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
6 months 3 weeks ago
Therefore create me! You, the most...

Therefore create me! You, the most esteemed, cultured public, are in possession of nervus rerum gerendarum [the moving force to accomplish something]. Just a word from you, a promise to purchase what I write, or, if it is possible, so that everything can be in order immediately, a little advance payment, and I am an author; I shall remain one as long as this favor lasts.

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Philosophical Maxims
Mencius
Mencius
2 months 1 week ago
The principles of great men illuminate...

The principles of great men illuminate the universe.

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Discipline and Character, no. 50
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
5 months 2 weeks ago
Setting the mind to remember... involves...

Setting the mind to remember... involves a continual minimal irradiation of excitement into paths which lead thereto... the continued presence of the thing in the 'fringe' of our consciousness. Letting the thing go involves withdrawal of the irradiation, unconsciousness of the thing, and... obliteration of the paths.

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Ch. 16
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
4 months 1 week ago
Master, we saw one casting out...

Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part.

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Mark 9:38-40 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras
5 months 1 week ago
The sun provides the moon with...

The sun provides the moon with its brightness.

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Fragment in Plutarch De facie in orbe lunae, 929b, as quoted in The Riverside Dictionary of Biography (2005), p. 23
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
5 months 2 weeks ago
Humans are amphibians - half spirit...

Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal.... As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time.

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Letter VIII
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 weeks 2 days ago
When you close your doors....
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Main Content / General
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months 2 weeks ago
The hero of my tale, whom...

The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty, who has been, is, and will be beautiful, is Truth.

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Sevastopol in May (1855), Ch. 16
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
5 months 4 weeks ago
The Apostle Paul wants us to...

The Apostle Paul wants us to work with our hands in order to share with the needy (Ephesians 5:28). Notice that he could have said that we should work to support ourselves. But Paul says that we work to give to those in need. This is why caring for our body is also a Christian work. If the body is healthy and fit, we are able to work and save money that can be used to help those in need.

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p. 80
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
3 months 6 days ago
I am too much of a...

I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything - especially as I am now so much occupied with theology - but I don't see my way to your conclusion.

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Letter to Herbert Spencer (22 March 1886); this is often quoted with a variant spelling as: I am too much of a skeptic to deny the possibility of anything.
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
4 months 1 week ago
Therefore every scribe which is instructed...

Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

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13:52 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
William Godwin
William Godwin
4 months 2 weeks ago
If there be such a thing...

If there be such a thing as truth, it must infallibly be struck out by the collision of mind with mind.

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Vol. 1, bk. 1, ch.4
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
6 months 1 week ago
Things have their root and their...

Things have their root and their branches. Affairs have their end and their beginning. To know what is first and what is last will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning.

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Philosophical Maxims
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
6 months 3 days ago
There are some men who expose...

There are some men who expose themselves to damnation so foolishly by avarice, by brutality, by debauches, by violence, by excesses, by blasphemies! ...it is always a great folly for a man to expose himself to damnation... He must despise desire and its kingdom, and aspire to that kingdom of love in which all the subjects breathe nothing but love, and desire nothing but the benefits of love.

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Philosophical Maxims
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