Skip to main content

Main navigation

☰ ˟
  • Home
  • Articulation
  • Contact
  • Shop
Hermann Weyl
Hermann Weyl
1 day ago
Time is the primitive form of...

Time is the primitive form of the stream of consciousness. ...If we project ourselves outside the stream of consciousness and represent its content as an object, it becomes an event happening in time, the separate stages of which stand to one another in the relations of earlier and later.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Introduction
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
3 months 3 weeks ago
An avidity to punish is always...

An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
2 months 2 weeks ago
For I came to cause division,...

For I came to cause division, with a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 Indeed, a man's enemies will be those of his own household.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
10:35,36, New World Translation
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
4 months 2 weeks ago
A punishment that penalizes without forestalling...

A punishment that penalizes without forestalling is indeed called revenge.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Plotinus
Plotinus
4 months 1 week ago
When the soul has descended into...

When the soul has descended into generation (from its first divine condition) she partakes of evil, and is carried a great way into a state the opposite of her first purity and integrity, to be entirely merged in which, is nothing more than to fall into a dark mire. ...The soul dies as much as it is possible for the soul to die: and the death to her is, while baptized or immersed in the present body, to descend into matter, and be wholly subjected by it; and after departing thence to lie there til it shall arise and turn its face away from the abhorrent filth. This is what is meant by falling asleep in Hades, of those who have come there.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Al-Ghazali
Al-Ghazali
2 months 4 weeks ago
The man who makes his religion...

The man who makes his religion a means to the gaining of this world, will lose both worlds alike; whereas the man who gives up this world for the sake of religion, will get both worlds alike.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazali, Allen & Unwin (1963), p. 152.
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
2 months 4 days ago
Money, as a matter of principle,...

Money, as a matter of principle, makes everything the same.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Allan Bloom
Allan Bloom
2 days ago
The de-eroticization of the world, a...

The de-eroticization of the world, a companion to its disenchantment ... seems to result from a combination of causes-our democratic regime and its tendencies toward leveling and self-protection, a reductionist-materialist science that inevitably interprets eros as sex, and the atmosphere generated by "the death of God" and of the subordinate god, Eros.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 15.
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
4 months 2 weeks ago
Knowing that certain nights whose sweetness...

Knowing that certain nights whose sweetness lingers will keep returning to the earth and sea after we are gone, yes, this helps us to die.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
4 months 3 weeks ago
We obtain the concept, as we...
We obtain the concept, as we do the form, by overlooking what is individual and actual; whereas nature is acquainted with no forms and no concepts, and likewise with no species, but only with an X which remains inaccessible and undefinable for us.
0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
3 months 2 weeks ago
Form displays the relation...

Form displays the relation itself as the state of original comportment toward beings, the festive state in which the being itself in its essence is celebrated and thus for the first time placed in the open.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 119
Philosophical Maxims
David Pearce
David Pearce
1 month ago
Taking the abolitionist project to the...

Taking the abolitionist project to the rest of the galaxy and beyond sounds crazy today; but it's the application of technology to a very homely moral precept writ large, not the outgrowth of a revolutionary new ethical theory. So long as sentient beings suffer extraordinary unpleasantness - whether on Earth or perhaps elsewhere - there is a presumptive case to eradicate such suffering wherever it is found.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
4. Objections, No 32
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Buber
Martin Buber
2 months 1 week ago
Man must be free of it...

Man must be free of it all, of his bad conscience and of the bad salvation from this conscience in order to become in truth the way. Now, he no longer promises others the fulfillment of his duties, but promises himself the fulfillment of man.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 178
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2 months 1 day ago
We can see nothing whatever of...

We can see nothing whatever of the soul unless it is visible in the expression of the countenance; one might call the faces at a large assembly of people a history of the human soul written in a kind of Chinese ideograms.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
B 11
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
2 months 1 week ago
Even at the outset, the total...

Even at the outset, the total and massive quality has its uniqueness; even when vague and undefined, it is just that which it is and not anything else. If the perception continues, discrimination inevitably sets in. Attention must move, and as it moves, parts, members, emerge from the background. And if attention moves in a unified direction instead of wandering, it is controlled by the pervading qualitative unity; attention is controlled by it because it operates within it.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 199
Philosophical Maxims
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
1 month 2 weeks ago
Everybody needs his memories. They keep...

Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970) [Penguin Classics, 2004, ISBN 0-142-43783-2], p. 156
Philosophical Maxims
Edward Said
Edward Said
2 months 4 days ago
In the end, I am moved...

In the end, I am moved by causes and ideas that I can actually choose to support because they conform to values and principles that I believe in.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 88
Philosophical Maxims
Epictetus
Epictetus
4 months 6 days ago
Since it is Reason which shapes...

Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book I, ch. 17, 1.
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
3 months 3 weeks ago
The mere word 'design' by itself...

The mere word 'design' by itself has no consequences and explains nothing. It is the barrenest of principles. The old question of whether there is design is idle. The real question is what is the world, whether or not it have a designer - and that can be revealed only by the study of all nature's particulars.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Lecture III, Some Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
3 months 3 weeks ago
Newspapers are the second hand of...

Newspapers are the second hand of history. This hand, however, is usually not only of inferior metal to the other hands, it also seldom works properly.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Vol. 2, Ch. 19, § 233
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
4 months 3 weeks ago
Confession should be only in secret...

Confession should be only in secret before God, who knows everything anyway, and thus it could remain hidden in one's innermost being. But at a dinner and a woman! A dinner-it is not some hidden, remote place, nor is the lighting dim, nor is the mood like that among graves, nor are the listeners silent or invisibly present.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
2 months 3 weeks ago
...what the freedom is that I...

...what the freedom is that I love, and that to which I think all men intitled. It is not solitary, unconnected, individual, selfish Liberty. As if every Man was to regulate the whole of his Conduct by his own will. The Liberty I mean is social freedom. It is that state of things in which Liberty is secured by the equality of Restraint; A Constitution of things in which the liberty of no one Man, and no body of Men and no Number of men, can find Means to trespass on the liberty of any Person, or any description of Persons in the Society. This kind of liberty is indeed but another name for Justice, as ascertained by wise Laws, and secured by well-constructed institutions.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to Charles-Jean-François Depont (November 1789), quoted in Alfred Cobban and Robert A. Smith (eds.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume VI: July 1789-December 1791 (1967), p. 42
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
3 months 4 weeks ago
And to bring in a new...

And to bring in a new word by the head and shoulders, they leave out the old one.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book III, Ch. 5. Upon some Verses of Virgil
Philosophical Maxims
Hilary Putnam
Hilary Putnam
1 month 4 weeks ago
I think part of the appeal…

I think part of the appeal of mathematical logic is that the formulas look mysterious - you write backward Es!

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Putnam as quoted in: Julian Baggini, Jeremy Stangroom (2005) What Philosophers Think. p. 233
Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
2 months 2 weeks ago
[Everything] ideal has a natural basis...

Everything ideal has a natural basis and everything natural an ideal development.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
4 months 2 weeks ago
In my fiction I am careful...

In my fiction I am careful to make everything probable and to tie up all loose ends. Real life is not hampered by such considerations.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
2 months 6 days ago
Nature is a structure of evolving...

Nature is a structure of evolving processes. The reality is the process.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 4: "The Eighteenth Century", p. 102
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
2 months 3 weeks ago
He who seeks freedom for anything...

He who seeks freedom for anything but freedom's self is made to be a slave.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 204
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
6 days ago
Thus they are deceived by the...

Thus they are deceived by the likeness of blows, and are appeased by the pretended tears of those who deprecate their wrath, and thus an unreal grief is healed by an unreal revenge.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 days ago
The result of toppling....
0
⚖0
Main Content / General
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
3 months 3 weeks ago
Though they may think the proof...

Though they may think the proof incomplete that the universe is a work of design, and though they assuredly disbelieve that it can have an Author and Governor who is absolute in power as well as perfect in goodness, they have that which constitutes the principal worth of all religions whatever, an ideal conception of a Perfect Being, to which they habitually refer as the guide of their conscience; and this ideal of Good is usually far nearer to perfection than the objective Deity of those, who think themselves obliged to find absolute goodness in the author of a world so crowded with suffering and so deformed by injustice as ours.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(p. 46)
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
4 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.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
2 months 2 weeks ago
Unity is the great goal toward...

Unity is the great goal toward which humanity moves irresistibly. But it becomes fatal, destructive of the intelligence, the dignity, the well-being of individuals and peoples whenever it is formed without regard to liberty, either by violent means or under the authority of any theological, metaphysical, political, or even economic idea. That patriotism which tends toward unity without regard to liberty is an evil patriotism, always disastrous to the popular and real interests of the country it claims to exalt and serve. Often, without wishing to be so, it is a friend of reaction - an enemy of the revolution, i.e., the emancipation of nations and men.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
2 months 2 weeks ago
The way in which the vast...

The way in which the vast mass of the poor are treated by modern society is truly scandalous. They are herded into great cities where they breathe a fouler air than in the countryside which they have left.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
2 days ago
For us in Russia, communism is...

For us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while, for many people in the West, it is still a living lion.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
BBC Radio broadcast, Russian service, as quoted in The Listener
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
1 month 3 weeks ago
If there may be doubts for...

If there may be doubts for men and for a childless woman as to the way to, fulfil the will of God, for a mother that path is firmly and clearly defined, and if she fulfils it humbly with a simple heart she stands on the highest point of perfection a human being can attain, and becomes for all a model of that complete performance of God's will which all desire. Only a mother can before her death tranquilly say to Him who sent her into this world, and Whom she has served by bearing and bringing up children whom she has loved more than herself - only she having served Him in the way appointed to her can say with tranquillity, Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace. And that is the highest perfection to which, as to the highest good, men aspire.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Gaston Bachelard
Gaston Bachelard
2 months 2 weeks ago
Words ... are little houses, each...

Words ... are little houses, each with its cellar and garret. Common sense lives on the ground floor, always ready to engage in 'foreign commerce' on the same level as the others, as the passers-by, who are never dreamers. To go upstairs in the word house is to withdraw step by step; while to go down to the cellar is to dream, it is losing oneself in the distant corridors of an obscure etymology, looking for treasures that cannot be found in words. To mount and descend in the words themselves-this is a poet's life. To mount too high or descend too low is allowed in the case of poets, who bring earth and sky together.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 6
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
4 months 1 week ago
The way of the superior man...

The way of the superior man may be compared to what takes place in traveling, when to go to a distance we must first traverse the space that is near, and in ascending a height, when we must begin from the lower ground.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
3 months 3 days ago
Friends share…

Friends share all things.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, "Pythagoras", Sect. 10
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 week 5 days ago
The Soldier is perhaps one of...

The Soldier is perhaps one of the most difficult things to realise; but Governments, had they not realised him, could not have existed: accordingly he is here.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Simmel
Georg Simmel
1 day ago
Cities are, first of all, seats...

Cities are, first of all, seats of the highest economic division of labor. They produce thereby such extreme phenomena as in Paris the remunerative occupation of the quatorzième. They are persons who identify themselves by signs on their residences and who are ready at the dinner hour in correct attire, so that they can be quickly called upon if a dinner party should consist of thirteen persons. In the measure of its expansion, the city offers more and more the decisive conditions of the division of labor. It offers a circle which through its size can absorb a highly diverse variety of services.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 420
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
3 months 3 weeks ago
This avidity alone, of acquiring goods...

This avidity alone, of acquiring goods and possessions for ourselves and our nearest friends, is insatiable, perpetual, universal, and directly destructive of society.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Part 2, Section 2
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
2 months 1 week ago
What objection is there in reason...

What objection is there in reason to there being no other purpose in the sum of things save only to exist and happen as it does exist and happen? For him who places himself outside of himself, none; but for him who lives and suffers and desires within himself - for him it is a question of life or death.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
3 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.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to Will Durant, 20 June, 1931
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
3 months 3 weeks ago
The experiences of this period had...

The experiences of this period had two very marked effects on my opinions and character. In the first place, they led me to adopt a theory of life, very unlike that on which I had before acted, and having much in common with what at that time I certainly had never heard of, the anti-self-consciousness theory of Carlyle.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(pp. 141-142)
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
3 months 3 weeks ago
Thought depends largely….

Thought depends largely on the stomach. In spite of this, those with the best stomachs are not always the best thinkers.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to Jean le Rond d'Alembert, 20 August 1770
Philosophical Maxims
Ptahhotep
Ptahhotep
3 months 1 week ago
Beware an act of avarice...

Beware an act of avarice; it is bad and incurable disease.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Maxim no. 19.
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
3 months 3 weeks ago
Many of the actions by which...

Many of the actions by which men have become rich are far more harmful to the community than the obscure crimes of poor men, yet they go unpunished because they do not interfere with the existing order.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. V: Government and Law
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
1 month 2 weeks ago
The artist is the person who...

The artist is the person who invents the means to bridge biological inheritance and the environments created by technological innovation.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 98
Philosophical Maxims
Epicurus
Epicurus
4 months 1 week ago
Continence is a branch of temperance,...

Continence is a branch of temperance, which prevents the diseases, infamy, remorse, and punishment, to which those are exposed, who indulge themselves in unlawful amours.

0
⚖0
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 0 users online.

CivilSimian.com created by AxiomaticPanic, CivilSimian, Kalokagathia