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Epictetus
Epictetus
2 months 5 days ago
Two principles we should always have...

Two principles we should always have ready that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.

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Book III, ch. 10, 18.
Philosophical Maxims
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek
5 months 3 weeks ago
You are the buyer of your own life

They are trying as directly as possible to sell you experiences, i.e. what you are able to do with the car, not the car as a product itself. An extreme example of this is this existing economic marketing concept, which basically evaluates the value of you as a potential consumer of your own life. Like how much are you worth, in the sense of all you will spend to buy back your own life as a certain quality life. You will spend so much in doctors, so much in beauty, so much in transcendental meditation, so much for music, and so on. What you are buying is a certain image and practice of your life. So what is your market potential, as a buyer of your own life in this sense?

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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
1 month 3 weeks ago
Each pursues his private interest and...

Each pursues his private interest and only his private interest; and thereby serves the private interests of all, the general interest, without willing it or knowing it. The real point is not that each individual's pursuit of his private interest promotes the totality of private interests, the general interest. One could just as well deduce from this abstract phrase that each individual reciprocally blocks the assertion of the others' interests, so that, instead of a general affirmation, this war of all against all produces a general negation.

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Notebook I, The Chapter on Money, p. 76.
Philosophical Maxims
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz
1 month 3 weeks ago
Everything that is possible…

Everything that is possible demands to exist.

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1686
Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
1 month 3 weeks ago
If man in the state of...

If man in the state of nature be so free, as has been said; if he be absolute lord of his own person and possessions, equal to the greatest, and subject to no body, why will he part with his freedom, this empire, and subject himself to the dominion and control of any other power?

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Second Treatise of Government, Ch. IX, sec. 123
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 month 3 weeks ago
Four snakes gliding up and down...

Four snakes gliding up and down a hollow for no purpose that I could see - not to eat, not for love, but only gliding.

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April 11, 1834
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
1 week 6 days ago
And whereas many men, by accident...

And whereas many men, by accident unevitable, become unable to maintain themselves by their labour; they ought not to be left to the Charity of private persons; but to be provided for, (as far-forth as the necessities of Nature require,) by the Lawes of the Common-wealth. For as it is Unchariablenesse in any man, to neglect the impotent; so it is in the Soveraign of a Common-wealth, to expose them to the hazard of such uncertain Charity.

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The Second Part, Chapter 30, p. 181
Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
1 month 3 weeks ago
If you punish a child for...

If you punish a child for being naughty, and reward him for being good, he will do right merely for the sake of the reward; and when he goes out into the world and finds that goodness is not always rewarded, nor wickedness always punished, he will grow into a man who only thinks about how he may get on in the world, and does right or wrong according as he finds either of advantage to himself.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
Just now
No man's knowledge...
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Main Content / General
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
3 days ago
The real importance of Swedenborg lies...

The real importance of Swedenborg lies in the doctrines he taught, which are the reverse of the gloom and hell-fire of other breakaway sects. He rejects the notion that Jesus died on the cross to atone for the sin of Adam, declaring that God is neither vindictive nor petty-minded, and that since he is God, he doesn't need atonement. It is remarkable that this common-sense view had never struck earlier theologians. God is Divine Goodness, and Jesus is Divine Wisdom, and Goodness has to be approached through Wisdom. Whatever one thinks about the extraordinary claims of its founder, it must be acknowledged that there is something very beautiful and healthy about the Swedenborgian religion. Its founder may have not been a great occultist, but he was a great man.

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p. 280
Philosophical Maxims
Peter Singer
Peter Singer
1 month 1 week ago
Human social institutions can effect the...

Human social institutions can effect the course of human evolution. Just as climate-change, food supply, predators, and other natural forces of selection have molded our nature, so too can our culture.

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Chapter 6, A New Understanding Of Ethics, p. 172
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
1 week 6 days ago
The precarious ontological link between Logos...

The precarious ontological link between Logos and Eros is broken, and scientific rationality emerges as essentially neutral.

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p. 147
Philosophical Maxims
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
2 weeks 6 days ago
That I should by necessity be...

That I should by necessity be either wise and good, or foolish or vicious, without having in one case or the other merit or fault - this it was that filled me with aversion and horror.The determination of my actions by a cause out of myself, whose manifestations were again determined by other causes - this it was from which I so violently revolted.The freedom which was not mine, but that of a foreign power, and, in that, only a conditional, half freedom - this it was with which I could not rest satisfied. I myself - that which in this system only appears as the manifestation of a higher existence, I will be independent, - will be something, not by another or through another, but of myself.

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Jane Sinnett, trans 1846 p. 21
Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
1 month 2 weeks ago
No one deserves his greater natural...

No one deserves his greater natural capacity nor merits a more favorable starting place in society.

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Chapter II, Section 17, pg. 102
Philosophical Maxims
Epictetus
Epictetus
2 months 5 days ago
Reason is not measured by size...

Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.

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Book I, ch. 12, 26.
Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
1 month 3 weeks ago
All natural philosophers, who wished to...

All natural philosophers, who wished to proceed mathematically in their work, have hence invariably (although unknown to themselves) made use of metaphysical principles, and must make use of such, it matters not how energetically they may otherwise repudiate any claim of metaphysics on their science.

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Preface, Tr. Bax, 1883
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
1 month 3 weeks ago
As there were black swans, though...

As there were black swans, though civilized people had existed for three thousand years on the earth without meeting with them...The uniform experience, therefore, of the inhabitants of the known world, agreeing in a common result, without one known instance of deviation from that result, is not always sufficient to establish a general conclusion.

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Philosophical Maxims
Proclus
Proclus
1 month 4 days ago
This, therefore, is mathematics: she reminds...

This, therefore, is mathematics: she reminds you of the invisible form of the soul; she gives life to her own discoveries; she awakens the mind and purifies the intellect; she brings light to our intrinsic ideas; she abolishes oblivion and ignorance which are ours by birth.

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As quoted by Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 weeks 3 days ago
Everyone is mistaken, everyone lives in...

Everyone is mistaken, everyone lives in illusion. At best, we can admit a scale of fictions, a hierarchy of unrealities, giving preference to one rather than to another; but to choose, no, definitely not that...

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 weeks 3 days ago
With success and a literary career...

With success and a literary career one becomes an unquestioning part of the mechanism, whereas the only truly important years are those in which one is unknown.

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Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
1 month 2 weeks ago
Man's chief difference from the brutes...

Man's chief difference from the brutes lies in the exuberant excess of his subjective propensities - his preeminence over them simply and solely in the number and in the fantastic and unnecessary character of his wants, physical, moral, aesthetic, and intellectual. Had his whole life not been a quest for the superfluous, he would never have established himself as inexpugnably as he has done in the necessary.

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"Reflex Action and Theism"
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
3 weeks ago
I would rather sleep in the...

I would rather sleep in the southern corner of a little country churchyard, than in the tombs of the Capulets.

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Letter to Matthew Smith
Philosophical Maxims
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
2 months 3 days ago
A doubtful balance is made between...

A doubtful balance is made between truth and pleasure, and... the knowledge of one and the feeling of the other stir up a combat the success of which is very uncertain, since, in order to judge of it, it would be necessary to know all that passes in the innermost spirit of the man, of which man himself is scarcely ever conscious.

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Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
1 week ago
I know that all this is...

I know that all this is dull reading, tiresome, perhaps tedious, but it is all necessary. And I must repeat once again that we have nothing to do with a transcendental police system or with the conversion of God into a great Judge or Policeman - that is to say, we are not concerned with heaven or hell considered as buttresses to shore up our poor earthly mortality, nor are we concerned with anything egoistic or personal. It is not I myself alone, it is the whole human race that is involved, it is the ultimate finality of all our civilization. I am but one, but all men are I's.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 month 3 weeks ago
United States! the ages plead, -...

United States! the ages plead, - Present and Past in under-song, - Go put your creed into your deed, Nor speak with double tongue.

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Ode, st. 5
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
2 months 1 week ago
The journey of a thousand miles...

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

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Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
3 weeks 4 days ago
I discuss with myself...

I discuss with myself questions of politics, love, taste, or philosophy. I let my mind rove wantonly, give it free rein to follow any idea, wise or mad that may present itself. ... My ideas are my harlots.

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Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
3 days ago
Most men have nothing in their...

Most men have nothing in their heads but their physical needs; put them on a desert island with nothing to occupy their minds and they would go insane. They lack real motive. The curse of civilization is boredom.

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Chapter Eight, The Outsider as a Visionary
Philosophical Maxims
Montesquieu
Montesquieu
1 week ago
The Pope will make the king...

The Pope will make the king believe that three are only one, that the bread he eats is not bread...and a thousand other things of the same kind.

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No. 24. (Rica writing to Ibben)
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
1 month 2 weeks ago
What do you want to do...

What do you want to do with the [Communist] Party? A racing stable? What good is it to sharpen a knife every day if you never use it for slicing? A party is never more than a means. There is only one objective: power.

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Hoederer to Hugo, Act 5, sc. 3
Philosophical Maxims
Porphyry
Porphyry
1 month 4 days ago
Soul, indeed, is a certain medium...

Soul, indeed, is a certain medium between an impartible essence, and an essence which is divisible about bodies. But intellect is an impartible essence alone. And qualities and material forms are divisible about bodies. Not everything which acts on another, effects that which it does effect by approximation and contact; but those natures which effect any thing by approximation and contact, use approximation accidentally.

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Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
2 weeks 3 days ago
By an object, I mean anything...

By an object, I mean anything that we can think, i.e. anything we can talk about.

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"Reflections on Real and Unreal Objects", Undated, MS 966
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
1 month 2 weeks ago
People are deeply imbedded in philosophical,...

People are deeply imbedded in philosophical, i.e., grammatical confusions. And to free them presupposes pulling them out of the immensely manifold connections they are caught up in.

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Ch. 9 : Philosophy, p. 185
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
1 month 3 weeks ago
There are two motives for reading...

There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
2 months 1 week ago
With regard to the abuse of...

With regard to the abuse of authority, this also may come about in two ways. First, when what is ordered by an authority is opposed to the object for which that authority was constituted (if, for example, some sinful action is commanded or one which is contrary to virtue, when it is precisely for the protection and fostering of virtue that authority is instituted). In such a case, not only is there no obligation to obey the authority, but one is obliged to disobey it, as did the holy martyrs who suffered death rather than obey the impious commands of tyrants. Secondly, when those who bear such authority command things which exceed the competence of such authority; as, for example, when a master demands payment from a servant which the latter is not bound to make, and other similar cases. In this instance the subject is free to obey or disobey.

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in Aquinas: Selected Political Writings (Basil Blackwell: 1974), p. 183
Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
5 days ago
Some philosophers fail to distinguish propositions...

Some philosophers fail to distinguish propositions from judgments; ... But in the real world it is more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true. The importance of truth is that it adds to interest.

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p. 259.
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Just now
Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much....

Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.

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H 13
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Schelling
Friedrich Schelling
3 weeks ago
The end of the philosophical dialogue...

The end of the philosophical dialogue lies in itself; it can never serve a purpose outside of itself. Just as a sculptor does not cease to be a work of art even if it lies at the bottom of the sea, so indeed every work of philosophy endures, even if uncomprehended in its own time. One would be grateful if it were merely a matter of incomprehension. Instead, the work is usually refitted and appropriated by various entities-some playing the part of the opponent; others, that of the proponent.

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P.3-4
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
1 month 3 weeks ago
Every man, as the Stoics used...

Every man, as the Stoics used to say, is first and principally recommended to his own care; and every man is certainly, in every respect, fitter and abler to take care of himself than of any other person. Every man feels his own pleasures and his own pains more sensibly than those of other people. The former are the original sensations; the latter the reflected or sympathetic images of those sensations. The former may be said to be the substance; the latter the shadow.

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Section II, Chap. I.
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
1 month 4 weeks ago
No matter that we…

No matter that we may mount on stilts, we still must walk on our own legs. And on the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.

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Ch. 13
Philosophical Maxims
Montesquieu
Montesquieu
1 week ago
You have to study a great...

You have to study a great deal to know a little.

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I
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
1 month 3 weeks ago
I've got a one-dimensional mind. Said...

I've got a one-dimensional mind.

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Said to Rupert Crawshay-Williams; Russell Remembered (1970), p. 31
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
2 months 2 weeks ago
For those of us who have...

For those of us who have been thrown into hell, mysterious melodies and the torturing images of a vanished beauty will always bring us, in the midst of crime and folly, the echo of that harmonious insurrection which bears witness, throughout the centuries, to the greatness of humanity.

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Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
3 weeks ago
Whatever is supreme in a state,...

Whatever is supreme in a state, ought to have, as much as possible, its judicial authority so constituted as not only not to depend upon it, but in some sort to balance it. It ought to give a security to its justice against its power. It ought to make its judicature, as it were, something exterior to the state.

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Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
1 month 3 weeks ago
The first characteristic of the human...

The first characteristic of the human species is man's ability, as a rational being, to establish character for himself, as well as for the society into which nature has placed him. This ability, however, presupposes an already favorable natural predisposition and an inclination to the good in man, because the evil is really without character (since it is at odds with itself, and since it does not tolerate any lasting principle within itself)

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Kant, Immanuel (1996), page 246
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
1 month 2 weeks ago
By means of ever more effective...

By means of ever more effective methods of mind-manip­ulation, the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms- elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest-will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of non-violent totalitari­anism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slo­gans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial-but democracy and free­dom in a strictly Pickwickian sense. Meanwhile the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of sol­diers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit.

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Chapter 3, p. 25
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
1 month 2 weeks ago
In its widest possible sense, however,...

In its widest possible sense, however, a man's Self is the sum total of all that he can call his, not only his body and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his lands and horses, and yacht and bank-account. All these things give him the same emotions. If they wax and prosper, he feels triumphant; if they dwindle and die away, he feels cast down.

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Ch. 10
Philosophical Maxims
Heraclitus
Heraclitus
2 months 1 week ago
A lifetime is a child playing,...

A lifetime is a child playing, playing checkers; the kingdom belongs to a child.

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Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
2 months 6 days ago
The Apostle says: I make up...

The Apostle says: I make up in my flesh what is lacking to the sufferings of Christ (Col. 1:24). I make up, he tells us, not what is lacking to my sufferings, but what is lacking to the sufferings of Christ; not in Christ flesh, but in mine. not in Christ's flesh, but in mine. Christ is still suffering, not in His own flesh which He took with Him into heaven, but in my flesh, which is still suffering on earth.

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p.423
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
1 month 2 weeks ago
Commoners are weightless. But he was...

Commoners are weightless. But he was a royal bon vivant who, no matter what, always weighed 125 kilos. I would be very surprised if he didn't have a few pounds left.

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A soldier in Argos, speaking of the dead King Agamemnon, Act 2
Philosophical Maxims
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