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Peter Singer
Peter Singer
3 months 3 weeks ago
Herbert Spencer is little read now....

Herbert Spencer is little read now. Philosophers do not regard him as a major thinker.

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Social Darwinism has long been in disrepute. Chapter 3, From Evolution To Ethics?, p. 61
Philosophical Maxims
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
Just now
Descartes, a genius made to blaze...

Descartes, a genius made to blaze new paths and to go astray in them, supposed with some other philosophers that God is the only efficient cause of motion, and that every instant He communicates motion to all bodies. But this opinion is but an hypothesis which he tried to adjust to the light of faith; and in so doing he was no longer attempting to speak as a philosopher or to philosophers. Above all he was not addressing those who can be convinced only by the force of evidence.

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Ch. V Concerning the Moving Force of Matter
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
2 months 3 weeks ago
As first a man cannot lay...

As first a man cannot lay down the right of resisting them, that assault him by force, to take away his life; because he cannot be understood to ayme thereby, at any Good to himself.

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The First Part, Chapter 14, p. 66
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
4 months 4 weeks ago
Man cannot do without beauty, and...

Man cannot do without beauty, and this is what our era pretends to want to disregard. It steels itself to attain the absolute and authority; it wants to transfigure the world before having exhausted it, to set it to rights before having understood it. Whatever it may say, our era is deserting this world.

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Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
2 months 2 days ago
Ivan Ilych saw that he was...

Ivan Ilych saw that he was dying, and he was in continual despair. In the depth of his heart he knew he was dying, but not only was he not accustomed to the thought, he simply did not and could not grasp it. The syllogism he had learnt from Kiesewetter's Logic: "Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal," had always seemed to him correct as applied to Caius, but certainly not as applied to himself. That Caius - man in the abstract - was mortal, was perfectly correct, but he was not Caius, not an abstract man, but a creature quite, quite separate from all others.

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Ch. VI
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
3 days ago
We do not struggle for ourselves,...

We do not struggle for ourselves, nor for our race, not even for humanity. We do not struggle for Earth, nor for ideas. All these are the precious yet provisional stairs of our ascending God, and they crumble away as soon as he steps upon them in his ascent. In the smallest lightning flash of our lives, we feel all of God treading upon us, and suddenly we understand: if we all desire it intensely, if we organize all the visible and invisible powers of earth and fling them upward, if we all battle together like fellow combatants eternally vigilant - then the Universe might possibly be saved. It is not God who will save us - it is we who will save God, by battling, by creating, and by transmuting matter into spirit.

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Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
4 months 2 weeks ago
For it still seemed to me...

For it still seemed to me that it is not we who sin, but some other nature sinned in us. And it gratified my pride to be beyond blame, and when I did anything wrong not to have to confess that I had done wrong. I loved to excuse my soul and to accuse something else inside me (I knew not what) but which was not I. But, assuredly, it was I, and it was my impiety that had divided me against myself. That sin then was all the more incurable because I did not deem myself a sinner.

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A. Outler, trans. (Dover: 2002), Book 5, Chapter 10, p. 77
Philosophical Maxims
Emperor Julian
Emperor Julian
1 week 5 days ago
The good effects that emanate from...

The good effects that emanate from the same source are equally diffused upon the earth. Different regions become partakers in these benefits in different ways; so that neither their production comes to an end, nor does the Deity confer his blessings upon the recipient world with any degree of variation. For where the substance is the same, so is the action thereof, in the case of Divine Powers; especially with him who is king of them all, namely, the Sun; of whom the motion is the most simple amongst all the bodies that move in a contrary direction to the world, which fact that most excellent philosopher, Aristotle, adduces to prove the superiority of that luminary to the others.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean Jacques Rousseau
4 months 6 days ago
It is a mistake to classify...

It is a mistake to classify the passions as lawful and unlawful, so as to yield to the one and refuse the other. All alike are good if we are their masters; all alike are bad if we abandon ourselves to them. Nature forbids us to extend our relations beyond the limits of our strength; reason forbids us to want what we cannot get, conscience forbids us, not to be tempted, but to yield to temptation. To feel or not to feel a passion is beyond our control, but we can control ourselves. Every sentiment under our own control is lawful; those which control us are criminal. A man is not guilty if he loves his neighbour's wife, provided he keeps this unhappy passion under the control of the law of duty; he is guilty if he loves his own wife so greatly as to sacrifice everything to that love.

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Philosophical Maxims
chanakya
chanakya
1 month 1 week ago
Treat your kid like a darling...

Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends.

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Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2 months 1 week ago
A clever child brought up with...

A clever child brought up with a foolish one can itself become foolish. Man is so perfectable and corruptible he can become a fool through good sense.

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F 69
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
4 months 1 week ago
Among civilized and thriving nations, on...

Among civilized and thriving nations, on the contrary, though a great number of people do no labor at all, many of whom consume the produce of ten times, frequently of a hundred times more labour than the greater part of those who work; yet the produce of the whole labour of the society is so great, that all are often abundantly supplied, and a workman, even of the lowest and poorest order, if he is frugal and industrious, may enjoy a greater share of the necessaries and conveniencies of life than it is possible for any savage to acquire.

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Introduction and Plan of the Work, p. 2.
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
2 weeks 4 days ago
For we are mistaken…

For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years be behind us are in death's hands.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
3 months 4 weeks ago
Philosophers often behave like little children...

Philosophers often behave like little children who scribble some marks on a piece of paper at random and then ask the grown-up "What's that?" - It happened like this: the grown-up had drawn pictures for the child several times and said "this is a man," "this is a house," etc. And then the child makes some marks too and asks: what's this then?

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p. 17e
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
2 months 4 weeks ago
For a woman, the typical danger...

For a woman, the typical danger emanating from the unconscious comes from above, from the "spiritual" sphere personified by the animus, whereas for a man it comes from the chthonic realm of the "world and woman," i.e., the anima projected on to the world.

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"A Study in the Process of Individuation" (1934) In CW 9, Part I: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. P. 559
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises
2 weeks 4 days ago
The only certain fact about Russian...

The only certain fact about Russian affairs under the Soviet regime with regard to which all people agree is: that the standard of living of the Russian masses is much lower than ... the paragon of capitalism, the United States of America. If we were to regard the Soviet regime as an experiment, we would have to say that the experiment has clearly demonstrated the superiority of capitalism and the inferiority of socialism.

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Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 months 2 weeks ago
We all observe that the reality...

We all observe that the reality of sexual intercourse is far from perfect; yet this does not convince us that sex is a greatly overrated occupation. Every time a man glimpses a pretty girl pulling up her stocking, he catches a glimpse of what might be called the "primal sexual vision." It is unfortunate that there seems to be a certain disparity between this primal vision and most ordinary sexual experience. But it dances in front of us like a will-o'-the-wisp, luring us into tormented effort. It can lead novelists to write novels, poets to write poems, and musicians to write symphonies.

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p. 39
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
2 months 3 weeks ago
"And seeing every man is presumed...

And seeing every man is presumed to do all things in order to his own benefit, no man is a fit Arbitrator in his own cause.

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The First Part, Chapter 15, p. 78
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Fourier
Charles Fourier
4 weeks 1 day ago
If children are a joy for...

If children are a joy for the well-to-do, they are a torment for seven-eights of all civlizees, who cannot afford to maintain and educate them.

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Philosophical Maxims
Herbert A. Simon
Herbert A. Simon
2 months 1 week ago
A major task in organizing is...

A major task in organizing is to determine, first, where the knowledge is located that can provide the various kinds of factual premises that decisions require.

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p. 24.
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
4 months 2 days ago
Love may forgive all infirmities and...

Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal.

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Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
3 days ago
This book is not a biography;...

This book is not a biography; it is the confession of every man who struggles. In publishing it I have fulfilled my duty, the duty of a person who struggled much, was embittered in his life,

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Philosophical Maxims
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
2 months 2 weeks ago
To understand God's thoughts we must...

To understand God's thoughts we must study statistics, for these are the measure of His purpose.

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As quoted in Chance Rules : An Informal Guide to Probability, Risk, and Statistics (1999) by Brian Everitt, p. 137
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
2 weeks ago
May the men who hold the...

May the men who hold the destiny of peoples in their hands, studiously avoid anything that might cause the present situation to deteriorate and become even more dangerous. May they take to heart the words of the Apostle Paul: "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." These words are valid not only for individuals, but for nations as well. May these nations, in their efforts to maintain peace, do their utmost to give the spirit time to grow and to act.

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Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
Just now
Either all things proceed from one...

Either all things proceed from one intelligent source and come together as in one body, and the part ought not to find fault with what is done for the benefit of the whole; or there are only atoms, and nothing else than a mixture and dispersion. Why, then, art thou disturbed? Say to this ruling faculty, Art thou dead, art thou corrupted, art thou playing the hypocrite, art thou become a beast, dost thou herd and feed with the rest?

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IX, 39
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 months ago
At any street corner...
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Main Content / General
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
2 months 2 weeks ago
The science of pure mathematics, in...

The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.

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Ch. 2: "Mathematics as an Element in the History of Thought", p. 28
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
4 months 3 days ago
When we have chosen the vocation...

When we have chosen the vocation in which we can contribute most to humanity, burdens cannot bend us because they are only sacrifices for all. Then we experience no meager, limited, egotistic joy, but our happiness belongs to millions, our deeds live on quietly but eternally effective, and glowing tears of noble men will fall on our ashes.

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Writings of the Young Marx on Philosophy and Society, L. Easton, trans. (1967), p. 39
Philosophical Maxims
Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
2 months 2 weeks ago
By reducing any quality to quantity,...

By reducing any quality to quantity, myth economizes intelligence: it understands reality more cheaply.

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p. 153
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 months 2 weeks ago
The Outsider's miseries are the prophet's...

The Outsider's miseries are the prophet's teething pains. He retreats into his room, like a spider in a dark corner; he lives alone, wishes to avoid people.

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Chapter Four The Attempt to Gain Control
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
4 months 2 days ago
Death is the only thing we...

Death is the only thing we haven't succeeded in completely vulgarizing.

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Eyeless in Gaza, 1936
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
2 months 2 days ago
When I started life Hegelianism was...

When I started life Hegelianism was the basis of everything: it was in the air, found expression in magazine and newspaper articles, in novels and essays, in art, in histories, in sermons, and in conversation. A man unacquainted with Hegel had no right to speak: he who wished to know the truth studied Hegel. Everything rested on him; and suddenly forty years have gone by and there is nothing left of him, he is not even mentioned - as though he had never existed. And what is most remarkable is that, like pseudo-Christianity, Hegelianism fell not because anyone refuted it, but because it suddenly became evident that neither the one nor the other was needed by our learned, educated world.

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Chapter XXIX
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
4 months 1 week ago
Hear the verbal protestations of all...

Hear the verbal protestations of all men: Nothing so certain as their religious tenets. Examine their lives: You will scarcely think that they repose the smallest confidence in them. The greatest and truest zeal gives us no security against hypocrisy: The most open impiety is attended with a secret dread and compunction. No theological absurdities so glaring that they have not, sometimes, been embraced by men of the greatest and most cultivated understanding. No religious precepts so rigorous that they have not been adopted by the most voluptuous and most abandoned of men.

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Part XV - General corollary
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
2 months 1 day ago
The press is a group confessional...

The press is a group confessional form that provides communal participation. The book is a private confessional form that provides a "point of view."

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(p. 204)
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Fourier
Charles Fourier
4 weeks 1 day ago
There is no idea more novel,...

There is no idea more novel, more surprising, than that of associating three hundred families of different degrees of fortune, knowledge and capacity.

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The Theory of Social Organization. Harmonian Man: Selected Writings of Charles Fourier, p. 5.
Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
4 months 2 weeks ago
Since love grows within you,...

Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.

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Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
4 months 4 days ago
Hatred comes from the heart; contempt...

Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control.

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"Psychological Observations"
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
4 months 2 days ago
Science is not a system of...

Science is not a system of certain, or well established, statements; nor is it a statement which steadily advances towards state of finality. Our science is not knowledge (epistēmē): it can newer claim to have attained truth, or even substitute for it, such as probability. . . . We do not know; we can only guess.

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Ch. 10 "Corroboration, or How a Theory Stands up to Tests", section 85: The Path of Science, p. 278.
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
2 months 2 weeks ago
In contrast to festivals, events do...

In contrast to festivals, events do not create community.

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Philosophical Maxims
Arnold J. Toynbee
Arnold J. Toynbee
1 month 2 weeks ago
The human race's prospects of survival...

The human race's prospects of survival were considerably better when we were defenceless against tigers than they are today when we have become defenceless against ourselves.

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"Man and Hunger: The Perspectives of History", Speech to the World Food Congress (4 June 1963)
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months 4 days ago
The principal source of the harm...

The principal source of the harm done by the State is the fact that power is its chief end.

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Principles of Social Reconstruction (1917), Ch. II: The State
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
4 months 2 days ago
The indispensible is not necessarily the...

The indispensible is not necessarily the desirable.

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Chapter 6 (p. 48)
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
4 months 3 days ago
None believeth in the soul of...

None believeth in the soul of man, but only in some man or person old and departed.

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p. 25
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
2 weeks 4 days ago
There stood Mucius, despising the enemy...

There stood Mucius, despising the enemy and despising the fire, and watched his hand as it dripped blood over the fire on his enemy's altar, until Porsenna, envying the fame of the hero whose punishment he was advocating, ordered the fire to be removed against the will of the victim.

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Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
4 months 1 week ago
My mind is calm, for my...

My mind is calm, for my fortune is not my felicity. I know I have clean hands and a clean heart, and I hope a clean house for friends or servants; but Job himself, or whoever was the justest judge, by such hunting for matters against him as hath been used against me, may for a time seem foul, especially in a time when greatness is the mark and accusation is the game.

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Quoted by Thomas Fowler in "Francis Bacon 1561-1626
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
1 month 4 weeks ago
Every person I met believes if...

Every person I met believes if there is any disagreement between the Koran and science, then the Koran wins. It's just utterly deplorable. These are now British children who are having their minds stuffed with alien rubbish. Occasionally, my colleagues lecturing in universities lament having undergraduate students walk out of their classes when they talk about evolution. This is almost entirely Muslims.

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Dawkins attacks 'alien rubbish' taught in Muslim faith schools, Daily Mail
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
2 weeks 4 days ago
Perhaps its destruction has been brought...

Perhaps its destruction has been brought about only that it may be raised up again to a better destiny. Oftentimes a reverse has but made room for more prosperous fortune. Many structures have fallen only to rise to a greater height.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 4 weeks ago
As long as I live I...

As long as I live I shall not allow myself to forget that I shall die; I am waiting for death so that I can forget about it.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
1 month 2 weeks ago
Whatever part of the animal fabric-whatever...

Whatever part of the animal fabric-whatever series of muscles, whatever viscera might be selected for comparison-the result would be the same-the lower Apes and the Gorilla would differ more than the Gorilla and the Man.

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Ch.2, p. 101
Philosophical Maxims
Zoroaster
Zoroaster
3 months 3 weeks ago
I will now tell you who...

I will now tell you who are assembled here the wise sayings of Mazda, the praises of Ahura and the hymns of the Good Spirit, the sublime truth which I see rising out of these flames. You shall therefore harken to the Soul of Nature. Contemplate the beams of fire with a most pious mind. Every one, both men and women, ought to-day to choose his creed. Ye offspring of renowned ancestors, awake to agree with us. So preached Zoroaster, the proph of the Parsis, in one of his earliest sermons nearly 3,500 years ago.

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p. 15 (Introduction), S. A. Kapadia
Philosophical Maxims
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