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Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
5 months ago
I was your luxury. For nineteen...

I was your luxury. For nineteen years I have been put in your man's world and was forbidden to touch anything and you made me think that all was going very well and that I did not have to worry about anything but putting flowers in vases. Why did you lie to me? Why did you keep me ignorant, if it was to admit to me one day that this world is cracking and that you are all powerless and to make me choose between a suicide and a murder?

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Jessica to Hugo, Act 5, sc. 2
Philosophical Maxims
Susan Neiman
Susan Neiman
2 months 3 weeks ago
Any ethics that needs religion is...

Any ethics that needs religion is bad ethics, and any religion that tries to do so is bad religion. Of course, there are plenty of both around.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 2 days ago
When I was a child the...

When I was a child the atmosphere in the house was one of puritan piety and austerity. There were family prayers at eight o'clock every morning. Although there were eight servants, food was always of Spartan simplicity, and even what there was, if it was at all nice, was considered too good for children. For instance, if there was apple tart and rice pudding, I was only allowed the rice pudding. Cold baths all the year round were insisted upon, and I had to practice the piano from seven-thirty to eight every morning although the fires were not yet lit. My grandmother never allowed herself to sit in an armchair until the evening. Alcohol and tobacco were viewed with disfavor although stern convention compelled them to serve a little wine to guests. Only virtue was prized, virtue at the expense of intellect, health, happiness, and every mundane good.

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p. 9
Philosophical Maxims
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre
4 weeks ago
In all that architecture has of...

In all that architecture has of the great and eternally beautiful, it is completely a production of the religious spirit. From the ruins of Tentyra to St Peter's in Rome, all the monuments speak; the genius of architecture is really only at ease in temples. It is there that above caprice, fashion, pettiness, licence, and finally all the gnawing cares of talent, it works without discomfort for glory and immortality.

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p. 289
Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
5 months 3 days ago
One thing I have frequently observed...

One thing I have frequently observed in children, that when they have got possession of any poor creature, they are apt to use it ill: they often torment, and treat it very roughly, young birds, butterflies, and such other poor animals which fall into their hands, and that with a seeming kind of pleasure. This I think should be watched in them, and if they incline to any such cruelty, they should be taught the contrary usage. For the custom of tormenting and killing of beasts, will, by degrees, harden their minds even towards men; and they will delight in the suffering and destruction of inferior creatures, will not be apt to be very compassionate or benign to those of their own kind. Our practice takes notice of this in the exclusion of butchers from juries of life and death.

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Sec. 116
Philosophical Maxims
Max Stirner
Max Stirner
1 month 2 weeks ago
Atheists keep up their scoffing at...

Atheists keep up their scoffing at the higher being, which was also honoured under the name of the 'highest' or être suprême, and trample in the dust one 'proof of his existence' after another, without noticing that they themselves, out of need for a higher being, only annihilate the old to make room for a new.

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Cambridge 1995, p. 38-39
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 1 day ago
I may say Christianity itself divided...

I may say Christianity itself divided into its thousands also, who are disputing, anathematizing and where the laws permit burning and torturing one another for abstractions which no one of them understand, and which are indeed beyond the comprehension of the human mind.

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Letter to George Logan (12 November 1816). Published in The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes, Federal Edition, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904, Vol. 12, pp. 43
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
3 months 2 weeks ago
It is the fallacy of all...

It is the fallacy of all intellectuals to believe that intellect can grasp life. It cannot, because it works in terms of symbols and language. There is another factor involved: consciousness. If the flame of consciousness is low, a symbol has no power to evoke reality, and intellect is helpless.

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p. 112
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
2 months 3 weeks ago
Bush and bin Laden are really...

Bush and bin Laden are really on the same side: the side of faith and violence against the side of reason and discussion. Both have implacable faith that they are right and the other is evil. Each believes that when he dies he is going to heaven. Each believes that if he could kill the other, his path to paradise in the next world would be even swifter. The delusional "next world" is welcome to both of them. This world would be a much better place without either of them.

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Gordy Slack, "The Atheist" Salon.com
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 2 days ago
Cock-sure certainty is the source of...

Cock-sure certainty is the source of much that is worst in our present world, and it is something of which the contemplation of history ought to cure us, not only or chiefly because there were wise men in the past, but because so much that was thought wisdom turned out to be folly - which suggests that much of our own supposed wisdom is no better. I do not mean to maintain that we should lapse into a lazy scepticism. We should hold our beliefs, and hold them strongly. Nothing great is achieved without passion, but underneath the passion there should always be that large impersonal survey which sets limits to actions that our passions inspire.

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History as an Art (1954), p. 9
Philosophical Maxims
Max Stirner
Max Stirner
1 month 2 weeks ago
On the contrary, to educate rational...

On the contrary, to educate rational people, that should be sufficient; it is not really intended for sensible people; to understand things and conditions, there is the matter ended,-to understand oneself does not seem to be everyman's concern.

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p. 22
Philosophical Maxims
Novalis
Novalis
3 months 4 weeks ago
Man consists in Truth. If he...

Man consists in Truth. If he exposes Truth, he exposes himself. If he betrays Truth, he betrays himself. We speak not here of lies, but of acting against Conviction.

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Philosophical Maxims
John Gray
John Gray
2 months 1 week ago
Like other human freedoms, the freedoms...

Like other human freedoms, the freedoms embodied in market institutions are justified inasmuch as they meet human needs. Insofar as they fail to do this they can reasonably be altered. This is true not only of the rights that are involved in market institutions. It is true of all human rights.

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'Modus Vivendi' (p.36)
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month 3 weeks ago
Under all speech that is good...

Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better.

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Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time.
Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
5 months 2 weeks ago
O sons of Peace, sons of...

O sons of Peace, sons of the One Catholic [Church], walk in your way, and sing as you walk. Travelers do this in order to keep up their spirits.

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p.427
Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
5 months 3 days ago
There cannot any one moral Rule...

There cannot any one moral Rule be propos'd, whereof a Man may not justly demand a Reason.

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Book I, Ch. 3, sec. 4
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 2 days ago
I found one day in school...

I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: "The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair." In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.

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p. 31
Philosophical Maxims
Thales of Miletus
Thales of Miletus
4 months 1 week ago
Hope is the only good that...

Hope is the only good that is common to all men; those who have nothing else possess hope still.

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A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908) by Tryon Edwards, p. 234
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
3 months 3 weeks ago
One would have to be as...

One would have to be as unenlightened as an angel or an idiot to imagine that the human escapade could turn out well.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 week ago
We are reformers....
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Main Content / General
Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
1 month 3 weeks ago
What's interesting about the world today...

What's interesting about the world today is that the fundamental division is... a... sociological one between people that have better educations, that live in big urban agglomerations, that then can then benefit from... a global economy, versus people who live in... smaller cities and towns, or in the countryside... with more traditional values. That division exists almost universally, in Turkey... Hungary... the United States, in Britain... It does reflect different economic opportunities, but more fundamentally... it reflects a... way of life, that in the urban case is... liberal and open, but in some cases... people would say a little... too open and too tolerant of... people that want to break traditional norms that are still maintained by... other parts of the population. So it's really that cultural fight... that's at the center of populism, related to,.. but certainly not fundamentally driven by economic inequality.

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52:39:00
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
3 months 3 weeks ago
The dream is the small hidden...

The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul, which opens to that primeval cosmic night that was soul long before there was conscious ego and will be soul far beyond what a conscious ego could ever reach.

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The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man
Philosophical Maxims
Paracelsus
Paracelsus
1 month 2 weeks ago
Nothing is hidden so much that...

Nothing is hidden so much that it wouldn't be revealed through its fruit.

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Philosophical Maxims
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
4 weeks ago
If one's organism is... the preeminent...

If one's organism is... the preeminent advantage, and the source of all others, education is the second. The best made brain would be a total loss without it...

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Philosophical Maxims
Niccolò Machiavelli
Niccolò Machiavelli
5 months 1 week ago
Bad company will…

Bad company will lead a man to the gallows!

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Act IV, scene vi
Philosophical Maxims
Hilary Putnam
Hilary Putnam
3 months 1 week ago
The real significance of the Russell...

The real significance of the Russell paradox, from the standpoint of the modal-logic picture, is this: it shows that no concrete structure can be a standard model for the naive conception of the totality of all sets; for any concrete structure has a possible extension that contains more 'sets'. (If we identify sets with the points that represent them in the various possible concrete structures, we might say: it is not possible for all possible sets to exist in any one world!) Yet set theory does not become impossible. Rather, set theory becomes the study of what must hold in, e.g. any standard model for Zermelo set theory.

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Mathematics without foundations
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
2 months 3 weeks ago
Whenever a system of communication evolves,...

Whenever a system of communication evolves, there is always the danger that some will exploit the system for their own ends.

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Ch. 4. The Gene machine
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
5 months 1 week ago
It would be better to have...

It would be better to have no laws at all than to have them in such profusion as we do.

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Ch. 13
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 3 weeks ago
Do not judge according to appearance,...

Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.

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(John 7:24) (NASB) Variant translation: Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment. (NIV)
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
3 months 3 weeks ago
Under the rule of a repressive...

Under the rule of a repressive whole, liberty can be made into a powerful instrument of domination. The range of choice open to the individual is not the decisive factor in determining the degree of human freedom, but what can be chosen and what is chosen by the individual.

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p. 7
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
5 months 2 days ago
In youth it is the outward...

In youth it is the outward aspect of things that most engages us; while in age, thought or reflection is the predominating quality of the mind. Hence, youth is the time for poetry, and age is more inclined to philosophy. In practical affairs it is the same: a man shapes his resolutions in youth more by the impression that the outward world makes upon him; whereas, when he is old, it is thought that determines his actions.

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Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
5 months 5 days ago
In all ages of the world,...

In all ages of the world, priests have been enemies to liberty; and it is certain, that this steady conduct of theirs must have been founded on fixed reasons of interest and ambition. Liberty of thinking, and of expressing our thoughts, is always fatal to priestly power, and to those pious frauds, on which it is commonly founded; and, by an infallible connexion, which prevails among all kinds of liberty, this privilege can never be enjoyed, at least has never yet been enjoyed, but in a free government.

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Part I, Essay 9: Of The Parties of Great Britain
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
3 months 3 weeks ago
This whole creation is essentially subjective,...

This whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is the theater where the dreamer is at once scene, actor, prompter, stage manager, author, audience, and critic.

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General Aspects of Dream Psychology
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
4 months 1 day ago
I have never yet seen any...

I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observation of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.

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Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 2 weeks ago
All savageness…

All savageness is a sign of weakness.

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De Vita Beata (On the Happy Life): cap. 3, line 4
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
4 months 1 day ago
We must all obey the great...

We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature, and the means perhaps of its conservation.

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Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months ago
If you want to be happy,...

If you want to be happy, be.

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Attributed in Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 352
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
5 months ago
Now, to-day, this moment, is our...

Now, to-day, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it.

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Book II, Chapter 5, "The Practical Conclusion"
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
4 months 3 weeks ago
Kant speaks of the "thing-in-itself" (Ding...

Kant speaks of the "thing-in-itself" (Ding an sich) in order to distinguish it from the "thing-for-us" (Ding fur uns), that is, as a "phenomenon." A thing-in-itself is that which is not approachable through experience as are the rocks, plants, and animals. Every thing-for-us is as a thing and also a thing-in-itself, which means that it is recognized absolutely withing the absolute knowledge of God. But not every thing-in-itself is also a thing-for-us: God, for instance, is a thing-in-itself, as Kant uses the word, according to the meaning of Christian theology.

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p. 5
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
5 months 1 day ago
The worker's existence is thus brought...

The worker's existence is thus brought under the same condition as the existence of every other commodity. The worker has become a commodity, and it is a bit of luck for him if he can find a buyer, And the demand on which the life of the worker depends, depends on the whim of the rich and the capitalists.

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Wages of Labor, p. 20.
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
3 months 3 weeks ago
The historical world, in so far...

The historical world, in so far as it is built, organized, and shaped by the conscious activity of thinking subjects, is a realm of mind. But the mind is fully realized and exists in its true form only when it indulges in its proper activity, namely, in art, religion, and philosophy.

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P. 87
Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
5 months 4 days ago
Even if a civil society were...

Even if a civil society were to be dissolved by the consent of all its members (e.g., if a people inhabiting an island decided to separate and disperse throughout the world), the last murderer remaining in prison would first have to be executed, so that each has done to him what his deeds deserve and blood guilt does not cling to the people for not having insisted upon this punishment; for otherwise the people can be regarded as collaborators in his public violation of justice.

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Kt6:333
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
3 months 3 weeks ago
From the same it proceedeth,that men...

From the same it proceedeth,that men gives different names, to one and the same thing, from the difference of their own passions: As they that approve a private opinion, call it Opinion; but they that mislike it, Haeresie: and yet haeresie signifies no more than private opinion; but has only agreater tincture of choler.

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The First Part, Chapter 11, p. 50
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 2 days ago
I believe that Communism is necessary...

I believe that Communism is necessary to the world, and I believe that the heroism of Russia has fired men's hopes in a way which was essential to the realization of Communism in the future. Regarded as a splendid attempt, without which ultimate success would have been very improbable, Bolshevism deserves the gratitude and admiration of all the progressive part of mankind.

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Preface
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
5 months 1 week ago
Lastly, we must also know what...

Lastly, we must also know what Baptism signifies, and why God has ordained just such external sign and ceremony for the Sacrament by which we are first received into the Christian Church. But the act or ceremony is this, that we are sunk under the water, which passes over us, and afterwards are drawn out again. These two parts, to be sunk under the water and drawn out again, signify the power and operation of Baptism, which is nothing else than putting to death the old Adam, and after that the resurrection of the new man, both of which must take place in us all our lives, so that a truly Christian life is nothing else than a daily baptism, once begun and ever to be continued.

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On Infant Baptism, Large Catechism
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 2 days ago
Owing to the identification of religion...

Owing to the identification of religion with virtue, together with the fact that the most religious men are not the most intelligent, a religious education gives courage to the stupid to resist the authority of educated men, as has happened, for example, where the teaching of evolution has been made illegal. So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence; and in this respect ministers of religion follow gospel authority more closely than in some others.

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p. 110
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 1 day ago
Language is a city to the...

Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone; yet he is no more to be credited with the grand result than the acaleph which adds a cell to the coral reef which is the basis of the continent.

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Quotation and Originality
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
5 months 2 days ago
How very paltry and limited the...

How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the fact that, despite the ephemeral brevity of human life, the uncertainty of our existence and the countless enigmas which press upon us from all sides, everyone does not continually and ceaselessly philosophize, but that only the rarest of exceptions do.

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Vol. 2, Ch. 3, § 39
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 3 weeks ago
When there were gathered together an...

When there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

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12:1-5
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
5 months 2 days ago
If two men who were friends...

If two men who were friends in their youth meet again when they are old, after being separated for a life-time, the chief feeling they will have at the sight of each other will be one of complete disappointment at life as a whole; because their thoughts will be carried back to that earlier time when life seemed so fair as it lay spread out before them in the rosy light of dawn, promised so much - and then performed so little.

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"On the Sufferings of the World"
Philosophical Maxims
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