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Peter Singer
Peter Singer
6 months 1 week ago
Neither our distance from a preventable...

Neither our distance from a preventable evil nor the number of other people who, in respect to that evil, are in the same situation as we are, lessens our obligation to mitigate or prevent that evil.

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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
5 months 1 week ago
The 'public' is a phantom, the...

The 'public' is a phantom, the phantom of an opinion supposed to exist in a vast number of persons who have no effective interrelation and though the opinion is not effectively present in the units. Such an opinion is spoken of as 'public opinion,' a fiction which is appealed to by individuals and by groups as supporting their special views. It is impalpable, illusory, transient; "'tis here, 'tis there, 'tis gone"; a nullity which can nevertheless for a moment endow the multitude with power to uplift or destroy.

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Philosophical Maxims
Novalis
Novalis
5 months 2 weeks ago
We are near awakening when we...

We are near awakening when we dream that we dream.

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Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
6 months 3 weeks ago
Goods can serve many other purposes...

Goods can serve many other purposes besides purchasing money, but money can serve no other purpose besides purchasing goods.

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Chapter I, p. 471.
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
6 months 2 weeks ago
When our life ceases to be...

When our life ceases to be inward and private, conversation degenerates into mere gossip. We rarely meet a man who can tell us any news which he has not read in a newspaper, or been told by his neighbor; and, for the most part, the only difference between us and our fellow is, that he has seen the newspaper, or been out to tea, and we have not. In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post-office.

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p. 491
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
6 months 3 weeks ago
In public, as well as in...

In public, as well as in private expences, great wealth may, perhaps, frequently be admitted as an apology for great folly.

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Chapter V, p. 563.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
3 months 1 week ago
If they be inhabited, what a...

If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly; if they be un-inhabited, what a waste of space.

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On other stars Attributed by John Burroughs on the first page of his 1920 book Accepting The Universe
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
5 months 1 week ago
The intellect is at home in...

The intellect is at home in that which is fixed only because it is done and over with, for intellect is itself just as much a deposit of past life as is the matter to which it is congenial. Intuition alone articulates in the forward thrust of life and alone lays hold of reality.

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Philosophical Maxims
David Pearce
David Pearce
3 months 4 weeks ago
The irrationality of the "appeal to...

The irrationality of the "appeal to Nature" is illustrated by a simple thought-experiment. Imagine, fancifully, if starvation, disease, parasitism, disembowelling, asphyxiation and being eaten alive were not endemic to the living world - or such miseries have already been abolished and replaced by an earthly paradise. Would anyone propose there is ethical case for (re)introducing them? Even proposing such a thought-experiment can sound faintly ridiculous.

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"A Welfare State For Elephants?: A Case Study of Compassionate Stewardship", Relations: Beyond Anthropocentrism, Vol. 3, Iss. 2 (Nov. 2015), p. 162
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
6 months 3 weeks ago
We must calm the mind of...

We must calm the mind of the common man, and tell him to abstain from the words and even the passions which lead to insurrection.

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p. 62
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
5 months 2 days ago
In fact, we had a number...

In fact, we had a number of extreme leftists and trade unionists among us, and they seemed to take it for granted that we all agreed that the rich must somehow be forced to surrender their ill-gotten gains. Yet there was an air of good humor about their idealism that made me feel they would not be too offended if I admitted that I regard socialists as well-meaning but muddle-headed brigands.

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p. 30
Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
2 months 2 weeks ago
When common words are appropriated as...

When common words are appropriated as technical terms, their meaning may be modified, and must be rigorously fixed.

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Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
5 months 2 weeks ago
Great and enduring civilizations like those...

Great and enduring civilizations like those of the Hindus and the Chinese were built upon this foundation and developed from it a discipline of self-knowledge which they brought to a high pitch of refinement both in philosophy and practice.

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Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul. quoted in Hindu Culture, K. Guru Dutt, and quoted in Gewali, Salil (2013). Great Minds on India. New Delhi: Penguin Random House.
Philosophical Maxims
Hermann Weyl
Hermann Weyl
2 months 4 weeks ago
In the field of philosophy Kant...

In the field of philosophy Kant was the first to take the next decisive step towards the point of view that not only the qualities revealed by the senses, but also space and spatial characteristics have no objective significance in the absolute sense; in other words, that space, too, is only a form of our perception.

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Introduction
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
4 months 2 weeks ago
Poetry and the arts can't exist...

Poetry and the arts can't exist in America. Mere exposure to the arts does nothing for a mentality which is incorrigibly dialectical. The vital tensions and nutritive action of ideogram remain inaccessible to this state of mind.

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Letter to Ezra Pound
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
7 months 2 weeks ago
Of all the books I have...

Of all the books I have ever worked on, I think Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare gave me the most pleasure, day in, day out. For months and months I lived and thought Shakespeare, and I don't see how there can be any greater pleasure in the world, any pleasure, that is, that one can indulge in for as much as ten hours without pause, day after day indefinitely.

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Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
5 months 2 weeks ago
We have, indeed, in the part...

We have, indeed, in the part taken by many scientific men in this controversy of "Law versus Miracle," a good illustration of the tenacious vitality of superstitions. Ask one of our leading geologists or physiologists whether he believes in the Mosaic account of the creation, and he will take the question as next to an insult. Either he rejects the narrative entirely, or understands it in some vague non-natural sense. ...Whence ...this notion of "special creations"...Why, after rejecting all the rest of the story, he should strenuously defend this last remnant of it, as though he had received it on valid authority, he would be puzzled to say.

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Philosophical Maxims
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek
10 months 3 weeks ago
World-language-subject

The general reference of the philosophical discussion is usually the triangle world: world-language-subject, the relation of the subject to the world of objects, mediated through language.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
6 months 2 weeks ago
Fascism is not defined by the...

Fascism is not defined by the number of its victims, but by the way it kills them.

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On the Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Libération
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
6 months 2 weeks ago
What modern apologists call 'true' Christianity...

What modern apologists call 'true' Christianity is something depending upon a very selective process. It ignores much that is to be found in the Gospels: for example, the parable of the sheep and the goats, and the doctrine that the wicked will suffer eternal torment in Hell fire. It picks out certain parts of the Sermon on the Mount, though even these it often rejects in practice. It leaves the doctrine of non-resistance, for example, to be practised only by non-Christians such as Gandhi. The precepts that it particularly favours are held to embody such a lofty morality that they must have had a divine origin. And yet ... these precepts were uttered by Jews before the time of Christ.

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"Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?", in Stockholm newspaper Dagens Nyheter, part II., 11/11/1954
Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
4 months 2 weeks ago
There are some remedies worse than...

There are some remedies worse than the disease.

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Maxim 301
Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
6 months 1 week ago
Now, that we do not really...

Now, that we do not really know of what sort each thing is, or is not, has often been shown.

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Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
5 months 2 weeks ago
The most obvious division of society...

The most obvious division of society is into rich and poor; and it is no less obvious, that the number of the former bear a great disproportion to those of the latter. The whole business of the poor is to administer to the idleness, folly, and luxury of the rich; and that of the rich, in return, is to find the best methods of confirming the slavery and increasing the burdens of the poor. In a state of nature, it is an invariable law, that a man's acquisitions are in proportion to his labours. In a state of artificial society, it is a law as constant and as invariable, that those who labour most enjoy the fewest things; and that those who labour not at all have the greatest number of enjoyments. A constitution of things this, strange and ridiculous beyond expression! We scarce believe a thing when we are told it, which we actually see before our eyes every day without being in the least surprised.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
2 months 2 weeks ago
I regret that I am now...

I regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless sacrifice of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self- government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be, that I live not to weep over it. If they would but dispassionately weigh the blessings they will throw away, against an abstract principle more likely to be effected by union than by scission, they would pause before they would perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves, and of treason against the hopes of the world. To yourself, as the faithful advocate of the Union, I tender the offering of my high esteem and respect.

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Letter to John Holmes
Philosophical Maxims
Sir Thomas Browne
Sir Thomas Browne
5 months 3 weeks ago
When we desire to confine our...

When we desire to confine our words, we commonly say they are spoken under the rose.

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Pseudodoxia Epidemica Book 5, Ch. 22, sect. 6
Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
5 months 3 days ago
A philosopher of imposing stature doesn't...

A philosopher of imposing stature doesn't think in a vacuum. Even his most abstract ideas are, to some extent, conditioned by what is or is not known in the time when he lives.

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Ch. 29, June 10, 1943.
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
2 months 2 weeks ago
Remember that man lives only in...

Remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. Short, therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.

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III, 10
Philosophical Maxims
Proclus
Proclus
6 months 3 days ago
But after these, Pythagoras changed that...

But after these, Pythagoras changed that philosophy, which is conversant about geometry itself, into the form of a liberal doctrine, considering its principles in a more exalted manner; and investigating its theorems immaterially and intellectually; who likewise invented a treatise of such things as cannot be explained in geometry, and discovered the constitution of the mundane figures.

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Chap. IV.
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
2 months 2 weeks ago
God huddles in a knot in...

God huddles in a knot in every cell of flesh. When I break a fruit open, this is how every seed is revealed to me. When I speak to men, this what I discern in their thick and muddy brains. God struggles in every thing, his hands flung upward toward the light. What light? Beyond and above every thing!

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
3 months 1 week ago
The crop of spiritual talent that...

The crop of spiritual talent that is born to you, of human nobleness and intellect and heroic faculty, this is infinitely more important than your crops of cotton or corn, or wine or herrings or whale-oil, which the Newspapers record with such anxiety every season.

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Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
7 months 2 weeks ago
According to one mode... nature is...

According to one mode... nature is thus denominated, viz. the first subject matter to every thing which contains in itself the principle of motion and mutation. But after another mode it is denominated form, which subsists according to definition: for as art is called that which subsists according to art, and that which is artificial; so likewise nature is both called that which is according to nature, and that which is natural. ...that which is composed from these is not nature, but consists from nature; as, for instance, man. And this is nature in a greater degree than matter: for every thing is then said to be, when it is form in energy... entelecheia, rather than when it is incapacity.

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Philosophical Maxims
Alan Watts
Alan Watts
3 months ago
Speaking as of today, I do...

Speaking as of today, I do not consider it intellectually respectable to be a partisan in matters of religion. I see religion as I see such other basic fascinations as art and science, in which there is room for many different approaches, styles, techniques, and opinions. Thus I am not formally a committed member of any creed or sect and hold no particular religious view or doctrine as absolute. I deplore missionary zeal, and consider excessive dedication to and advocacy of any particular religion, as either the best or the only true way, an almost irreligious arrogance. Yet my work and my life are fully concerned with religion, and the mystery of being is my supreme fascination, though, as a shameless mystic, I am more interested in religion as feeling and experience than as conception and theory.

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p. 61
Philosophical Maxims
John Rawls
John Rawls
6 months 2 weeks ago
A conception of justice cannot be...

A conception of justice cannot be deduced from self evident premises or conditions on principles; instead, its justification is a matter of the mutual support of many considerations, of everything fitted together into one coherent view.

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Chapter I, Section 4, p. 21
Philosophical Maxims
Emperor Julian
Emperor Julian
2 months 4 weeks ago
Let us not admit discourses by...

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

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Fragmentum Epistulae, 288a-305d
Philosophical Maxims
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
3 months 4 weeks ago
Talking about dreams is like talking...

Talking about dreams is like talking about movies, since the cinema uses the language of dreams; years can pass in a second and you can hop from one place to another. It's a language made of image. And in the real cinema, every object and every light means something, as in a dream.

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As quoted in Rolling Stone no. 421
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
3 months 4 days ago
These actions are not essentially difficult;...

These actions are not essentially difficult; it is we ourselves that are soft and flabby.

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Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
7 months 2 weeks ago
Earth governments in moments of stress...

Earth governments in moments of stress are not famous for being reasonable.

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Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
6 months 2 weeks ago
The practical consequence of such a[n...

The practical consequence of such a[n individualistic] philosophy is the well-known democratic respect for the sacredness of individuality,-is, at any rate, the outward tolerance of whatever is not itself intolerant. These phrases are so familiar that they sound now rather dead in our ears. Once they had a passionate inner meaning. Such a passionate inner meaning they may easily acquire again if the pretension of our nation to inflict its own inner ideals and institutions vi et armis upon Orientals should meet with a resistance as obdurate as so far it has been gallant and spirited. Religiously and philosophically, our ancient national doctrine of live and let live may prove to have a far deeper meaning than our people now seem to imagine it to possess.

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"Preface"
Philosophical Maxims
Melissus of Samos
Melissus of Samos
2 months 2 weeks ago
What was was ever....

What was was ever, and ever shall be. For, if it had come into being, it needs must have been nothing before it came into being. Now, if it were nothing, in no wise could anything have arisen out of nothing.

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Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
6 months 2 weeks ago
Things are impressed better by active...

Things are impressed better by active than by passive repetition. ...It pays better to wait and recollect by an effort from within, than to look at the book again.

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Ch. 16
Philosophical Maxims
Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton
4 months 1 week ago
Europe owes its greatness to the...

Europe owes its greatness to the fact that the primary loyalties of the European people have been detached from religion and re-attached to the land. Those who believe that the division of Europe into nations has been the primary cause of European wars should remember the devastating wars of religion that national loyalties finally brought to an end. And they should study our art and literature for its inner meaning. In almost every case, they will discover, it is an art and literature not of war but of peace, an invocation of home and the routines of home, of gentleness, everydayness and enduring settlement.

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Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
2 months 2 weeks ago
Give thyself time to learn something...

Give thyself time to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled around.

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II, 7
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
6 months 2 weeks ago
Essentially, this war...is a great race-conflict,...

Essentially, this war...is a great race-conflict, a conflict of Teuton and Slav, in which certain other nations, England, France and Belgium, have been led into cooperation with the Slav. ... The conflict of Germany and Russia has been produced not by this or that diplomatic incident, but by primitive passions expressing themselves in the temper of the two races.

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War: The Offspring of Fear (1914), quoted in Ray Monk, Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude, 1872-1921 (1996), p. 373
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
4 months 2 weeks ago
Great ages of innovation are the...

Great ages of innovation are the ages in which entire cultures are junked or scrapped.

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(p. 309)
Philosophical Maxims
Emperor Julian
Emperor Julian
2 months 4 weeks ago
Inasmuch as it is my wish...

Inasmuch as it is my wish only to compose a hymn of thanksgiving in honour of the god, I have deemed it quite sufficient to discourse to the best of my ability concerning his nature. I do not think I have wasted words to no purpose: the maxim, "Sacrifice to the immortal gods according to thy means," I accept as applying not merely to burnt-offerings, but also to our praises addressed unto the gods. I pray for the third time, in return for this my good intention, the Sun lord of the universe to be propitious to me, and to bestow on me a virtuous life, a more perfect understanding, and a superhuman intellect, and a very easy release from the trammels of life at the time appointed: and after that release, an ascension up to himself, and an abiding place with him, if possible, for all time to come; or if that be too great a recompense for my past life, many and long-continued revolutions around his presence!

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 month 2 weeks ago
Illusion begets and sustains the world.....
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Main Content / General
Novalis
Novalis
5 months 2 weeks ago
There are ideal series of events...

There are ideal series of events which run parallel with the real ones. They rarely coincide. Men and circumstances generally modify the ideal train of events, so that it seems imperfect, and its consequences are equally imperfect. Thus with the Reformation; instead of Protestantism came Lutheranism.

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Epigraph, "The Mystery Of Marie Rogêt" (1842) by Edgar Allan Poe, adapted from Fragments from German Prose Writers (1841) by Sarah Austin
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Nagel
Thomas Nagel
6 months 1 week ago
Everyone is entitled to commit murder...

Everyone is entitled to commit murder in the imagination once in a while, not to mention lesser infractions.

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Concealment and Exposure and Other Essays (1998).
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
7 months 2 weeks ago
Dogmatics must be designed in this...

Dogmatics must be designed in this way. Above all, every science must vigorously lay hold of its own beginning and not live in complicated relations with other sciences. If dogmatics begins by wanting to explain sinfulness or by wanting to prove its actuality, no dogmatics will come out of it, but the entire existence of dogmatics will become problematic and vague.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emperor Julian
Emperor Julian
2 months 4 weeks ago
By the gods I do not...

By the gods I do not want the Galileans to be killed or beaten unjustly nor to suffer any other ill. I do, however, state that the god-fearing (theosebeis) should be preferred to them ... honour should go to the gods and to the men and cities that worship them.

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As quoted in Julian the Apostate (1978), by G. W. Bowersock, Ch. 8 : The Puritanical Pagan, p, 83
Philosophical Maxims
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