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Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 4 weeks ago
The feeling of being ten thousand...

The feeling of being ten thousand years behind, or ahead, of the others, of belonging to the beginnings or to the end of humanity...

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Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
4 months 2 days ago
"They would say," he answered, "that...

"They would say," he answered, "that you do not fail in obedience through lack of love, but have lost love because you never attempted obedience."

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Ch. 7 : The Pendragon, section 2
Philosophical Maxims
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
3 months 3 days ago
This Being out of God cannot,...

This Being out of God cannot, by any means, be a limited, completed, and inert Being, since God himself is not such a dead Being, but, on the contrary, is Life; - but it can only be a Power, since only a Power is the true formal picture or Schema of Life. And indeed it can only be the Power of realising that which is contained in itself - a Schema.

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Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
2 months 1 day ago
Environment is process, not container.

Environment is process, not container.

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(p. 30)
Philosophical Maxims
José Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset
2 months 3 weeks ago
The species with eyes appears suddenly,...

The species with eyes appears suddenly, capriciously as it were, and it is this species which changes the environment by creating its visible aspect. The eye does not come into being because it is needed. Just the contrary; because the eye appears it can henceforth be applied as a serviceable instrument. Each species builds up its stock of useful habits by selecting among, and taking advantage of, the innumerable useless actions which a living being performs out of sheer exuberance.

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p. 17
Philosophical Maxims
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
2 months 3 weeks ago
In the face of the idea...

In the face of the idea that truth might afford the opposite of satisfaction and turn out to be completely shocking to humanity at any given historical moment, ... the fathers of pragmatism made the satisfaction of the subject the criterion of truth. For such a doctrine there is no possibility of rejecting or even criticizing any species of belief that is enjoyed by its adherents.

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p. 52.
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
4 months 1 week ago
Labour was the first price, the...

Labour was the first price, the original purchase-money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all the wealth of the world was originally purchased; and its value, to those who possess it, and who want to exchange it for some new productions, is precisely equal to the quantity of labour which it can enable them to purchase or command.

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Chapter V, p. 38.
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Fourier
Charles Fourier
4 weeks 1 day ago
Woman is degraded and made to...

Woman is degraded and made to believe that nature destined her exclusively to menial domestic labors, which in the combined order will be so abridged as to be performed without oppression to either sex.

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The Theory of Social Organization
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months 4 days ago
Machines are worshipped because they are...

Machines are worshipped because they are beautiful and valued because they confer power; they are hated because they are hideous and loathed because they impose slavery.

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Ch. 6: Machines and the Emotions
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 months 1 day ago
Love is the extremely...
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Main Content / General
Hermann Weyl
Hermann Weyl
1 week 6 days ago
In my work, I have always...

In my work, I have always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful. In a conversation with Freeman Dyson.

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Quoted in Chandrasekhar, S. (2010-12-01) . "Beauty and the quest for beauty in science". Physics Today 63 (12): 57-62. ISSN 0031-9228. DOI:10.1063/1.3529003.
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
5 months ago
The welfare of the people in...

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience. It would be easy, however, to destroy that good conscience by shouting to them: if you want the happiness of the people, let them speak out and tell what kind of happiness they want and what kind they don't want! But, in truth, the very ones who make use of such alibis know they are lies; they leave to their intellectuals on duty the chore of believing in them and of proving that religion, patriotism, and justice need for their survival the sacrifice of freedom.

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Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
5 months ago
Blessed are the hearts that can...

Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.

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Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
4 months 1 week ago
All the opinions of the world...

All the opinions of the world agree in this, that pleasure is our end.

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Ch. 20. Of the Force of Imagination, tr. Cotton, rev. W. Carew Hazlitt, 1877
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
3 days ago
In matters of style, swim with...

In matters of style, swim with the current: in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

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As quoted in Careertracking: 26 success Shortcuts to the Top (1988) by James Calano and Jeff Salzman; though used in an address by Bill Clinton (31 March 1997), and sometimes cited to Notes on the State of Virginia (1787)
Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
3 months 1 week ago
We find that everything that makes...

We find that everything that makes up difference and number is pure accident, pure show, pure constitution. Every production, of whatever kind, is an alteration, but the substance remains always the same, because it is only one, one divine immortal being.

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Philosophical Maxims
Herbert A. Simon
Herbert A. Simon
2 months 1 week ago
Whereas economic man maximizes - selects...

Whereas economic man maximizes - selects the best alternative from among all those available to him, his cousin, administrative man, satisfices - looks for a course of action that is satisfactory or "good enough."

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p. xxix.
Philosophical Maxims
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
2 months 3 weeks ago
Once the philosophical foundation of democracy...

Once the philosophical foundation of democracy has collapsed, the statement that dictatorship is bad is rationally valid only for those who are not its beneficiaries, and there is no theoretical obstacle to the transformation of this statement into its opposite.

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p. 29.
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
4 months 2 days ago
My thought is me...

My thought is me: that's why I can't stop. I exist because I think ... and I can't prevent myself from thinking.

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Lundi ("Monday")
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
4 months 1 week ago
I know well what I am...

I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.

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Book III, Ch. 9
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
4 months 2 days ago
When I lay these questions before...

When I lay these questions before God I get no answer. But a rather special sort of 'No answer.' It is not the locked door. It is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate, gaze. As though He shook His head not in refusal but waiving the question. Like, 'Peace, child; you don't understand.'

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Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
4 months 5 days ago
Government has no other end than...

Government has no other end than the preservation of property.

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Second Treatise of Government, Ch. VII. sec. 94
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
4 months 3 days ago
The hearing ear is always found...

The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue.

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Race
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Rorty
Richard Rorty
3 months 3 weeks ago
Philosophers get attention only when they...

Philosophers get attention only when they appear to be doing something sinister-corrupting the youth, undermining the foundations of civilization, sneering at all we hold dear. The rest of the time everybody assumes that they are hard at work somewhere down in the sub-basement, keeping those foundations in good repair. Nobody much cares what brand of intellectual duct tape is being used.

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"Philosophical Convictions." The Nation, June 14, 2004.
Philosophical Maxims
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
3 months 3 days ago
Spirit: Do not be deceived by...

Spirit: Do not be deceived by sophists and half philosophers; things do not appear to thee by means of any representatives. Of the thing that exists, and that can exist, thou art conscious immediately ; thou, thyself, art that of which thou art conscious. By a fundamental law of thy being thou art thus presented to thyself, and thrown out of thyself.

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Jane Sinnett, trans 1846 p. 53
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2 months 1 week ago
If it is permissible to write...

If it is permissible to write plays that are not intended to be seen, I should like to see who can prevent me from writing a book no one can read.

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F 1
Philosophical Maxims
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
4 months 2 weeks ago
This art, which I call the...

This art, which I call the art of persuading, and which, properly speaking, is simply the process of perfect methodical proofs, consists of three essential parts: of defining the terms of which we should avail ourselves by clear definitions, of proposing principles of evident axioms to prove the thing in question; and of always mentally substituting in the demonstrations the definition in the place of the thing defined.

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Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
5 months 4 days ago
As for him who neither possesses...

As for him who neither possesses nor can acquire them, let him take to heart the words of Hesiod: He is the best of all who thinks for himself in all things. He, too, is good who takes advice from a wiser (person). But he who neither thinks for himself, nor lays to heart another's wisdom, this is a useless man.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 4 weeks ago
It's not worth the bother of...

It's not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.

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Philosophical Maxims
René Descartes
René Descartes
4 months 1 week ago
What I have given in the...

What I have given in the second book on the nature and properties of curved lines, and the method of examining them, is, it seems to me, as far beyond the treatment in the ordinary geometry, as the rhetoric of Cicero is beyond the a, b, c of children.

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Letter to Marin Mersenne (1637) as quoted by D. E. Smith & M. L. Latham Tr. The Geometry of René Descartes
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months 4 days ago
What a monstrous thing that a...

What a monstrous thing that a University should teach journalism! I thought that was only done at Oxford. This respect for the filthy multitude is ruining civilisation.

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Letter to Lucy Martin Donnely, July 6, 1902
Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
3 days ago
The fundamental terms of a system...

The fundamental terms of a system of Nomenclature may "be conveniently borrowed from casual or arbitrary circumstances.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
3 days ago
We confide in our strength, without...

We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.

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Letter to William Carmichael and William Short
Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
3 months 3 weeks ago
Men have made an idol of...

Men have made an idol of luck as an excuse for their own thoughtlessness. Luck seldom measures swords with wisdom. Most things in life quick wit and sharp vision can set right.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 4 weeks ago
As the years pass, the number...

As the years pass, the number of those we can communicate with diminishes. When there is no longer anyone to talk to, at last we will be as we were before stooping to a name.

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Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
5 months ago
Ironic philosophies produce passionate works. Any...

Ironic philosophies produce passionate works. Any thought that abandons unity glorifies diversity! And diversity is the home of art. The only thought to liberate the mind is that which leaves it alone, certain of its limits and of its impending end. No doctrine tempts it. It awaits the ripening of the work and of life.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 4 weeks ago
I think of so many people...

I think of so many people who are no more, and I pity them. Yet they are not so much to be pitied, for they have solved every problem, beginning with the problem of death.

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Philosophical Maxims
William Godwin
William Godwin
3 months 1 day ago
No man must encroach upon my...

No man must encroach upon my province nor I upon his. He may advise me, moderately and without perniciousness, but he must not expect to dictate to me. He may censure me freely and without reserve but he should remember that I am to act by my deliberation and not his. He may exercise a republican boldness in judging, but he must not be peremptory and imperious in prescribing. Force may never be resorted to but, in the most extraordinary and imperious emergency.

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Book II, "Of Rights"
Philosophical Maxims
Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith
2 weeks 4 days ago
We know nothing of tomorrow; our...

We know nothing of tomorrow; our business is to be good and happy today.

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Vol. I, ch. 12, p. 472
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 months 4 weeks ago
There is no false sensation.

There is no false sensation.

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Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
4 months 3 weeks ago
The superior man examines his heart,...

The superior man examines his heart, that there may be nothing wrong there, and that he may have no cause for dissatisfaction with himself. That wherein the superior man cannot be equaled is simply this, his work which other men cannot see.

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Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
Just now
What matter and opportunity [for thy...

What matter and opportunity [for thy activity] art thou avoiding? For what else are all these things, except exercises for the reason, when it has viewed carefully and by examination into their nature the things which happen in life? Persevere then until thou shalt have made these things thy own, as the stomach which is strengthened makes all things its own, as the blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.

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X, 31
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
2 months 2 weeks ago
Not by way of reason, but...

Not by way of reason, but only by way of love and suffering, do we come to the living God, the human God. Reason rather separates us from Him. We cannot first know Him in order that afterward we may love Him; we must begin by loving Him, longing for Him, hungering after Him, before knowing Him. The knowledge of God proceeds from the love of God, and this love has little or nothing of the rational in it. For God is indefinable. To seek to define Him is to seek to confine Him within the limits of our mind - that is to say, to kill Him. In so far as we attempt to define Him, there rises up before us - Nothingness.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
4 months 5 days ago
I care not how affluent some...

I care not how affluent some may be, provided that none be miserable in consequence of it. But it is impossible to enjoy affluence with the felicity it is capable of being enjoyed, while so much misery is mingled in the scene.

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Means by Which the Fund Is to Be Created
Philosophical Maxims
Epicurus
Epicurus
4 months 3 weeks ago
A true friend will partake of...

A true friend will partake of the wants and sorrows of his friend, as if they were his own; if he be in want, he will relieve him; if he be in prison, he will visit him; if he be sick, he will come to him; nay-situations may occur, in which he would not scruple to die for him. It cannot then be doubted, that friendship is one of the most useful means of procuring a secure, tranquil, and happy life.

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Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
4 months 2 days ago
As image and apprehension are in...

As image and apprehension are in an organic unity, so, for a Christian, are human body and human soul.

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"Priestesses in the Church?" (1948), p. 237
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
4 days ago
What a strange machine man is!...

What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams.

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Ch. 23
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
5 months ago
The important thing isn't the soundness...

The important thing isn't the soundness or otherwise of the argument, but for it to make you think.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
2 months 3 weeks ago
Yet lackest thou one thing: sell...

Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

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18:22 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
4 months 2 weeks ago
Rules for Definitions. I. Not to...

Rules for Definitions. I. Not to undertake to define any of the things so well known of themselves that the clearer terms cannot be had to explain them. II. Not to leave any terms that are at all obscure or ambiguous without definition. III. Not to employ in the definition of terms any words but such as are perfectly known or already explained.

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Philosophical Maxims
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