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Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach
3 months 4 days ago
I know of nothing more terrible...

I know of nothing more terrible than the poor creatures who have learned too much. Instead of the sound powerful judgement which would probably have grown up if they had learned nothing, their thoughts creep timidly and hypnotically after words, principles and formulae, constantly by the same paths. What they have acquired is a spider's web of thoughts too weak to furnish sure supports, but complicated enough to provide confusion.

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On the Relative Educational Value of the Classics and the Mathematico-Physical Sciences in Colleges and High Schools, an address in (16 April 1886)
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 months 1 week ago
Social and economic...
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Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 months 3 weeks ago
Like Fichte, Brentano had one simple...

Like Fichte, Brentano had one simple and powerful insight. He declared: there is a basic difference between a mental and physical act. if I slip on the snow and fall flat on my back, that is an unintentional physical act. But there is no such thing as an unintentional mental act. When I think, I have to think about something; I have to focus my mind on it. You could compare all mental acts (thinking, willing, loving, trying to remember something) to a searchlight beam stabbing into the darkness. There is an element of will, of 'intentionality,' in all mental activity. So it is quite inaccurate to compare mental activity to chemistry, or to a kind of drifting, like leaves on a stream. It flows purposefully or not at all.

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p. 35
Philosophical Maxims
José Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset
2 months 4 weeks ago
Every intellectual effort sets us apart...

Every intellectual effort sets us apart from the commonplace, and leads us by hidden and difficult paths to secluded spots where we find ourselves amid unaccustomed thoughts.

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p. 15
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Buber
Martin Buber
2 months 4 weeks ago
Every morning I shall concern myself...

Every morning I shall concern myself anew about the boundary Between the love-deed-Yes and the power-deed-No And pressing forward honor reality. We cannot avoid Using power, Cannot escape the compulsion To afflict the world, So let us, cautious in diction And mighty in contradiction, Love powerfully.

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"Power and Love"
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 months 3 weeks ago
The self-surmounter can never put up...

The self-surmounter can never put up with the man who has ceased to be dissatisfied with himself.

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p. 139
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
2 months 1 week ago
I know-as we all do-very little...

I know-as we all do-very little of the practice and the spoken and written doctrine of former times on the subject of non-resistance to evil. I knew what had been said on the subject by the fathers of the Church-Origen, Tertullian, and others-I knew too of the existence of some so-called sects of Mennonites, Herrnhuters, and Quakers, who do not allow a Christian the use of weapons, and do not enter military service; but I knew little of what had been done by these so-called sects toward expounding the question.

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Preface
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
3 months 1 week ago
I considerd a general War against...

I considerd a general War against Jacobins and Jacobinism, as the only possible chance of saving Europe, (and England as included in Europe) from a truly frightful revolution. ... It is my Protest against the delusion, by which some have been taught to look upon this Jacobin contest at home as an ordinary party squabble about place or Patronage; and to regard this Jacobin War abroad as a common War about Trade, or Territorial Boundaries, or about a political Balance of power among Rival or jealous States.

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Letter to the Duke of Portland (29 September 1793), quoted in P. J. Marshall and John A. Woods (eds.)
Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
5 months 1 week ago
Again, it is possible to fail...

Again, it is possible to fail in many ways (for evil belongs to the class of the unlimited ... and good to that of the limited), while to succeed is possible only in one way (for which reason also one is easy and the other difficult—to miss the mark easy, to hit it difficult); for these reasons also, then, excess and defect are characteristic of vice, and the mean of virtue; For men are good in but one way, but bad in many.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month ago
The three great elements of modern...

The three great elements of modern civilization, gunpowder, printing, and the Protestant religion.

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The State of German Literature (1827).
Philosophical Maxims
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle
5 days ago
Not that I at all disallow...

Not that I at all disallow the use of reasoning upon experiments, or the endeavouring to discern as early as we can the confederations, and differences, and tendencies of things: for such an absolute suspension of the exercise of reasoning were exceeding troublesome, if not impossible. And, as in that rule of arithmetic, which is commonly called regula falsi by proceeding upon a conjecturally-supposed number, as if it were that, which we inquire after, we are wont to come to the knowledge of the true number sought for; so in physiology it is sometimes conducive to the discovery of truth, to permit the understanding to make an hypothesis, in order to the explication of this or that difficulty, that by examining how far the phænomena are, or are not, capable of being solved by that hypothesis, the understanding may, even by its own errors, be instructed.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
4 months 1 week ago
Good is a good doctor, but...

Good is a good doctor, but Bad is sometimes a better.

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Considerations by the Way
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
1 week 2 days ago
As I watched the seagulls, I...

As I watched the seagulls, I thought: "That's the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust."

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Ch. 21
Philosophical Maxims
Max Scheler
Max Scheler
2 months 4 weeks ago
The ultimate goal of the arriviste's...

The ultimate goal of the arriviste's aspirations is not to acquire a thing of value, but to be more highly esteemed than others. He merely uses the "thing" as an indifferent occasion for overcoming the oppressive feeling of inferiority which results from his constant comparisons.

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L. Coser, trans. (1973), pp. 55-56
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months 1 week ago
The average man's opinions are much...

The average man's opinions are much less foolish than they would be if he thought for himself: in science, at least, his respect for authority is on the whole beneficial.

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On Education, Especially in Early Childhood (1926), Ch. 2: The Aims of Education, p. 63
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months 1 week ago
Few people can be happy unless...

Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or creed.

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Attributed to Russell in Prochnow's Speakers Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms (1955), p. 132
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
5 days ago
Constantly and, if it be possible,...

Constantly and, if it be possible, on the occasion of every impression on the soul, apply to it the principles of Physic, of Ethic, and of Dialectic.

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VIII, 13
Philosophical Maxims
Peter Singer
Peter Singer
3 months 4 weeks ago
September 11, 2001, was just another...

September 11, 2001, was just another day for most of the world's desperately poor people, so presumably close to 30,000 children under five died from these causes on that day-about ten times the number of victims of the terrorist attacks. The publication of these figures did not lead to an avalanche of money for UNICEF or other aid agencies helping to reduce infant mortality. In the year 2000 Americans made private donations for foreign aid of all kinds totaling about $4 per person in extreme poverty, or roughly $20 per family. New Yorkers who were living in lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001, whether wealthy or not, were able to receive an average of $5,300 per family. The distance between these amounts encapsulates the way in which, for many people, the circle of concern for others stops at the boundaries of their own country-if it extends even that far.

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Chapter 5: One Community (p. 176)
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 1 day ago
If thou wilt be perfect, go...

If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

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19:21 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
2 months 3 weeks ago
Phenomenology is not a philosophy; it...

Phenomenology is not a philosophy; it is a philosophical method, a tool. It is like an adjustable spanner that can be used for dismantling a refrigerator or a car, or used for hammering in nails, or even for knocking somebody out.

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p. 92
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
5 months 6 days ago
I believe that every human being...

I believe that every human being with a physically normal brain can learn a great deal and can be surprisingly intellectual. I believe that what we badly need is social approval of learning and social rewards for learning.We can all be members of the intellectual elite and then, and only then, will a phrase like "America's right to know" and, indeed, any true concept of democracy, have any meaning.

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Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
2 months 6 days ago
He who is bent on doing...

He who is bent on doing evil can never want occasion.

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Maxim 459
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
2 weeks 5 days ago
We came to a tree which...

We came to a tree which was still bare, and on which the birds were singing out gaily in the morning, without any fear of us. Then stooping over like an Indian on the hunt, my companion placed a pebble in the leather of his sling and stretched it. Obeying his peremptory glance I did the same, with frightful twinges of conscience, vowing firmly that I would shoot when he did. At that very moment the church bells began to sound, mingling with the song of the birds in the sunshine. It was the warning bell that came a half-hour before the main bell. For me it was a voice from heaven. I threw the sling down, scaring the birds away, so that they were safe from my companion's sling, and fled home. And ever afterwards when the bells of Holy Week ring out amidst the leafless trees in the sunshine I remember with moving gratitude how they rang into my heart at that time the commandment: Thou shalt not kill.

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Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
4 months 1 week ago
The more we devote ourselves to...

The more we devote ourselves to observing animals and their behaviour, the more we love them, on seeing how gready they care for their young; in such a context, we cannot even contemplate cruelty to a wolf. Leibnitz put the grub he had been observing back on the tree with its leaf, lest he should be guilty of doing any harm to it. It upsets a man to destroy such a creature for no reason, and this tenderness is subsequently transferred to man.

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Part II, pp. 212-213
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
3 months 1 day ago
Suffer little children, and forbid them...

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

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19:14 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Theodor Adorno
Theodor Adorno
2 months 3 weeks ago
We cannot think any true thought...

We cannot think any true thought unless we want the true. Thinking is itself an aspect of practice.

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p. 45
Philosophical Maxims
Lucretius
Lucretius
4 months 3 weeks ago
A thing therefore…

A thing therefore never returns to nothing.

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Book I, line 248 (tr. Munro)
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
4 months 1 week ago
A dog cannot relate his autobiography;...

A dog cannot relate his autobiography; however eloquently he may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were honest but poor.

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Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948), part II, chapter 1, p. 74
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
3 months 5 days ago
If the sensation that precedes the...

If the sensation that precedes the present by half a second were still immediately before me, then on the same principle, the sensation preceding that would be immediately present, and so on ad infinitum. Now, since there is a time [period], say a year, at the end of which an idea is no longer ipso facto present, it follows that this is true of any finite interval, however short.

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Philosophical Maxims
Hermann Weyl
Hermann Weyl
2 weeks 5 days ago
After Riemann had made known his...

After Riemann had made known his discoveries, mathematicians busied themselves with working out his system of geometrical ideas formally; chief among these were Christoffel, Ricci, and Levi-Civita. Riemann... clearly left the real development of his ideas in the hands of some subsequent scientist whose genius as a physicist could rise to equal flights with his own as a mathematician. After a lapse of seventy years this mission has been fulfilled by Einstein.

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Ch. 2 "The Metrical Continuum"
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
4 months 1 week 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
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
5 days ago
A horse at the end of...

A horse at the end of the race...A dog when the hunt is over...A bee with its honey stored...And a human being after helping others. They don't make a fuss about it. They just go on to something else, as the vine looks forward to bearing fruit again in season. We should be like that. Acting almost unconsciously.

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(Hays translation) V, 6
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 month 1 week ago
Universality is the foundation...

Universality is the foundation for law. Individuals are treated as ends in themselves, symmetry is applied and justice emerges. Ideologically, we don't have to try to be "good". This kind of kills freedom. We just have to avoid the worst of the bad, like killing, to preserve universality and justice.

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Philosophical Maxims
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
2 months 1 day ago
Conquered people tend to be witty....

Conquered people tend to be witty.

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Mr. Sammler's Planet, (1976), p. 98
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
2 months 6 days ago
Disarmament is illogical and futile, unless...

Disarmament is illogical and futile, unless one is prepared to regard the available means of production and social organization as affording unique social ends. To divert electrical energy and circuitry into atomic bombs shows the same imaginative power as wiring the dining-room chairs to enable one to electrocute the sitter in the event that he might prove hostile. It is part of the age-old habit of using new means for old purposes instead of discovering what are the new goals contained in the new means.

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(p.202)
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
5 days ago
If it is not right, do...

If it is not right, do not do it, if it is not true, do not say it. For let thy efforts be -

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XII, 17
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
5 months 5 days ago
Life continues, and some mornings, weary...

Life continues, and some mornings, weary of the noise, discouraged by the prospect of the interminable work to keep after, sickened also by the madness of the world that leaps at you from the newspaper, finally convinced that I will not be equal to it and that I will disappoint everyone, all I want to do is sit down and wait for evening. This is what I feel like, and sometimes I yield to it.

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Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
1 week 1 day ago
The antithesis of 'Sense' & 'Ideas'...

The antithesis of 'Sense' & 'Ideas' is the foundation of the Philosophy of Science. No knowledge can exist without the union, no philosophy without the separation, of these two elements.

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Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
2 months 6 days ago
Amid a multitude of projects, no...

Amid a multitude of projects, no plan is devised.

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Maxim 319
Philosophical Maxims
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
3 months 6 days ago
In order to touch the heart...

In order to touch the heart and gain the confidence, the assent, the adhesion, and the co-operation of the illiterate legions of the proletariat - and the vast majority of proletarians unfortunately still belong in this category - it is necessary to begin to speak to those workers not of the general sufferings of the international proletariat as a whole but of their particular, daily, altogether private misfortunes. It is necessary to speak to them of their own trade and the conditions of their work in the specific locality where they live; of the harsh conditions and long hours of their daily work, of the small pay, the meanness of their employer, the high cost of living, and how impossible it is for them properly to support and bring up a family.

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Founding of the Workers' International
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
5 months 6 days ago
My parents, both of whom spoke...

My parents, both of whom spoke Russian fluently, made no effort to teach me Russian, but insisted on my learning English as rapidly and as well as possible. They even set about learning English themselves, with reasonable, but limited, success.In a way, I am sorry. It would have been good to know the language of Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Dostoevski. On the other hand, I would not have been willing to let anything get in the way of the complete mastery of English. Allow me my prejudice: surely there is no language more majestic than that of Shakespeare, Milton, and the King James Bible, and if I am to have one language that I know as only a native can know it, I consider myself unbelievably fortunate that it is English.

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Philosophical Maxims
Epictetus
Epictetus
4 months 3 weeks ago
When I see someone in anxiety,...

When I see someone in anxiety, I say to myself, What can it be that this fellow wants? For if he did not want something that was outside of his control, how could he still remain in anxiety?

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Book II, ch. 13, 1.
Philosophical Maxims
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry
1 week 1 day ago
Anybody interested in solving, rather than...

Anybody interested in solving, rather than profiting from, the problems of food production and distribution will see that in the long run the safest food supply is a local food supply, not a supply that is dependent on a global economy. Nations and regions within nations must be left free - and should be encouraged - to develop the local food economies that best suit local needs and local conditions.

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"A Bad Big Idea"
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
4 months 2 weeks ago
I have ever loved to repose...

I have ever loved to repose myself, whether sitting or lying, with my heels as high or higher than my head.

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Book III, Ch. 13. Of Experience
Philosophical Maxims
Judith Butler
Judith Butler
2 months 1 week ago
We do not have to love...

We do not have to love one another to be obligated to build a world in which all lives are sustainable. The right to persist can only be understood as a social right, as the subjective instance of a social and global obligation we bear toward one another.

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p. 64
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
1 week 2 days ago
I hate all virtues based on...

I hate all virtues based on food and bloated bellies;though food and drink are good, I'm better slaked and fedby that inhuman flame which burns in our black bowels.I like to name that flame which burns within me God!

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Odysseus, Book XI, line 840
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
4 months 1 week ago
...in order to change poverty into...

...in order to change poverty into wealth, one must start by displaying it.

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p. 420
Philosophical Maxims
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre
6 days ago
You, masters of the earth -...

You, masters of the earth - princes, kings, emperors, powerful majesties, invincible conquerors - simply try to make the people go on such-and-such a day each year to a given place to dance. I ask little of you, but I dare give you a solemn challenge to succeed, whereas the humblest missionary will succeed and be obeyed two thousand years after his death. Every year the people gather around some rustic temple in the name of St John, St Martin, St Benedict, etc.; they come, animated by a feverish and yet innocent eagerness; religion sanctifies their joy and the joy embellishes religion; they forget their troubles; on leaving they think of the pleasure that they will have on the same day the following year, and the date is set in their minds.

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Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
4 months 1 week ago
The country that is more developed...

The country that is more developed industrially only shows, to the less developed, the image of its own future.

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Author's prefaces to the First Edition.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
1 month 3 weeks ago
In a well worn metaphor, a...

In a well worn metaphor, a parallel is drawn between the life of man and the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly; but the comparison may be more just as well as more novel, if for its former term we take the mental progress of the race. History shows that the human mind, fed by constant accessions of knowledge, periodically grows too large for its theoretical coverings, and bursts them asunder to appear in new habiliments, as the feeding and growing grub, at intervals, casts its too narrow skin and assumes another, itself but temporary. Truly the imago state of Man seems to be terribly distant, but every moult is a step gained, and of such there have been many.

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Ch.2, p. 72
Philosophical Maxims
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