Skip to main content
Image removed.

Main navigation

☰ ˟
  • Home
  • Articulation
  • Contact
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
5 months 5 days ago
But, in my state of mind,...

But, in my state of mind, this appearance of superiority to illusion added to the effect which Bentham's doctrines produced on me, by heightening the impression of mental power, and the vista of improvement which he did open was sufficiently large and brilliant to light up my life, as well as to give a definite shape to my aspirations.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(p. 67)
Philosophical Maxims
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
3 months 3 weeks ago
Socrates reminds us that it is...

Socrates reminds us that it is not the same thing, but almost the opposite, to understand religion and to accept it.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 45
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
1 month 2 days ago
All is ephemeral - fame and...

All is ephemeral - fame and the famous as well.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
IV, 35
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 5 days ago
Some men look at constitutions with...

Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I belonged to it and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was very like the present but without the experience of the present; and forty years of experience in government is worth a century of book-reading; and this they would say themselves were they to rise from the dead.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
3 months 2 weeks ago
The two most far-reaching critical theories...

The two most far-reaching critical theories at the beginning of the latest phase of industrial society were those of Marx and Freud. Marx showed the moving powers and the conflicts in the social-historical process. Freud aimed at the critical uncovering of the inner conflicts. Both worked for the liberation of man, even though Marx's concept was more comprehensive and less time-bound than Freud's.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Art of Being" Pt. 3
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
4 months 1 week ago
For the world, I count it...

For the world, I count it not an Inn, but a Hospital, and a place, not to live, but to die in.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Section 11
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 day ago
A man does not kill himself,...

A man does not kill himself, as is commonly supposed, in a fit of madness but rather in a fit of unendurable lucidity, in a paroxysm which may, if so desired, be identified with madness; for an excessive perspicacity, carried to the limit and of which one longs to be rid at all costs, exceeds the context of reason.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
5 months 5 days ago
It makes a tremendous emotional and...

It makes a tremendous emotional and practical difference to one whether one accepts the universe in the drab discolored way of stoic resignation to necessity, or with the passionate happiness of Christian saints.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Lecture II, "Circumscription of the Topic"
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 2 weeks ago
Do you ask me whom I...

Do you ask me whom I have conquered? Neither the Persians, nor the far-off Medes, nor any warlike race that lies beyond the Dahae; not these, but greed, ambition, and the fear of death that has conquered the conquerors of the world.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
1 month 5 days ago
In order to succeed, we must...

In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Michael Korda, in Success! (1977), p. 284
Philosophical Maxims
Judith Butler
Judith Butler
3 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.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 64
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
5 months 4 days ago
The trouble with fiction... is that...

The trouble with fiction... is that it makes too much sense. Reality never makes sense.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"John Rivers" in The Genius and the Goddess, 1955
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
4 months 5 days ago
Architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and poetry,...

Architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and poetry, may truly be called the efflorescence of civilised life.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Education: What Knowledge Is of Most Worth?
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 5 days ago
Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author...

Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia. Epitaph, upon his instructions to erect a "a plain die or cube ... surmounted by an Obelisk" with "the following inscription, and not a word more...because by these, as testimonials that I have lived, I wish most to be remembered." It omits that he had been President of the United States, a position of political power and prestige, and celebrates his involvement in the creation of the means of inspiration and instruction by which many human lives have been liberated from oppression and ignorance.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
John Gray
John Gray
2 months 1 week ago
Echoing the Christian faith in free...

Echoing the Christian faith in free will, humanists hold that human beings are - or may someday become - free to choose their lives. They forget that the self that does the choosing has not itself been chosen.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Beyond the Last Thought: Freud's cigars and the long way round to Nirvana (p. 86)
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
5 months 1 week ago
Most shocking of all is alledging...

Most shocking of all is alledging the Sacred Scriptures to favour this wicked practice. One would have thought none but infidel cavillers would endeavour to make them appear contrary to the plain dictates of natural light, and Conscience, in a matter of common Justice and Humanity; which they cannot be. Such worthy men, as referred to before, judged otherways; Mr. Baxter declared, the Slave-Traders should be called Devils, rather than Christians; and that it is a heinous crime to buy them.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
3 months 3 weeks ago
I feel that I have within...

I feel that I have within me a medieval soul, and I believe that the soul of my country is medieval, that it has perforce passed through the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Revolution - learning from them, yes, but without allowing them to touch the soul, preserving the spiritual inheritance which has come down from what are called the Dark Ages. And Quixotism is simply the most desperate phase of the struggle between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, which was the offering of the Middle Ages.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
4 months 2 days ago
If there is a devil in...

If there is a devil in human history, that devil is the principle of command. It alone, sustained by the ignorance and stupidity of the masses, without which it could not exist, is the source of all the catastrophes, all the crimes, and all the infamies of history.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
On the Program of the Alliance (1871), in Bakunin on Anarchy (1971), translated and edited by Sam Dolgoff Variant translation: If there is a devil in history, it is the power principle.
Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
3 months 2 weeks ago
The chief error in philosophy is...

The chief error in philosophy is overstatement.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Pt. I, ch. 1, sec. 1.
Philosophical Maxims
bell hooks
bell hooks
3 months 2 weeks ago
Racism has always been a divisive...

Racism has always been a divisive force separating black men and white men, and sexism has been a force that unites the two groups.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
3 months 2 days ago
God looks at the clean hands,...

God looks at the clean hands, not the full ones.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Maxim 715
Philosophical Maxims
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
4 months 2 days ago
In a word, we reject all...

In a word, we reject all legislation, all authority, and all privileged, licensed, official, and legal influence, even though arising from universal suffrage, convinced that it can turn only to the advantage of a dominant minority of exploiters against the interest of the immense majority in subjection to them. This is the sense in which we are really Anarchists.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
5 months 5 days ago
I believe that the early success...

I believe that the early success and reputation of Carlyle's French Revolution, were considerably accelerated by what I wrote about it in the Review. Immediately on its publication, and before the commonplace critics, all whose rules and modes of judgment it set at defiance, had time to preoccupy the public with their disapproval of it, I wrote and published a review of the book, hailing it as one of those productions of genius which are above all rules, and are a law to themselves.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(p. 217)
Philosophical Maxims
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva
2 months 2 weeks ago
I've learned from the Bhagavad Gita...

I've learned from the Bhagavad Gita and other teachings of our culture to detach myself from the results of what I do, because those are not in my hands. The context is not in your control, but your commitment is yours to make, and you can make the deepest commitment with a total detachment about where it will take you. You want it to lead to a better world, and you shape your actions and take full responsibility for them, but then you have detachment. And that combination of deep passion and deep detachment allows me always to take on the next challenge because I don't cripple myself, I don't tie myself in knots. I function like a free being. I think getting that freedom is a social duty because I think we owe it to each other not to burden each other with prescription and demands. I think what we owe each other is a celebration of life and to replace fear and hopelessness with fearlessness and joy.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
A. J. Ayer
A. J. Ayer
4 months 1 day ago
I am using the word "perceive"....

I am using the word "perceive". I am using it here in such a way that to say of an object that it is perceived does not entail saying that it exists in any sense at all. And this is a perfectly correct and familiar usage of the word. If there is thought to be a difficulty here, it is perhaps because there is also a correct and familiar usage of the word "perceive", in which to say of an object that it is perceived does carry the implication that it exists.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge (1940).
Philosophical Maxims
Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
3 months 2 weeks ago
I believe that the fundamental alternative...

I believe that the fundamental alternative for man is the choice between "life" and "death"; between creativity and destructive violence; between reality and illusions; between objectivity and intolerance; between brotherhood-independence and dominance-submission.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 5 days ago
You say that I have been...

You say that I have been dished up to you as an antifederalist, and ask me if it be just. My opinion was never worthy enough of notice to merit citing; but since you ask it I will tell it you. I am not a Federalist, because I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all. Therefore I protest to you I am not of the party of federalists. But I am much farther from that than of the Antifederalists.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Letter to Francis Hopkinson
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
5 months 4 days ago
Single-mindedness is all very well in...

Single-mindedness is all very well in cows or baboons; in an animal claiming to belong to the same species as Shakespeare it is simply disgraceful.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Do What You Will, 1929
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
5 months 4 days ago
Speed, it seems to me, provides...

Speed, it seems to me, provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Wanted, A New Pleasure
Philosophical Maxims
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek
9 months 1 week ago
The object of desire

What is at stake here is precisely the problem of the fulfillment of desire: when we encounter in reality an object which has all the properties of the fantasized object of desire, we are nevertheless necessarily somewhat disappointed; we experience a certain this is not it; it becomes evident that the finally found real object is not the reference of desire even though it possesses all the required properties.

1
⚖1
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
5 months 5 days ago
Wisdom and contrivance are shown in...

Wisdom and contrivance are shown in overcoming difficulties, so there is no place for them in a Being for whom no difficulties exist.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
pages 176-177; Early Modern Texts page 16
Philosophical Maxims
Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr
1 month 1 week ago
Those who are not shocked when...

Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
In a 1952 conversation with Heisenberg and Pauli in Copenhagen; quoted in Heisenberg, Werner, Physics and Beyond. (New York: Harper & Row, 1971) p. 206.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month 3 weeks ago
The true Church of England, at...

The true Church of England, at this moment, lies in the Editors of its Newspapers. These preach to the people daily, weekly; admonishing kings themselves; advising peace or war, with an authority which only the first Reformers, and a long-past class of Popes, were possessed of; inflicting moral censure; imparting moral encouragement, consolation, edification; in all ways diligently "administering the Discipline of the Church."

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
4 months 1 week ago
Given that annihilation of nature in...

Given that annihilation of nature in its entirety is impossible, and that death and dissolution are not appropriate to the whole mass of this entire globe or star, from time to time, according to an established order, it is renewed, altered, changed, and transformed in all its parts.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Fifth Dialogue
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
3 months 2 weeks ago
Anarchism is the only philosophy which...

Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man's subordination.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
3 months 1 day ago
Ignorance, to a scientist, is an...

Ignorance, to a scientist, is an itch that begs to be pleasurably scratched. Ignorance, if you are a theologian, is something to be washed away by shamelessly making something up.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Intellectual and Moral Courage of Atheism
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
5 months 4 days ago
What do I care about Jupiter?...

What do I care about Jupiter? Justice is a human issue, and I do not need a god to teach it to me.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Orestes, Act 2
Philosophical Maxims
Leszek Kołakowski
Leszek Kołakowski
1 month 3 weeks ago
There is no idea so obscure...

There is no idea so obscure that someone could not come to regard it as self-evident.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter Seven, Pragmatism and Positivism, p. 156
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
4 months 1 day ago
...the relatively unconscious man driven by...

...the relatively unconscious man driven by his natural impulses because, imprisoned in his familiar world, he clings to the commonplace, the obvious, the probable, the collectively valid, using for his motto: 'Thinking is difficult. Therefore, let the herd pronounce judgement.'

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Frequently misquoted as "Thinking is difficult, that's why most people judge" and close variants. Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky. (1959), C.G. Jung, R.F.C. Hull (translator) (Princeton Press, 1979, ISBN 9780691018225
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
3 months 3 weeks ago
Ideas, aspirations, and objectives that, by...

Ideas, aspirations, and objectives that, by their content, transcend the established universe of discourse and action are either repelled or reduced to terms of this universe.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 12
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 months 2 weeks ago
The death of dogma....
0
⚖0
Main Content / General
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 day ago
What anxiety when one is not...

What anxiety when one is not sure of one's doubts or wonders: are these actually doubts?

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
Julien Offray de La Mettrie
1 month 2 days 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...

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 1 day 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.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
3 months 2 weeks ago
The freedom of the 'everyday mind'...

The freedom of the 'everyday mind' consists rather in not kneeling down in awe. Its mental attitude is better expressed as sitting unmoveable like an object.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 2 weeks ago
There stood Mucius, despising the enemy...

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

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
5 months 4 days ago
For me, reason is the natural...

For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is not the cause of truth, but its condition.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"Bluspels and Flalansferes: A Semantic Nightmare", Rehabilitations and Other Essays, 1939
Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
3 months 2 days ago
A cock has great….

A cock has great influence on his own dunghill.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Maxim 357
Philosophical Maxims
Arnold J. Toynbee
Arnold J. Toynbee
2 months 2 weeks ago
Right and wrong are the same...

Right and wrong are the same in Palestine as anywhere else. What is peculiar about the Palestine conflict is that the world has listened to the party that has committed the offence and has turned a deaf ear to the victims.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Foreword to The Transformation of Palestine
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
3 weeks 4 days ago
But to return to the...

But to return to the Jewish question. Other groups and nations cultivate their individual traditions. There is no reason why we should sacrifice ours. Standardization robs life of its spice. To deprive every ethnic group of its special traditions is to convert the world into a huge Ford plant. I believe in standardizing automobiles. I do not believe in standardizing human beings. Standardization is a great peril which threatens American culture.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
  • Load More

User login

  • Create new account
  • Reset your password

Social

☰ ˟
  • Main Feed
  • Philosophical Maxims

Civic

☰ ˟
  • Propositions
  • Issue / Solution

Users

☰ ˟
  • All users
  • Historical Figures

Who's new

  • Søren Kierkegaard
  • Jesus
  • Friedrich Nietzsche
  • VeXed
  • Slavoj Žižek

Who's online

There are currently 1 users online.
  • comfortdragon

CivilSimian.com created by AxiomaticPanic, CivilSimian, Kalokagathia