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Plato
Plato
3 months 2 weeks ago
I shall have to test the...

I shall have to test the theory of my father Parmenides, and contend forcibly that after a fashion not-being is and on the other hand in a sense being is not. For unless these statements are either disproved or accepted, no one who speaks about false words, or false opinion whether images or likenesses or imitations or appearances about the arts which have to do with them, can ever help being forced to contradict himself and make himself ridiculous.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
2 days ago
From the point of view of...

From the point of view of the moralist the animal world is on about the same level as a gladiator's show. The creatures are fairly well treated, and set to fight-whereby the strongest, the swiftest and the cunningest live to fight another day. The spectator has no need to turn his thumbs down, as no quarter is given.

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(February 1888) "The Struggle for Existence: A Programme". The Nineteenth Century 23: 161-180. (quote from p. 163)
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
1 month ago
No matter how honest scientists think...

No matter how honest scientists think they are, they are still influenced by various unconscious assumptions that prevent them from attaining true objectivity. Expressed in a sentence, Fort's principle goes something like this: People with a psychological need to believe in marvels are no more prejudiced and gullible than people with a psychological need not to believe in marvels.

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p. 125
Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
2 months 1 week ago
The friendship of one wise man...

The friendship of one wise man is better than the friendship of a host of fools.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 2 weeks ago
I think all the great religions...

I think all the great religions of the world - Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Communism - both untrue and harmful. It is evident as a matter of logic that, since they disagree, not more than one of them can be true. With very few exception, the religions which a man accepts is that of the community in which he lives, which makes it obvious that the influence of environment is what has led him to accept the religion in question.

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Preface, 1957
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 1 week ago
What to think of other people?...

What to think of other people? I ask myself this question each time I make a new acquaintance. So strange does it seem to me that we exist, and that we consent to exist.

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Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
3 months 2 weeks ago
The purpose of aphorisms is to...

The purpose of aphorisms is to keep fools who have memorised them from having nothing to say.

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Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
1 month 1 day ago
By relieving the brain of all...

By relieving the brain of all unnecessary work, a good notation sets it free to concentrate on more advanced problems, and in effect increases the mental power of the race..

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ch. 5
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
3 months 1 week ago
Can one be a saint without...

Can one be a saint without God?, that's the problem, in fact the only problem, I'm up against today.

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Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
3 months 6 days ago
Perfect is the virtue which is...

Perfect is the virtue which is according to the Mean! Rare have they long been among the people, who could practice it!

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 2 weeks ago
The pursuit of philosophy is founded...

The pursuit of philosophy is founded on the belief that knowledge is good, even if what is known is painful. A man imbued with the philosophic spirit, whether a professional philosopher or not, will wish his beliefs to be as true as he can make them, and will, in equal measure, love to know and hate to be in error. This principle has a wider scope than may be apparent at first sight.

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Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 2 weeks ago
What are the earth and all...

What are the earth and all its interests beside the deep surmise which pierces and scatters them?

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Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
1 month 3 days ago
Meditation on the chance which led...

Meditation on the chance which led to the meeting of my mother and father is even more salutary than meditation on death.

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p. 277
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
2 months 2 weeks ago
The doctrine that there is as...

The doctrine that there is as much science in a subject as... mathematics in it, or as much... measurement or 'precision' in it, rests upon... misunderstanding.

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Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
1 month 1 week ago
Big industry, competition and generally the...

Big industry, competition and generally the individualistic organization of production have become a fetter which it must and will shatter.

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Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
2 months 3 weeks ago
A man of understanding…

A man of understanding has lost nothing, if he has himself.

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Ch. 39
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 2 weeks ago
Who looks in the sun will...

Who looks in the sun will see no light else; but also he will see no shadow. Our life revolves unceasingly, but the centre is ever the same, and the wise will regard only the seasons of the soul.

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March 10, 1841
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
1 month 1 week ago
We are again confronted with one...

We are again confronted with one of the most vexing aspects of advanced industrial civilization: the rational character of its irrationality. Its productivity and efficiency, its capacity to increase and spread comforts, ... the extent to which this civilization transforms the object world into an extension of man's mind and body makes the very notion of alienation questionable. The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment. The very mechanism which ties the individual to his society has changed, and social control is anchored in the new needs which it has produced.

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p. 9
Philosophical Maxims
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1 month 2 weeks ago
To care only for well-being seems...

To care only for well-being seems to me positively ill-bred. Whether it's good or bad, it is sometimes very pleasant, too, to smash things.

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Part 1, Chapter 9
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
3 months 2 weeks ago
It is love that leniently and...

It is love that leniently and mercifully says: I forgive you everything-if you are forgiven only little, then it is because you love only little. Justice severely sets the boundary and says: No further! This is the limit. For you there is no forgiveness, and there is nothing more to be said.

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Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
2 months 3 weeks ago
The will is not free to...

The will is not free to strive toward whatever is declared good.

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Thesis 10
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
1 month ago
Husserl has shown that man's prejudices...

Husserl has shown that man's prejudices go a great deal deeper than his intellect or his emotions. Consciousness itself is 'prejudiced' - that is to say, intentional.

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p. 54
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
1 month 4 days ago
What we really long for after...

What we really long for after death is to go on living this life, this same mortal life, but without its ills without its tedium, and without death. Seneca, the Spaniard, gave expression to this in his Consolatio ad Marciam... And what but that is the meaning of that comic conception of the eternal recurrence which issued from the tragic soul of poor Nietzsche, hungering for concrete and temporal immortality?

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Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
2 months 2 weeks ago
The man who comes back through...

The man who comes back through the Door in the Wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend.

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Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
2 weeks 6 days ago
Every body continues in its state...

Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.

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Laws of Motion, I
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
2 months 1 week ago
Knowledge is in the end...

Knowledge is in the end based on acknowledgement.

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Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
3 months 2 weeks ago
So it happens at times that...

So it happens at times that a person believes that he has a world-view, but that there is yet one particular phenomenon that is of such a nature that it baffles the understanding, and that he explains differently and attempts to ignore in order not to harbor the thought that this phenomenon might overthrow the whole view, or that his reflection does not possess enough courage and resolution to penetrate the phenomenon with his world-view.

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Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
3 months 2 weeks ago
Science doesn't purvey absolute truth. Science...

Science doesn't purvey absolute truth. Science is a mechanism. It's a way of trying to improve your knowledge of nature. It's a system for testing your thoughts against the universe and seeing whether they match. And this works, not just for the ordinary aspects of science, but for all of life. I should think people would want to know that what they know is truly what the universe is like, or at least as close as they can get to it.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
4 months 2 weeks ago
Well, some get lucky sometimes...
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Main Content / General
Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva
Just now
I have repeatedly stressed that the...

I have repeatedly stressed that the rape of the Earth and rape of women are intimately linked - both metaphorically, in shaping world-views, and materially, in shaping women's everyday lives. The deepening economic vulnerability of women makes them more vulnerable to all forms of violence, including sexual assault, as we found out during a series of public hearings on the impact of economic reforms on women organized by the National Commission on Women and the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology.

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Ecofeminism, by Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, 1993, (full text pdf)
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
2 months 3 weeks ago
There is no man so good,...

There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

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Book III, Ch. 9. Of Vanity
Philosophical Maxims
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
1 month 2 weeks ago
Women are systematically degraded by receiving...

Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority.

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Ch. 4
Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
2 months 2 weeks ago
Nature does nothing in vain, and...

Nature does nothing in vain, and in the use of means to her goals she is not prodigal. Her giving to man reason and the freedom of the will which depends upon it is clear indication of her purpose. Man accordingly was not to be guided by instinct, not nurtured and instructed with ready-made knowledge; rather, he should bring forth everything out of his own resources.

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Third Thesis
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 months 2 weeks ago
If the single man plant himself...

If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him. 6. Nature, Addresses and Lectures.

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The American Scholar
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 month 1 week ago
Then he said to them, "Watch...

Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." ' "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

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12:15-21 (NIV)
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
3 months 2 weeks 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
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
2 months 2 weeks ago
We Britons should rejoice that we...

We Britons should rejoice that we have contrived to reach much legal democracy (we still need more of the economic) without losing our ceremonial Monarchy. For there, right in the midst of our lives, is that which satisfies the craving for inequality, and acts as a permanent reminder that medicine is not food. Hence a man's reaction to Monarchy is a kind of test. Monarchy can easily be "debunked", but watch the faces, mark well the accents of the debunkers. These are the men whose taproot in Eden has been cut - whom no rumor of the polyphony, the dance, can reach - men to whom pebbles laid in a row are more beautiful than an arch. Yet even if they desire mere equality they cannot reach it. Where men are forbidden to honor a king they honor millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead - even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served - deny it food and it will gobble poison.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
1 month 3 weeks ago
We vainly accuse the fury of...

We vainly accuse the fury of guns, and the new inventions of death; it is in the power of every hand to destroy us, and we are beholden unto every one we meet he doth not kill us.

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Section 44
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger
2 months 1 week ago
If in Nietzsche's thinking the prior...

If in Nietzsche's thinking the prior tradition of Western thought is gathered and completed in a decisive respect, then the confrontation with Nietzsche becomes one with all Western thought hitherto.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 month 1 week ago
Every plant, which my heavenly Father...

Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

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15:13-14 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
2 days ago
I have endeavoured to show that...

I have endeavoured to show that no absolute structural line of demarcation, wider than that between the animals which immediately succeed us in the scale, can be drawn between the animal world and ourselves; and I may add the expression of my belief that the attempt to draw a physical distinction is equally futile, and that even the highest faculties of feeling and of intellect begin to germinate in lower forms of life.

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Ch.2, p. 129
Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
2 weeks ago
Even when the wound is healed,...

Even when the wound is healed, the scar remains.

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Maxim 236
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 2 weeks ago
The world is full of conflicts;...

The world is full of conflicts; and, overshadowing all minor conflicts, the titanic struggle between Communism and anti-Communism. Almost everybody who is politically conscious has strong feelings about one or more of these issues; but we want you, if you can, to set aside such feelings and consider yourselves only as members of a biological species which has had a remarkable history, and whose disappearance none of us can desire. We shall try to say no single word which should appeal to one group rather than to another. All, equally, are in peril, and, if the peril is understood, there is hope that they may collectively avert it.

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Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
1 month 4 days ago
Martyrs create faith, faith does not...

Martyrs create faith, faith does not create martyrs.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 1 week ago
Heroes abound at the dawn of...

Heroes abound at the dawn of civilizations, during pre-Homeric and Gothic epochs, when people, not having yet experienced spiritual torture, satisfy their thirst for renunciation through a derivative: heroism.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 2 weeks ago
Written words differ from spoken words...

Written words differ from spoken words in being material structures. A spoken word is a process in the physical world, having an essential time-order; a written word is a series of pieces of matter, having an essential space-order.

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An Outline of Philosophy Ch.4 Language, 1927
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 month 1 week ago
It is written again, Thou shalt...

It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

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4:7 (KJV) Said to Satan. The reference is to Deuteronomy 6:16, "Ye shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah." (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
3 months 2 days ago
What is love's perfection? To love...

What is love's perfection? To love our enemies, and to love them to the end that they may be our brothers.

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First Homily, as translated by John Burnaby (1955), p. 266
Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
1 month 3 weeks ago
The Americans combine the notions of...

The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to live.

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Chapter XVII.
Philosophical Maxims
Cisero
Cisero
3 months 4 days ago
Force overcome by force.

Force overcome by force.

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Pro Milone, Chapter XI, section 30 Variant translation: Violence conquered by violence.
Philosophical Maxims
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