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Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
3 months 2 weeks ago
"I do not know whether behind...

"I do not know whether behind appearances there lives and moves a secret essence superior to me. Nor do I ask; I do not care. I create phenomena in swarms, and paint with a full palette a gigantic and gaudy curtain before the abyss. Do not say, "Draw the curtain that I may see the painting." The curtain is the painting.

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Philosophical Maxims
Herbert A. Simon
Herbert A. Simon
5 months 3 weeks ago
The world you perceive is drastically...

The world you perceive is drastically simplified model of the real world.

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p. xxvi.
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
3 months 1 week ago
The universal nature has no external...

The universal nature has no external space; but the wondrous part of her art is that though she has circumscribed herself, everything which is within her which appears to decay and to grow old and to be useless she changes into herself, and again makes other new things from these very same, so that she requires neither substance from without nor wants a place into which she may cast that which decays. She is content then with her own space, and her own matter, and her own art.

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VIII, 50
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
7 months 2 weeks ago
It is in this way that...

It is in this way that all my books have been composed. They were always written at least twice over; a first draft of the entire work was completed to the very end of the subject, then the whole begun again de novo; but incorporating, in the second writing, all sentences and parts of sentences of the old draft, which appeared as suitable to my purpose as anything which I could write in lieu of them. I have found great advantages in this system of double redaction. It combines, better than any other mode of composition, the freshness and vigour of the first conception, with the superior precision and completeness resulting from prolonged thought. In my own case, moreover, I have found that the patience necessary for a careful elaboration of the details of composition and expression, costs much less effort after the entire subject has been once gone through, and the substance of all that I find to say has in some manner, however imperfect, been got upon paper.

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(p. 222)
Philosophical Maxims
Max Stirner
Max Stirner
4 months ago
But let the individual man lay...

But let the individual man lay claim to ever so many rights because Man or the concept man 'entitles' him to them, because his being man does it: what do I care for his right and his claim? If he has his right only from Man and does not have it from me, then for me he has no right. His life, for example, counts to me only for what it is worth to me. I respect neither a so-called right of property (or his claim to tangible goods) nor yet his right to the 'sanctuary of his inner nature' (or his right to have the spiritual goods and divinities, his gods, remain un-aggrieved). His goods, the sensuous as well as the spiritual, are mine, and I dispose of them as proprietor, in the measure of my - might.

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Cambridge 1995, p. 219
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
7 months 2 weeks ago
Most of what happens actually is...

Most of what happens actually is forgotten.

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Ch. 16
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
5 months 1 week ago
Headlines are icons, not literature.

Headlines are icons, not literature.

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(p. 5)
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
7 months 2 weeks ago
I should as soon think of...

I should as soon think of swimming across Charles River when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my books in originals when I have them rendered for me in my mother tongue.

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Books
Philosophical Maxims
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
7 months 1 week ago
There is object proof that homosexuality...

There is object proof that homosexuality is more interesting than heterosexuality. It's that one knows a considerable number of heterosexuals who would wish to become homosexuals, whereas one knows very few homosexuals who would really like to become heterosexuals.

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As quoted in Who's Who in Contemporary Gay & Lesbian History: From World War II to the Present Day (2001) by Robert Aldrich and Gary Wotherspoon ISBN 041522974X
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
4 months ago
What say you…

"What," say you, "are you giving me advice? Indeed, have you already advised yourself, already corrected your own faults? Is this the reason why you have leisure to reform other men?" No, I am not so shameless as to undertake to cure my fellow-men when I am ill myself. I am, however, discussing with you troubles which concern us both, and sharing the remedy with you, just as if we were lying ill in the same hospital.

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Philosophical Maxims
Cornel West
Cornel West
7 months 1 week ago
You can't lead the people if...

You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people, if you don't serve the people.

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Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom (2008); also on "The Way I See It" Starbucks Coffee Cup #284
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
6 months 1 week ago
Entertainment and learning are not opposites;...

Entertainment and learning are not opposites; entertainment may be the most effective mode of learning.

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pp. 66-67
Philosophical Maxims
Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr
3 months 3 weeks ago
No, no, you are not thinking,...

No, no, you are not thinking, you are just being logical.

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In response to those who made purely formal or mathematical arguments, as quoted in What Little I Remember (1979) by Otto Robert Frisch, p. 95
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
4 months 6 days ago
To a shower of gold most...

To a shower of gold most things are penetrable.

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Pt. I, Bk. III, ch. 7.
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
5 months 2 weeks ago
Remember then: there is only one...

Remember then: there is only one time that is important-Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power. The most necessary man is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with any one else: and the most important affair is, to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!

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Part VII: Stories Given to Aid Persecuted Jews (1903) "Three Questions", translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, p271.
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
4 months ago
Fire tries gold….

Fire tries gold, misfortune tries brave men.

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De Providentia (On Providence), 5.9, translated by Aubrey Stewart Alternate translation: Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men. (translator unknown).
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
6 months 6 days ago
To look at a work of...

To look at a work of art in order to see how well certain rules are observed and canons conformed to impoverished perception. But to strive to note the ways in which certain conditions are fulfilled, such as the organic means by which the media is made to express and carry definite parts, or how the problem of adequate individualization is solved, sharpens esthetic perception and enriches its content.

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p. 213
Philosophical Maxims
Zoroaster
Zoroaster
7 months 5 days ago
Practice no sloth, so that the...

Practice no sloth, so that the duty and good work, which it is necessary for thee to do, may not remain undone.

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(p. 59)
Philosophical Maxims
Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras
7 months 5 days ago
The sun provides the moon with...

The sun provides the moon with its brightness.

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Fragment in Plutarch De facie in orbe lunae, 929b, as quoted in The Riverside Dictionary of Biography (2005), p. 23
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
6 months 1 week ago
The tendency to regard continuity, in...

The tendency to regard continuity, in the sense in which I shall define it, as an idea of prime importance in philosophy conveniently may be be termed synechism. The present paper is intended chiefly to show what synechism is, and what it leads to.

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Philosophical Maxims
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
5 months 1 week ago
All a writer has to do...

All a writer has to do to get a woman is to say he's a writer. It's an aphrodisiac.

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As quoted in "Dailer's Choice" by Harriet Van Horne, in New York Magazine Vol. 10, No. 13 (28 March 1977), p. 80
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
7 months 3 weeks ago
We do not become righteous by...

We do not become righteous by doing righteous deeds but, having been made righteous, we do righteous deeds.

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Thesis 40
Philosophical Maxims
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
6 months 2 weeks ago
It is so by nature that...

It is so by nature that the plant will develop with regularity, that the animal will move purposefully, and that human beings will think. Why should I take exception to recognizing also the last as the expression of an original force of nature, as I do the first and the second?

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P. Preuss, trans. (1987), p. 11
Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
6 months 2 weeks ago
He who carries self-regard far enough...

He who carries self-regard far enough to keep himself in good health and high spirits, in the first place thereby becomes an immediate source of happiness to those around, and in the second place maintains the ability to increase their happiness by altruistic actions. But one whose bodily vigour and mental health are undermined by self-sacrifice carried too far, in the first place becomes to those around a cause of depression, and in the second place renders himself incapable, or less capable, of actively furthering their welfare. In estimating conduct we must remember that there are those who by their joyousness beget joy in others, and that there are those who by their melancholy cast a gloom on every circle they enter.

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Ethics (New York:1915), § 72, pp. 193-194
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
7 months 2 weeks ago
I die adoring God…

I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.

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Déclaration de Voltaire, note to his secretary, Jean-Louis Wagnière, 28 February 1778
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
5 months ago
Life is too short to occupy...

Life is too short to occupy oneself with the slaying of the slain more than once. One of a series of exchanges when Richard Owen repeated generally repudiated claims about the Gorilla brain in a Royal Institution lecture.

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Athenaeum (13 April 1861) p. 498; Browne Vol 2, p. 159
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
8 months 1 week ago
God is not needed to create...

God is not needed to create guilt or to punish. Our fellow men suffice, aided by ourselves.

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Philosophical Maxims
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
7 months 2 weeks ago
No one has the right….

No one has the right to obey.

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in a radio interview with Joachim Fest (9 November 1964)
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
7 months 1 week ago
To convince someone of the truth,...

To convince someone of the truth, it is not enough to state it, but rather one must find the path from error to truth.

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Ch. 7 : Remarks on Frazer's Golden Bough, p. 119
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
7 months 2 weeks ago
A man who is so exceedingly...

A man who is so exceedingly civil that for the sake of quietude and a peaceable name will silently see the community imposed upon, or their rights invaded, may, in his principles, be a good man, but cannot be stiled a useful one, neither does he come up to the full mark of his duty; for silence becomes a kind of crime when it operates as a cover or an encouragement to the guilty. 

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"To the People of America", Pennsylvania Packet, January 23, 1779
Philosophical Maxims
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
6 months 2 weeks ago
Your worst sin is that you...

Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises
4 months ago
If historical experience could teach us...

If historical experience could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.

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Chapter XV. The Market, § 4 The Scope and Method of Catallactics
Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
7 months 2 weeks ago
Society can and does execute its...

Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practises a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough: there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling; against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them; to fetter the development, and, if possible, prevent the formation, of any individuality not in harmony with its ways, and compel all characters to fashion themselves upon the model of its own.

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Ch. 1: Introductory
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
6 months 1 week ago
The general co-operation of all members...

The general co-operation of all members of society for the purpose of planned exploitation of the forces of production, the expansion of production to the point where it will satisfy the needs of all, the abolition of a situation in which the needs of some are satisfied at the expense of the needs of others, the complete liquidation of classes and their conflicts, the rounded development of the capacities of all members of society through the elimination of the present division of labor, through industrial education, through engaging in varying activities, through the participation by all in the enjoyments produced by all, through the combination of city and country - these are the main consequences of the abolition of private property.

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Philosophical Maxims
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre
3 months 1 week ago
The greatest of errors therefore would...

The greatest of errors therefore would be to believe what the modern sect, which has only worked to obscure all truths, never ceases to advance, which is that what cannot be defined is not known, while on the contrary what is of the essence of what is perfectly known cannot be defined; for the more a thing is known, the more it brings us to intuition, which excludes all equation.

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p. 70
Philosophical Maxims
Epictetus
Epictetus
7 months 4 weeks ago
Why, what is weeping and sighing?...

Why, what is weeping and sighing? A judgement. What is misfortune? A judgement. What are strife, disagreement, fault-finding, accusing, impiety, foolishness? They are all judgements.

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Book III, ch. 3, 18, 19.
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
5 months 1 week ago
All words at every level of...

All words at every level of prose and poetry and all devices of language and speech derive their meaning from figure / ground relation.

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quoted in McLuhan: A Guide for the Perplexed by W. Terrence Gordon, 2010, p. 167
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
7 months 2 weeks ago
As soon as the land of...

As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.

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Chapter VI, p. 60.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
4 months 6 days ago
I esteem the modern error, That...

I esteem the modern error, That all goes by self-interest and the checking and balancing of greedy knaveries, and that in short, there is nothing divine whatever in the association of men, a still more despicable error, natural as it is to an unbelieving century, than that of a "divine right" in people called Kings. I say, Find me the true Konning, King, or Able-man, and he has a divine right over me.

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Philosophical Maxims
Joseph de Maistre
Joseph de Maistre
3 months 1 week ago
Creating difficulties for himself for the...

Creating difficulties for himself for the pleasure of resolving them is a strange human mania.

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p. 48
Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
7 months 5 days ago
Verily we know nothing. Truth is...

Verily we know nothing. Truth is buried deep.

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(Another translation: "Of truth we know nothing, for truth is in a well." Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers R.D. Hicks, Ed.)
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
6 months 1 week ago
A person who wakes up after...

A person who wakes up after a night of unbroken sleep has the illusion of beginning something new. When one instead remains awake the whole night long, nothing new begins.

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Philosophical Maxims
Leszek Kołakowski
Leszek Kołakowski
4 months 1 week ago
In 1903 there appeared Problems of...

In 1903 there appeared Problems of Idealism, a collection of essays many of whose authors had recently been Marxists, but which condemned Marxism and materialism for their moral nihilism, contempt of personality, determinism, and fanatical pursuit of social values regardless of the individuals who made up society; they also attacked Marxism for its uncritical worship of progress and sacrifice of the present to the future.

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(pp. 420-1)
Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
7 months 4 days ago
Heu, Fortuna, quis est crudelior in...

O Fortune, cruellest of heavenly powers, why make such game of this poor life of ours?

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Book II, satire viii, line 61 (trans. Conington)
Philosophical Maxims
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
7 months 2 weeks ago
In principle and in practice, in...

In principle and in practice, in a right track and in a wrong one, the rarest of all human qualities is consistency.

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Ch. 1: Of the Principle of Utility
Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
5 months 4 weeks ago
Because the book became a freak...

Because the book became a freak 'bestseller', because I found myself bracketed with the 'Angry Young Men' of the period, I found myself carried to 'fame' on a wave of publicity -- only to discover that this kind of fame is one of the subtlest forms of obscurity. Everybody knew who I was, and nobody knew what I stood for. The public image meant that nobody was interested in what I had to say, for everyone was convinced that they already knew. I could talk until I was blue in the face about my attempt to revise the pessimistic existentialism of Heidegger, Camus and Sartre; as far as most people were concerned, I was an autodidact who was angry about something or other.

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p. 188, George Bernard Shaw: A personal view
Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
6 months 3 weeks ago
It is then unnecessary to investigate...

It is then unnecessary to investigate whether there be beyond the heaven Space, Void or Time. For there is a single general space, a single vast immensity which we may freely call Void; in it are innumerable globes like this one on which we live and grow. This space we declare to be infinite, since neither reason, convenience, possibility, sense-perception nor nature assign to it a limit. In it are an infinity of worlds of the same kind as our own.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
4 days ago
In the hours without....
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Main Content / General
Jesus
Jesus
6 months 1 week ago
And then if any man shall...

And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not: For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things. But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

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13:21-27 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
7 months 1 week ago
I cannot get from the nature...

I cannot get from the nature of the proposition to the individual logical operations!!! That is, I cannot bring out how far the proposition is the picture of the situation. I am almost inclined to give up all my efforts.

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Journal entries (12 March 1915 and 15 March 1915) p. 41
Philosophical Maxims
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