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Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
3 weeks 5 days ago
In the United States, the majority...

In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.

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Book One, Chapter II.
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
1 month 3 weeks ago
You can hardly convince a man...

You can hardly convince a man of an error in a lifetime, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be.

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Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
4 days ago
That passivity was the essence of...

That passivity was the essence of the problem. The human being was intended to be passive only in a condition of fatigue, and not always then. Too much passivity of body produced surplus fat, short-windedness, indigestion: passivity of mind produced the same symptoms on the mental level. a feeling of spiritual dyspepsia. Since the average human being has no purposes that are not connected with the activities of keeping alive, the black room was bound to produce passivity, increasing dullness, a state in which the mind is at once awake and static, motionless, stagnant. This sense of dullness was nothing less than the collapse of the sense of reality and of values, the retreat into one's inner world.

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p. 72
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
2 months 3 weeks ago
Let us suppose that a man...

Let us suppose that a man believes in eternal life on Christ's word. In that case he believes without any fuss about being profound and searching and philosophical and racking his brains.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 week 6 days ago
Wherefore think ye evil in your...

Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

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9:4-6 (KJV) Said to some scribes.
Philosophical Maxims
Heraclitus
Heraclitus
2 months 1 week ago
Speaking with sense we must fortify...

Speaking with sense we must fortify ourselves in the common sense of all, as a city is fortified by its law, and even more forcefully. For all human laws are nourished by the one divine law. For it prevails as far as it will and suffices for all and is superabundant.

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Philosophical Maxims
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
1 month 3 weeks ago
All... good and useful properties of...

All... good and useful properties of character have a price in exchange for others which have just as much use. Talent has a market price, since the sovereign or estate-owner can use a talented person in all sorts of ways. Temperament has a fancy price,22 since one can converse well with such a person; he is a pleasant companion. But, character has an inner value[,] and it is above all price.

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Kant, Immanuel (1996), page 203
Philosophical Maxims
Thales of Miletus
Thales of Miletus
1 month 2 days ago
Do not ask who started it....

Do not ask who started it.

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Finish it A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908) by Tryon Edwards, p. 234
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
1 month 2 weeks ago
The truth can be spoken only...

The truth can be spoken only by someone who is already at home in it; not by someone who still lives in untruthfulness, and does no more than reach out towards it from within untruthfulness.

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p. 41e
Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
4 weeks ago
It is manifest... that every soul...

It is manifest... that every soul and spirit hath a certain continuity with the spirit of the universe, so that it must be understood to exist and to be included not only there where it liveth and feeleth, but it is also by its essence and substance diffused throughout immensity... The power of each soul is itself somehow present afar in the universe... Naught is mixed, yet is there some presence. Anything we take in the universe, because it has in itself that which is All in All, includes in its own way the entire soul of the world, which is entirely in any part of it.

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Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
1 month 3 days ago
Sobriety is the strength of the...

Sobriety is the strength of the soul, for it preserves its reason unclouded by passion.

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As quoted in The History of Philosophy: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Present Century (1819) by William Enfield Sobriety is the strength of the mind
Philosophical Maxims
Max Scheler
Max Scheler
1 week 4 days 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
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
1 month 3 weeks ago
If all mankind minus one, were...

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

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Ch. II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion
Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
1 month 4 weeks ago
All passions that suffer themselves to...

All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.

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Ch. 2. Of Sorrow, tr. Cotton, rev. W. Hazlitt, 1842
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
1 month 3 weeks ago
...this our world, which is so...

...this our world, which is so real, with all its suns and milky ways is-nothing.

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Philosophical Maxims
Herbert A. Simon
Herbert A. Simon
Just now
Organizations and institutions permit stable expectations...

Organizations and institutions permit stable expectations to be formed by each member of the group as to the behavior of the other members under specified conditions.

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p. 100.
Philosophical Maxims
Theodor Adorno
Theodor Adorno
1 week ago
Impulse, subjectivity and profanation, the old...

Impulse, subjectivity and profanation, the old adversaries of materialistic alienation, now succumb to it. ... The representatives of the opposition to the authoritarian schema become witnesses to the authority of commercial success. ... In the service of success they renounce that insubordinate character which was theirs.

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p. 273
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
1 month 2 weeks ago
God whispers to us in our...

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

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Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
1 month 3 weeks ago
Need and struggle are what excite...

Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us; our hour of triumph is what brings the void. Not the Jews of the captivity, but those of the days of Solomon's glory are those from whom the pessimistic utterances in our Bible come.

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"Is Life Worth Living?"
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
1 month 3 weeks ago
Though experience be our only guide...

Though experience be our only guide in reasoning concerning matters of fact; it must be acknowledged, that this guide is not altogether infallible, but in some cases is apt to lead us into errors.

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Section 10 : Of Miracles Pt. 1
Philosophical Maxims
Novalis
Novalis
2 weeks 4 days ago
The seat of the soul is...

The seat of the soul is where the inner world and the outer world meet. Where they overlap, it is in every point of the overlap.

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Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
3 weeks 4 days ago
There are things I can't force....

There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.

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As quoted in Cracking the Code of Our Physical Universe : The Key to a Whole New World of Enlightenment and Enrichment (2006) by Matthew M Radmanesh, p. 91
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 weeks 3 days ago
Try to be free: you will...

Try to be free: you will die of hunger.

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Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
1 month 3 weeks ago
Modern transcendental idealism, Emersonianism, for instance,...

Modern transcendental idealism, Emersonianism, for instance, also seems to let God evaporate into abstract Ideality. Not a deity in concreto, not a superhuman person, but the immanent divinity in things, the essentially spiritual structure of the universe, is the object of the transcendentalist cult. In that address of the graduating class at Divinity College in 1838 which made Emerson famous, the frank expression of this worship of mere abstract laws was what made the scandal of the performance.

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Lecture II, "Circumscription of the Topic"
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
1 week 2 days ago
Science must begin...
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Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
1 month 3 weeks ago
That books do not take the...

That books do not take the place of experience, and that learning is no substitute for genius, are two kindred phenomena; their common ground is that the abstract can never take the place of the perceptive.

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E. Payne, trans., Vol. II, Ch. 7, p. 74
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 week 6 days ago
Verily I say unto you, All...

Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.

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Mark 3:28-29 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
1 week ago
It is impossible to feel equal...

It is impossible to feel equal respect for things that are in fact unequal unless the respect is given to something that is identical in all of them. Men are unequal in all their relations with the things of this world, without exception. The only thing that is identical in all men is the presence of a link with the reality outside the world. All human beings are absolutely identical in so far as they can be thought of as consisting of a centre, which is an unquenchable desire for good, surrounded by an accretion of psychical and bodily matter.

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Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
3 weeks 4 days ago
There is not a Musselman alive...

There is not a Musselman alive who would not imagine that he was performing an action pleasing to God and his Holy Prophet by exterminating every Christian on earth, while the Christians are scarcely more tolerant on their side.

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 weeks 3 days ago
I don't understand why we must...

I don't understand why we must do things in this world, why we must have friends and aspirations, hopes and dreams. Wouldn't it be better to retreat to a faraway corner of the world, where all its noise and complications would be heard no more? Then we could renounce culture and ambitions; we would lose everything and gain nothing; for what is there to be gained from this world?

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Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
2 months ago
Alonso of Aragon was wont to...

Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things - old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

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No. 97
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
2 months 1 week ago
If you would govern a...

If you would govern a state of a thousand chariots (a small-to-middle-size state), you must pay strict attention to business, be true to your word, be economical in expenditure and love the people. You should use them according to the seasons.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean Jacques Rousseau
1 month 3 weeks ago
A country cannot subsist well without...

A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue.

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As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern (1908) by Tryon Edwards, p. 301.
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
1 month 3 weeks ago
When will the world learn that...

When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?

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Letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson, 8 June 1843
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
1 month 2 weeks ago
It's only by thinking even more...

It's only by thinking even more crazily than philosophers do that you can solve their problems.

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p. 75e
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Popper
Karl Popper
1 month 2 weeks ago
If I were to give a...

If I were to give a simple formula or recipe for distinguishing between what I consider to be admissible plans for social reform and inadmissible Utopian blueprints, I might say: Work for the elimination of concrete evils rather than for the realization of abstract goods. Do not aim at establishing happiness by political means. Rather aim at the elimination of concrete miseries.

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p. 385
Philosophical Maxims
Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras
1 month 1 week ago
And since these things are so,...

And since these things are so, we must suppose that there are contained many things and of all sorts in the things that are uniting, seeds of all things, with all sorts of shapes and colours and savours.

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Frag. B 4, quoted in John Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy, (1920), Chapter 6.
Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
1 week 6 days ago
No doubt the spirit or energy...

No doubt the spirit or energy of the world is what is acting in us, as the sea is what rises in every little wave; but it passes through us, and cry out as we may, it will move on. Our privilege is to have perceived it as it moves.

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p. 199
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
1 week 1 day ago
May not the absolute and perfect...

May not the absolute and perfect eternal happiness be an eternal hope, which would die if it were realized? Is it possible to be happy without hope? And there is no place for hope once possession has been realized, for hope, desire, is killed by possession. May it not be, I say, that all souls grow without ceasing, some in a greater measure than others, but all having to pass some time through the same degree of growth, whatever that degree may be, and yet without ever arriving at the infinite, at God, to whom they continually approach? Is not eternal happiness an eternal hope, with its eternal nucleus of sorrow in order that happiness shall not be swallowed up in nothingness?

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Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
2 weeks 3 days ago
Dead of night. No one, nothing...

Dead of night. No one, nothing but the society of the moments. Each pretends to keep us company, then escapes - desertion after desertion.

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Philosophical Maxims
George Santayana
George Santayana
1 week 6 days ago
Liberal philosophy, at this point, ceases...

Liberal philosophy, at this point, ceases to be empirical and British in order to become German and transcendental. Moral life, it now believes, is not the pursuit of liberty and happiness of all sorts by all sorts of different creatures; it is the development of a single spirit in all life through a series of necessary phases, each higher than the preceding one. No man, accordingly, can really or ultimately desire anything but what the best people desire. This is the principle of the higher snobbery; and in fact, all earnest liberals are higher snobs.

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"The Irony of Liberalism"
Philosophical Maxims
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
4 days ago
With all our boasted reforms, our...

With all our boasted reforms, our great social changes, and our far-reaching discoveries, human beings continue to be sent to the worst of hells, wherein they are outraged, degraded, and tortured, that society may be "protected" from the phantoms of its own making.

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Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
1 month 3 weeks ago
He that denies any of the...

He that denies any of the doctrines that Christ has delivered, to be true, denies him to be sent from God, and consequently to be the Messiah; and so ceases to be a Christian.

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§ 232
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
4 days ago
Ritual society is a society of...

Ritual society is a society of rules. It is based not on virtues but on a passion for rules.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
1 month 3 weeks ago
If a man is offered a...

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance with his instincts, he will accept it even on the slenderest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

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Ch. VI: International relations, p. 97
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
2 weeks 3 days ago
What distinct meaning can attach to...

What distinct meaning can attach to saying that an idea in the past in any way affects an idea in the future, from which it is completely detached?

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Philosophical Maxims
Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
4 days ago
One of the major problems of...

One of the major problems of our society is that so many people are too intelligent to accept religion, but not intelligent or strong-minded enough to look for acceptable alternatives; in the same way, many people are strong-minded enough not to want to be 'organization men', but incapable of seeing beyond an act of protest. These situations produce a sense of being 'between two stools', lacking real motive; a sense of mental strain is produced that may find its outlet in violence, or in organised anti-social behaviour.

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p. 224, Crimes of Freedom -- and their cure
Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
1 month 3 days ago
Declining from the public ways, walk...

Declining from the public ways, walk in unfrequented paths.

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Symbol 5
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 month 3 weeks ago
There are two laws discrete Not...

There are two laws discrete Not reconciled, Law for man, and law for thing.

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Ode: Inscribed to W. H. Channing, st. 9
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
1 month 3 weeks ago
Being of opinion that the doctrine...

Being of opinion that the doctrine and history of so extraordinary a sect as the Quakers were very well deserving the curiosity of every thinking man, I resolved to make myself acquainted with them, and for that purpose made a visit to one of the most eminent of that sect in England, who, after having been in trade for thirty years, had the wisdom to prescribe limits to his fortune, and to his desires, and withdrew to a small but pleasant retirement in the country, not many miles from London. Here it was that I made him my visit. His house was small, but neatly built, and with no other ornaments but those of decency and convenience.

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Philosophical Maxims
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