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Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
3 months 3 weeks ago
There are ages in which the...
There are ages in which the rational man and the intuitive man stand side by side, the one in fear of intuition, the other with scorn for abstraction. The latter is just as irrational as the former is inartistic. They both desire to rule over life: the former, by knowing how to meet his principle needs by means of foresight, prudence, and regularity; the latter, by disregarding these needs and, as an "overjoyed hero," counting as real only that life which has been disguised as illusion and beauty.
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Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
3 months 2 days ago
Faith ever says, "If Thou wilt,"...

Faith ever says, "If Thou wilt," not "If Thou canst."

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p. 241
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
1 week 3 days ago
The great end of life is...

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

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"Technical Education"
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
2 months ago
That Vulcan gave arrows unto Apollo...

That Vulcan gave arrows unto Apollo and Diana the fourth day after their Nativities, according to Gentile Theology, may pass for no blind apprehension of the Creation of the Sun and Moon, in the work of the fourth day.

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Opening lines of Ch. 1
Philosophical Maxims
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
1 month 1 week ago
"And the upshot of all this,"...

"And the upshot of all this," so I have been told more than once and by more than one person, "will be simply that all you will succeed in doing will be to drive people to the wildest Catholicism." And I have been accused of being a reactionary and even a Jesuit. Be it so! ...I know very well it is madness to seek to turn the waters of the river back to their source, and that it is only the ignorant who seek to find in the past a remedy for their present ills; but I know too that anyone who fights for any ideal whatever, although his ideal may seem to lie in the past, is driving the world on to the future, and that the only reactionaries are those who find themselves at home in the present. Every supposed restoration of the past is a creation of the future, and if the past which it is sought to restore is a dream, something imperfectly known, so much the better.

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Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
1 month 3 weeks ago
A diversity of opinion upon almost...

A diversity of opinion upon almost every principle of politics, had indeed drawn a strong line of separation between them and some others. However, they were desirous not to extend the misfortune by unnecessary bitterness; they wished to prevent a difference of opinion on the commonwealth from festering into rancorous and incurable hostility. Accordingly they endeavoured that all past controversies should be forgotten; and that enough for the day should be the evil thereof. There is however a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. Men may tolerate injuries, whilst they are only personal to themselves. But it is not the first of virtues to bear with moderation the indignities that are offered to our country.

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Describing the Government's position at a previous time of deep division in British politics in fact over policy on America, Observations on a Late Publication on the Present State of the Nation (1769), page 2
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 weeks 3 days ago
People understand the meaning of eating...

People understand the meaning of eating lies in the nourishment of the body only when they cease to consider that the object of that activity is pleasure. ...People understand the meaning of art only when they cease to consider that the aim of that activity is beauty, i.e., pleasure.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
2 months ago
Happy are they that go to...

Happy are they that go to bed with grave music like Pythagoras.

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Philosophical Maxims
Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
1 month 6 days ago
In the dominant Western religious system,...

In the dominant Western religious system, the love of God is essentially the same as the belief in God, in God's existence, God's justice, God's love. The love of God is essentially a thought experience. In the Eastern religions and in mysticism, the love of God is an intense feeling experience of oneness, inseparably linked with the expression of this love in every act of living.

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Ch. 2
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
3 months 3 weeks ago
As a genius of construction man...
As a genius of construction man raises himself far above the bee in the following way: whereas the bee builds with wax that he gathers from nature, man builds with the far more delicate conceptual material which he first has to manufacture from himself.
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Philosophical Maxims
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
1 month 2 weeks ago
Saint-Simon, like Hegel, begins with the...

Saint-Simon, like Hegel, begins with the assertion that the social order engendered by the French Revolution proved that mankind has reached the adult state. In contrast to Hegel, however, he described this stage primarily in terms of its economy; the industrial process was the sole integrating factor in the new social order.

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P. 330
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
2 months 2 weeks ago
For remember that in general we...

For remember that in general we don't use language according to strict rules - it hasn't been taught us by means of strict rules, either.

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p. 25
Philosophical Maxims
William Godwin
William Godwin
1 month 3 weeks ago
Anarchy, in its own nature, is...

Anarchy, in its own nature, is an evil of short duration. The more horrible are the mischiefs it inflicts, the more does it hasten to a close.

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Book 7, Ch. 5
Philosophical Maxims
Novalis
Novalis
1 month 3 weeks ago
We are near awakening when we...

We are near awakening when we dream that we dream.

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Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
1 month 2 weeks ago
The class of the wholly propertyless,...

The class of the wholly propertyless, who are obliged to sell their labor to the bourgeoisie in order to get, in exchange, the means of subsistence for their support. This is called the class of proletarians, or the proletariat.

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Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
3 weeks ago
No doubt some of your cousins...

No doubt some of your cousins and great-uncles died in childhood, but not a single one of your ancestors did. Ancestors just don't die young!

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Ch. 3. Immortal Coils
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
2 months 3 weeks ago
While loving glory…

While loving glory so much how can you persist in a plan which will cause you to lose it?

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Letters of Voltaire and Frederick the Great (New York: Brentano's, 1927), transl. Richard Aldington, letter 130 from Voltaire to Frederick II of Prussia, October 1757.
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
1 month 1 week ago
The respect inspired by the link...

The respect inspired by the link between man and the reality alien to this world can make itself evident to that part of man which belongs to the reality of this world. The reality of this world is necessity. The part of man which is in this world is the part which is in bondage to necessity and subject to the misery of need. The one possibility of indirect expression of respect for the human being is offered by men's needs, the needs of the soul and of the body, in this world.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 3 weeks ago
A physicist looks for causes; that...

A physicist looks for causes; that does not necessarily imply that there are causes everywhere. A man may look for gold without assuming that there is gold everywhere; if he finds gold, well and good, if he doesn't he's had bad luck. The same is true when the physicists look for causes.

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BBC Radio Debate on the Existence of God, Russell vs. Copleston, 1948
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
2 months 3 weeks ago
The external embodiment of an act...

The external embodiment of an act is composed of many parts, and may be regarded as capable of being divided into an infinite number of particulars. An act may be looked on as in the first instance coming into contact with only one of these particulars. But the truth of the particular is the universal. A definite act is not confined in its content to one isolated point of the varied external world, but is universal, including these varied relations within itself. The purpose, which is the product of thought and embraces not the particular only but also the universal side, is intention.

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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Philosophy of Right translated by SW Dyde Queen's University Canada 1896 p. 114-115
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
1 month 2 weeks ago
The same feeling of not belonging,...

The same feeling of not belonging, of futility, wherever I go: I pretend interest in what matters nothing to me, I bestir myself mechanically or out of charity, without ever being caught up, without ever being somewhere. What attracts me is elsewhere, and I don't know where that elsewhere is.

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Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Schlegel
Friedrich Schlegel
1 month 3 weeks ago
The mind understands something only insofar...

The mind understands something only insofar as it absorbs it like a seed into itself, nurtures it, and lets it grow into blossom and fruit. Therefore scatter holy seeds into the soil of the spirit.

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"Ideas," Lucinde and the Fragments, P. Firchow, trans. (1991), § 5
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard
3 weeks 6 days ago
For nothing can be greater than...

For nothing can be greater than seduction itself, not even the order that destroys it.

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Seduction
Philosophical Maxims
Democritus
Democritus
2 months 2 weeks ago
Those who have a well-ordered character...

Those who have a well-ordered character lead also a well-ordered life.

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Philosophical Maxims
Judith Butler
Judith Butler
3 weeks 5 days ago
Quite apart from assiduous efforts to...

Quite apart from assiduous efforts to restrict the use of violence as means rather than an end, the actualization of violence as a means can inadvertently become its own end, producing new violence, producing violence anew, reiterating the license, and licensing further violence. Violence does not exhaust itself in the realization of a just end; rather, it renews itself in directions that exceed both deliberate intention and instrumental schemes. In other words, by acting as if the use of violence can be a means to achieve a nonviolent end, one imagines that the practice of violence does not in the act posit violence as its own end. The technē is undermined by the praxis, and the use of violence only makes the world into a more violent place, by bringing more violence into the world.

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p. 20
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean Jacques Rousseau
2 months 3 weeks ago
What good would it be to...

What good would it be to possess the whole universe if one were its only survivor?

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A Lasting Peace Through the Federation of Europe, 1756
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
3 months 3 weeks ago
We get into the habit of...

We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking.

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Philosophical Maxims
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
2 weeks 3 days ago
I never yet touched a fig...

I never yet touched a fig leaf that didn't turn into a price tag.

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Humboldt's Gift (1975), p. 159
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
2 months 3 weeks ago
The opinions that are held with...

The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction.

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Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately. Introduction to 1961 edition of Sceptical Essays, 1961
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
2 months 4 weeks ago
The whole is a riddle, an...

The whole is a riddle, an aenigma, an inexplicable mystery. Doubt, uncertainty, suspence of judgment appear the only result of our most accurate scrutiny, concerning this subject. But such is the frailty of human reason, and such the irresistible contagion of opinion, that even this deliberate doubt could scarcely be upheld; did we not enlarge our view, and opposing one species of superstition to another, set them a quarrelling; while we ourselves, during their fury and contention, happily make our escape, into the calm, though obscure, regions of philosophy.

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Part XV - General corollary
Philosophical Maxims
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
3 months 1 week ago
Do not imagine that it is...

Do not imagine that it is less an accident by which you find yourself master of the wealth which you possess, than that by which this man found himself king.

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Philosophical Maxims
Averroes
Averroes
3 months 1 week ago
The necessary connexion of movement and...

The necessary connexion of movement and time is real and time is something the soul constructs in movement.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 days ago
Do not mistake..
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Main Content / General
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine of Hippo
3 months 1 week ago
O sons of Peace, sons of...

O sons of Peace, sons of the One Catholic [Church], walk in your way, and sing as you walk. Travelers do this in order to keep up their spirits.

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p.427
Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
2 months 2 weeks ago
Tis not sufficient….

Tis not sufficient to combine well-chosen words in a well-ordered line.

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Book I, satire iv, line 54 (translated by John Conington)
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
1 month 3 weeks ago
We should not pretend to understand...

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy. Variant translation: We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.

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Conclusion, p. 628
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
1 month 2 weeks ago
Now learn a parable of the...

Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

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13:28-37 (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Epictetus
Epictetus
3 months 1 week ago
Although life is a matter of...

Although life is a matter of indifference, the use which you make of it is not a matter of indifference.

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Book II, ch. 6, 1.
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
1 month 2 weeks ago
The vicious circle of dread of...

The vicious circle of dread of war which leads the nations to arm themselves for self-protection, with the result that bloated armaments ultimately lead to the war which they were intended to avert, can be broken in either of two conceivable ways. There might arise a unique world power, brought into being by the unification of all those now in possession of weapons, and equipped with the capacity to forbid the lesser and unarmed nations to make war. On the other hand, it may arise by the working of a fate to us still inscrutable which, out of ruin, will disclose a way towards the development of a new human being. To will the discovery of this way would be blind impotence, but those who do not wish to deceive themselves will be prepared for the possibility.

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Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 3 weeks ago
The same law that shapes the...

The same law that shapes the earth-star shapes the snow-star. As surely as the petals of a flower are fixed, each of these countless snow-stars comes whirling to earth...these glorious spangles, the sweeping of heaven's floor.

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January 5, 1856
Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
2 months 3 weeks ago
I do not think the resemblance...

I do not think the resemblance between the Christian and the merely imaginative experience is accidental. I think that all things, in their own way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least. "Reflect" is the important word. This lower life of the imagination is not a beginning of, nor a step toward, the higher life of the spirit, merely an image.

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Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 months 3 weeks ago
We boil at different degrees. Eloquence

We boil at different degrees.

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Eloquence
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
2 months 3 weeks ago
As if our birth had at...

As if our birth had at first sundered things, and we had been thrust up through into nature like a wedge, and not till the wound heals and the scar disappears, do we begin to discover where we are, and that nature is one and continuous everywhere.

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Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
3 months 3 weeks ago
Happy is the one in whom...

Happy is the one in whom there is true sorrow over his sin, so that the extreme unimportance to him of everything else is only the negative expression of the confirmation that one thing is unconditionally important to him, so that the unconditional unimportance to him of everything else is a deadly sickness that still is very far from being a sickness unto death but is precisely unto life, because the life is in this, that one thing is unconditionally important to him: to find forgiveness.

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Philosophical Maxims
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut
3 weeks 5 days ago
Literature is idiosyncratic arrangements in horizontal...

Literature is idiosyncratic arrangements in horizontal lines in only twenty-six symbols, ten arabic numbers, and about eight punctuation marks.

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Public conversation with Lee Stringer, in Like Shaking Hands With God
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
1 month 3 weeks ago
...no Monarchy limited or unlimited, nor...

...no Monarchy limited or unlimited, nor any of the old Republics, can possibly be safe as long as this strange, nameless, wild, enthusiastic thing is established in the Center of Europe.

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Letter to John Trevor (January 1791), quoted in Alfred Cobban and Robert A. Smith (eds.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume VI: July 1789-December 1791 (1967), p. 218
Philosophical Maxims
Karl Marx
Karl Marx
2 months 3 weeks ago
It is high time that Communists...

It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the spectre of Communism with a Manifesto of the party itself.

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Preamble, paragraph 3.
Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
3 months 3 weeks ago
It is simplicity that makes the...

It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

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Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
2 months 3 weeks ago
The standard of permanent Christianity must...

The standard of permanent Christianity must be kept clear in our minds and it is against that standard that we must test all contemporary thought. In fact, we must at all costs not move with the times.

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"Christian Apologetics" (1945), p. 92
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
3 weeks 1 day ago
We are swiftly moving at present...

We are swiftly moving at present from an era where business was our culture into an era when culture will be our business. Between these poles stand the huge and ambiguous entertainment industries.

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(p. 384)
Philosophical Maxims
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