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Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
7 months 3 weeks ago
The virtues of society are the...

The virtues of society are the vices of the saints.

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Circles
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
7 months 3 weeks ago
The music that can deepest reach,...

The music that can deepest reach, And cure all ill, is cordial speech.

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Merlin's Song, II
Philosophical Maxims
Albert Camus
Albert Camus
8 months 2 weeks ago
This was her finest role and...

This was her finest role and the hardest one to play. Choosing between heaven and a ridiculous fidelity, preferring oneself to eternity or losing oneself in God is the age-old tragedy in which each must play his part.

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Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
8 months 3 weeks ago
Man is a synthesis of psyche...

Man is a synthesis of psyche and body, but he is also a synthesis of the temporal and the eternal. In the former, the two factors are psyche and body, and spirit is the third, yet in such a way that one can speak of a synthesis only when the spirit is posited. The latter synthesis has only two factors, the temporal and the eternal. Where is the third factor? And if there is no third factor, there really is no synthesis, for a synthesis that is a contradiction cannot be completed as a synthesis without a third factor, because the fact that the synthesis is a contradiction asserts that it is not. What, then, is the temporal?

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Philosophical Maxims
Theodor Adorno
Theodor Adorno
6 months 1 week ago
The blessing that the market does...

The blessing that the market does not ask about birth is paid for in the exchange society by the fact that the possibilities conferred by birth are molded to fit the production of goods that can be bought on the market.

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E. Jephcott, trans., p. 9
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
8 months ago
By God's grace, I know Satan...

By God's grace, I know Satan very well. If Satan can turn God's Word upside down and pervert the Scriptures, what will he do with my words -- or the words of others?

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Confession Concerning Christ's Supper, Part 3. Robert E. Smith, tr. Dr. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtsusgabe. (Weimar: Herman Boehlaus Nachfolger, 1909), pp. 499-500.
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
4 months 1 week ago
No man lives without jostling and...

No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offense.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
8 months 1 week ago
The greatness of the human being...

The greatness of the human being consists in this: that it is capable of the universe.

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q. 1, art. 2, ad 4
Philosophical Maxims
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
6 months 3 weeks ago
To kill someone for committing murder...

To kill someone for committing murder is a punishment incomparably worse than the crime itself. Murder by legal sentence is immeasurably more terrible than murder by brigands.

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Part 1, Chapter 2
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
3 months 3 weeks ago
For myself I say deliberately....
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Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
4 months 1 week ago
An intellectual dapperling of these times...

An intellectual dapperling of these times boasts chiefly of his irresistible perspicacity, his "dwelling in the daylight of truth," and so forth; which, on examination, turns out to be a dwelling in the rush-light of "closet logic," and a deep unconsciousness that there is any other light to dwell in or any other objects to survey with it.

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Philosophical Maxims
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis de Tocqueville
6 months 3 weeks ago
The debates of that great assembly...

The debates of that great assembly are frequently vague and perplexed, seeming to be dragged rather than to march, to the intended goal. Something of this sort must, I think, always happen in public democratic assemblies.

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Book One, Chapter XXI.
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
6 months 2 weeks ago
To have committed every crime but...

To have committed every crime but that of being a father.

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Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
3 months 3 weeks ago
After all, it is my principle...

After all, it is my principle that the will of the Majority should always prevail.

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Philosophical Maxims
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill
7 months 3 weeks ago
I frequently asked myself, if I...

I frequently asked myself, if I could, or if I was bound to go on living, when life must be passed in this manner. I generally answered to myself, that I did not think I could possibly bear it beyond a year.

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(p. 140)
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
8 months 1 week ago
There is no order between created...

There is no order between created being and non-being, but there is between created and uncreated being.

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q. 7, art. 9, ad 8
Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
7 months 1 week ago
And when the physician said, "Sir,...

And when the physician said, "Sir, you are an old man," "That happens," replied Pausanias, "because you never were my doctor."

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Of Pausanias the Son of Phistoanax
Philosophical Maxims
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
7 months 3 weeks ago
To travel is to discover that...

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong.

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Part II: Malaya,
Philosophical Maxims
Julius Evola
Julius Evola
4 months ago
One of the commonplaces of modern...

One of the commonplaces of modern historiography is the polemical exaltation of the civilization of the Renaissance over and against medieval civilization. This is not just the expression of a typical misunderstanding, since this mentality is the effect of one among the innumerable deceptions purposely spread in modern culture by the leaders of global subversion. The truth is that after the collapse of the ancient world, if there ever was a civilization that deserves the name of Renaissance, this was the civilization of the Middle Ages. In its objectivity, its virile spirit, its hierarchical structure, its proud antihumanistic simplicity so often permeated by the sense of the sacred, the Middle Ages represented a return to the origins.

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p.309
Philosophical Maxims
Henry George
Henry George
3 months 3 weeks ago
Poverty is a crime. I do...

Poverty is a crime. I do not mean that it is a crime to be poor. Murder is a crime; but it is not a crime to be murdered; and a man who is in poverty, I look upon, not as a criminal in himself, so much as the victim of a crime for which others, as well perhaps as himself, are responsible.

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The Crime of Poverty, 1885
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
6 months 2 weeks ago
But, braggart demons, we postpone our...

But, braggart demons, we postpone our end: how could we renounce the display of our freedom, the show of our pride?

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Philosophical Maxims
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
5 months 2 weeks ago
We do not go to cowards...

We do not go to cowards for tender dealing; there is nothing so cruel as panic; the man who has least fear for his own carcase, has most time to consider others.

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314
Philosophical Maxims
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle
3 months 2 weeks ago
That then, that I wish for,...

That then, that I wish for, as to systems, is this, that men, in the first place, would forbear to establish any theory, till they have consulted with (though not a fully competent number of experiments, such as may afford them all the phænomena to be explicated by that theory, yet) a considerable number of experiments, in proportion to the comprehensiveness of the theory to be erected on them. And, in the next place, I would have such kind of supestructures looked upon only as temporary ones; which though they may be preferred before any others, as being the least imperfect, or, if you please, the best in their kind that we yet have, yet are they not entirely to be acquiesced in, as absolutely perfect, or uncapable of improving alterations.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
7 months 3 weeks ago
Existence precedes and rules…

Existence precedes and rules essence.

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Part 4, chapter 1
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
4 months 1 week ago
Unless some Hero-worship, in its new...

Unless some Hero-worship, in its new appropriate form, can return, this world does not promise to be very habitable long.

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Philosophical Maxims
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
8 months 1 day ago
The beginning is from God: for...

The beginning is from God: for the business which is in hand, having the character of good so strongly impressed upon it, appears manifestly to proceed from God, who is the author of good, and the Father of Lights. Now in divine operations even the smallest beginnings lead of a certainty to their end. And as it was said of spiritual things, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation," so is it in all the greater works of Divine Providence; everything glides on smoothly and noiselessly, and the work is fairly going on "before men are aware that it has begun. Nor should the prophecy of Daniel be forgotten, touching the last ages of the world: -"Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased;" clearly intimating that the thorough passage of the world (which now by so many distant voyages seems to be accomplished, or in course of accomplishment), and the advancement of the sciences, are destined by fate, that is, by Divine Providence, to meet in the same age.

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Aphorism 93
Philosophical Maxims
Thales of Miletus
Thales of Miletus
7 months 4 days ago
Hope is the only good that...

Hope is the only good that is common to all men; those who have nothing else possess hope still.

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A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908) by Tryon Edwards, p. 234
Philosophical Maxims
Empedocles
Empedocles
7 months 1 week ago
But, when the elements have been...

But, when the elements have been mingled in the fashion of a man and come to the light of day, or in the fashion of the race of wild beasts or plants or birds, then men say that these come into being; and when they are separated, they call that woeful death. They call it not aright; but I too follow the custom, and call it so myself.

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fr. 9 As quoted by John Burnet, Early Greek philosophy (1908) p. 240
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay
5 months 1 week ago
I hold agitation to be essential,...

I hold agitation to be essential, not only to the obtaining of good and just measures, but to the existence of a free Government itself. If you choose to adopt the principle of Bishop Horsley, that the people have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them, then, indeed, you may deprecate agitation; but, while we live in a free country, and under a free Government, your deprecation is vain and untenable... I say that the slave-trade would never have been abolished without agitation. I say that slavery would never have been abolished without agitation... What is agitation when it is examined, but the mode in which the people in the great outer assembly debate?

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Speech in the House of Commons, 29 January 1840
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
3 months 2 weeks ago
Prize that which is best in...

Prize that which is best in the universe; and this is that which useth everything and ordereth everything.

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V, 21
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
5 months 2 weeks ago
Whenever a system of communication evolves,...

Whenever a system of communication evolves, there is always the danger that some will exploit the system for their own ends.

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Ch. 4. The Gene machine
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
7 months 3 weeks ago
The advance of liberalism, so-called, in...

The advance of liberalism, so-called, in Christianity, during the past fifty years, may fairly be called a victory of healthy-mindedness within the church over the morbidness with which the old hell-fire theology was more harmoniously related. We have now whole congregations whose preachers, far from magnifying our consciousness of sin, seem devoted rather to making little of it. They ignore, or even deny, eternal punishment, and insist on the dignity rather than on the depravity of man. They look at the continual preoccupation of the old-fashioned Christian with the salvation of his soul as something sickly and reprehensible rather than admirable; and a sanguine and 'muscular' attitude, which to our forefathers would have seemed purely heathen, has become in their eyes an ideal element of Christian character. I am not asking whether or not they are right, I am only pointing out the change.

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Lectures IV and V, "The Religion of Healthy-Mindedness"
Philosophical Maxims
Confucius
Confucius
8 months 1 week ago
Guide the people by law, subdue...

Guide the people by law, subdue them by punishment; they may shun crime, but will be void of shame. Guide them by example, subdue them by courtesy; they will learn shame, and come to be good.

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Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
3 months 3 weeks ago
A whale is not a fish...

A whale is not a fish in natural history, but it is a fish in commerce and law. A plea that human laws which mention fish do not apply to whales, would be rejected at once by an intelligent judge.

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Philosophical Maxims
C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
7 months 3 weeks ago
And then one babbles - 'if...

And then one babbles - 'if only I could bear it, or the worst of it, or any of it, instead of her.' But one can't tell how serious that bid is, for nothing is staked on it. If it suddenly became a real possibility, then, for the first time, we should discover how seriously we had meant it. But is it ever allowed? It was allowed to One, we are told, and I find I can now believe again, that He has done vicariously whatever can be done. He replies to our babble, 'you cannot and dare not. I could and dared.'

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Philosophical Maxims
Robert Owen
Robert Owen
5 months 2 weeks ago
The errors of the times of...

The errors of the times of superstition and bigotry still hold some sway, and compel those who wish to preserve a regard to their respectability in society to an over strained demeanor; and this demeanor sometimes degenerates into hypocrisy, and is often the cause of great inconsistency. It is destructive of every open, honest, generous, and manly feeling. It disgusts many, and drives them to the opposite extreme. It is sometimes the cause of insanity. It is founded in ignorance. While erroneous customs prevail in any country, it would evince an ignorance of human nature in any individual to offend against them, until he has convinced the community of their error.

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Essay Third
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
6 months 3 weeks ago
A great profusion of things, which...

A great profusion of things, which are splendid or valuable in themselves, is magnificent. The starry heaven, though it occurs so very frequently to our view, never fails to excite an idea of grandeur. This cannot be owing to the stars themselves, separately considered. The number is certainly the cause. The apparent disorder augments the grandeur, for the appearance of care is highly contrary to our idea of magnificence. Besides, the stars lie in such apparent confusion, as makes it impossible on ordinary occasions to reckon them. This gives them the advantage of a sort of infinity.

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Part II Section XIII
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
7 months 3 weeks ago
Why has the Revolution of France...

Why has the Revolution of France been stained with crimes, which the Revolution of the United States of America was not? Men are physically the same in all countries; it is education that makes them different. Accustom a people to believe that priests or any other class of men can forgive sins, and you will have sins in abundance.

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Worship and Church Bells, 1797
Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
6 months 3 weeks ago
Distance is a great promoter of...

Distance is a great promoter of admiration!

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As quoted in Thesaurus of Epigrams: A New Classified Collection of Witty Remarks, Bon Mots and Toasts (1942) by Edmund Fuller
Philosophical Maxims
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
8 months 2 weeks ago
Scientists have pushed back the horizon...

Scientists have pushed back the horizon of time from the biblical 6,000 years to 4,600,000,000 years for the age of Earth a 760,000-fold increase.

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Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
7 months 3 weeks ago
Philosophy of religion ... really amounts...

Philosophy of religion ... really amounts to ... philosophizing on certain favorite assumptions that are not confirmed at all.

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E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 143
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
5 months 1 week ago
Logical consequences are the scarecrows of...

Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men.

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Philosophical Maxims
Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
8 months ago
And to bring in a new...

And to bring in a new word by the head and shoulders, they leave out the old one.

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Book III, Ch. 5. Upon some Verses of Virgil
Philosophical Maxims
Jesus
Jesus
6 months 2 weeks ago
Wherefore I say unto you, All...

Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

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(Matthew 12:31-32) (KJV)
Philosophical Maxims
Emperor Julian
Emperor Julian
4 months 1 day ago
The trial that begins Awards to...

The trial that begins Awards to him who wins The fairest prize to-day. And lo, the hour is here And summons you. Appear! Ye may no more delay. Come hear the herald's call Ye princes one and all. Many tribes of men Submissive to you then! How keen in war your swords! But now 'tis wisdom's turn; Now let your rivals learn How keen can be your words.

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Philosophical Maxims
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
3 months 1 week ago
Every man knows that in...

Every man knows that in his work he does best and accomplishes most when he has attained a proficiency that enables him to work intuitively. That is, there are things which we come to know so well that we do not know how we know them. So it seems to me in matters of principle. Perhaps we live best and do things best when we are not too conscious of how and why we do them.

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Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
8 months 3 weeks ago
Married people pledge love for each...

Married people pledge love for each other throughout eternity. Well, now, that is easy enough but does not mean very much, for if one is finished with time one is probably finished with eternity. If, instead of saying "throughout eternity," the couple would say, "until Easter, until next May Day," then what they say would make some sense, for then they would be saying something and also something they perhaps could carry out.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
7 months 3 weeks ago
I, for my part, do not...

I, for my part, do not conceive an act as having causes, and I consider myself satisfied when I have found in it not its 'factors' but the general themes which it organizes: for our decisions gather into new syntheses and on new occasions the leitmotif that governs our life

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p. 461
Philosophical Maxims
John Dewey
John Dewey
6 months 2 weeks ago
The animating purpose of James was,...

The animating purpose of James was, on the other hand, primarily moral and artistic. It is expressed in his phrase, "block universe," employed as a term of adverse criticism. Mechanism and idealism were abhorrent to him because they both hold to a closed universe in which there is no room for novelty and adventure. Both sacrifice individuality and all the values, moral and aesthetic, which hang upon individuality; for according to absolute idealism, as to mechanistic materialism, the individual is simply a part determined by the whole of which he is a part. Only a philosophy of pluralism, of genuine indetermination, and of change which is real and intrinsic gives significance to individuality. It alone justifies struggle in creative activity and gives opportunity for the emergence of the genuinely new.

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Philosophical Maxims
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
5 months 5 days ago
I mean to lead a simple...

I mean to lead a simple life, to choose a simple shell I can carry easily - like a hermit crab. But I do not. I find that my frame of life does not foster simplicity. My husband and five children must make their way in the world. The life I have chosen as a wife and mother entrains a whole caravan of complications.

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Philosophical Maxims
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