Skip to main content

Main navigation

☰ ˟
  • Home
  • Articulation
  • Contact
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
3 months 2 weeks ago
It is a conceded fact that...

It is a conceded fact that woman is being reared as a sex commodity, and yet she is kept in absolute ignorance of the meaning and importance of sex.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
1 month 3 weeks ago
The habits of study acquired at...

The habits of study acquired at Universities are of the highest importance in after-life. At the season when you are in young years the whole mind is, as it were, fluid, and is capable of forming itself into any shape that the owner of the mind pleases to order it to form itself into. The mind is in a fluid state, but it hardens up gradually to the consistency of rock or iron, and you cannot alter the habits of an old man, but as he has begun he will proceed and go on to the last.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
3 months ago
A beautiful face….

A beautiful face is a silent commendation.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Maxim 283
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
3 months ago
Newton, and 'proper scientific method' after...

Newton, and 'proper scientific method' after him, conducted attention to 'continuous description' of experimental phenomena instead of to causes.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 50
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
1 month 2 days ago
I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the...

I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned me. With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
3 months ago
Literacy affects the physiology as well...

Literacy affects the physiology as well as the psychic life of the African.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
(p. 38)
Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
5 months 4 days ago
Every time a man is begotten...

Every time a man is begotten and born, the clock of human life is wound up anew to repeat once more its same old tune that has already been played innumerable times, movement by movement and measure by measure, with insignificant variations.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Vol. I, Ch. 4, The World As Will: Second Aspect, as translated by Eric F. J. Payne (1958) p. 322
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
2 months 2 weeks ago
History warns us, however, that it...

History warns us, however, that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions; and, as matters now stand, it is hardly rash to anticipate that, in another twenty years, the new generation, educated under the influences of the present day, will be in danger of accepting the main doctrines of the 'Origin of Species' with as little reflection, and it may be with as little justification, as so many of our contemporaries, twenty years ago, rejected them. Against any such a consummation let us all devoutly pray; for the scientific spirit is of more value than its products, and irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Coming of Age of The Origin of Species (1880); Collected Essays, vol. 2
Philosophical Maxims
Jean Paul Sartre
Jean Paul Sartre
5 months 1 day ago
If a victory is told in...

If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Act 1
Philosophical Maxims
Martin Luther
Martin Luther
5 months 1 week ago
Dear rulers ... I maintain that...

Dear rulers ... I maintain that the civil authorities are under obligation to compel the people to send their children to school. ... If the government can compel such citizens as are fit for military service to bear spear and rifle, to mount ramparts, and perform other martial duties in time of war, how much more has it a right to compel the people to send their children to school, because in this case we are warring with the devil, whose object it is secretly to exhaust our cities and principalities of their strong men.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
letter to the German rulers (1524), as quoted in The History of Compulsory Education in New England, John William Perrin, 1896
Philosophical Maxims
Erich Fromm
Erich Fromm
3 months 2 weeks ago
The most important misunderstanding seems to...

The most important misunderstanding seems to me to lie in a confusion between the human necessities which I consider part of human nature, and the human necessities as they appear as drives, needs, passions, etc., in any given historical period. This division is not very different from Marx's concept of "human nature in general", to be distinguished from "human nature as modified in each historical period". The same distinction exists in Marx when he distinguishes between "constant" or "fixed" drives and "relative" drives. The constant drives "exist under all circumstances and ... can be changed by social conditions only as far as form and direction are concerned". The relative drives "owe their origin only to a certain type of social organization".

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
3 months 2 weeks ago
The collective is the object of...

The collective is the object of all idolatry, this it is which chains us to the earth. In the case of avarice: gold is of the social order. In the case of ambition: power is of the social order. Science and art are full of the social element also. And love? Love is more or less of an exception: that is why we can go to God through love, not through avarice and ambition.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 121
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
4 months 4 weeks ago
A man will be imprisoned in...

A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that's unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push it.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 42e
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 2 days ago
What point of morals, of manners,...

What point of morals, of manners, of economy, of philosophy, of religion, of taste, of the conduct of life, has he not settled? What mystery has he not signified his knowledge of? What office, or function, or district of man's work, has he not remembered? What king has he not taught state, as Talma taught Napoleon? What maiden has not found him finer than her delicacy? What lover has he not outloved? What sage has he not outseen? What gentleman has he not instructed in the rudeness of his behavior?

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Shakespeare; or, The Poet
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 2 days ago
For what are they all in...

For what are they all in their high conceit, When man in the bush with God may meet?

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Good-bye, st. 4
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
6 months 3 days ago
A man who for a long...

A man who for a long time has gone around hiding a secret becomes mentally deranged. At this point one would imagine that his secret would have to come out, but despite his derangement his soul still sticks to its hideout, and those around him become even more convinced that the false story he told to deceive them is the truth. He is healed of his insanity, knows everything that has gone on, and thereby perceives that nothing has been betrayed. Was this gratifying to him or not; he might wish to have disposed of his secret in his madness; it seems as if there were a fate which forced him to remain in his secret and would not let him go away from it. Or was it for the best, was there a guardian spirit who helped him keep his secret.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Theodor Adorno
Theodor Adorno
3 months 2 weeks ago
The importance of the culture industry...

The importance of the culture industry in the spiritual constitution of the masses is no dispensation for reflection on its objective legitimation, its essential being, least of all by a science which thinks itself pragmatic.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han
3 months 2 weeks ago
Disciplinary society is still governed by...

Disciplinary society is still governed by no. Its negativity produces madmen and criminals. In contrast, achievement society creates depressives and losers.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Source: Page 8
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
3 months 2 weeks ago
Le prestige, qui constitue la force...

The prestige which constitutes three-fourths of might is first of all made up of that superb indifference which the powerful have for the weak, an indifference so contagious that it is communicated even to those who are its object.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
in The Simone Weil Reader, p. 168
Philosophical Maxims
John Locke
John Locke
5 months 4 days ago
Let him sensibly perceive, that the...

Let him sensibly perceive, that the kindness he shews to others, is no ill husbandry for himself; but that it brings a return in kindness both from those that receive it, and those who look on. Make this a contest among children, who shall out-do one another in this way: and by this means, by a constant practise, children having made it easy to themselves to part with what they have, good nature may be settled in them into a habit, and they may take pleasure, and pique themselves in being kind, liberal and civil, to others.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Sec. 110
Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
1 month 2 days ago
The antithesis of 'Sense' & 'Ideas'...

The antithesis of 'Sense' & 'Ideas' is the foundation of the Philosophy of Science. No knowledge can exist without the union, no philosophy without the separation, of these two elements.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Mozi
Mozi
1 month 1 week ago
What is the purpose of houses?...

What is the purpose of houses? It is to protect us from the wind and cold of winter, the heat and rain of summer, and to keep out robbers and thieves. Once these ends have been secured, that is all. Whatever does not contribute to these ends should be eliminated.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch 20, as quoted in Van Norden, Bryan W. (2011). Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy. Hackett Publishing. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-60384-468-0.
Philosophical Maxims
Plato
Plato
6 months ago
So when the universe was quickened...

So when the universe was quickened with soul, God was well pleased; and he bethought him to make it yet more like its type. And whereas the type is eternal and nought that is created can be eternal, he devised for it a moving image of abiding eternity, which we call time. And he made days and months and years, which are portions of time; and past and future are forms of time, though we wrongly attribute them also to eternity. For of eternal Being we ought not to say 'it was', 'it shall be', but 'it is' alone: and in like manner we are wrong in saying 'it is' of sensible things which become and perish; for these are ever fleeting and changing, having their existence in time.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
3 months 3 weeks ago
In the subjectivist view, when 'reason'...

In the subjectivist view, when 'reason' is used to connote a thing or idea rather than an act, it refers exclusively to the relation of such an object or concept to a purpose, not to the object or concept itself. It means that the thing or the idea is good for something else. There is no reasonable aim as such, and to discuss the superiority of one aim over another in terms of reason becomes meaningless. From the subjective approach, such a discussion is possible only if both aims serve a third and higher one, that is, if they are means, not ends.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 6.
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
1 month 3 weeks ago
While Trump is not going to...

While Trump is not going to be president, Trumpism is going to survive. ...The Democrats need to look very very carefully at those election results because ...the Republicans did well not necessarily because people love what they represent, but because they don't like what the Democrats represent... Unless they sort out what that is, they are going to continue to lose elections.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
28:52:00
Philosophical Maxims
William James
William James
5 months 2 days ago
The last peculiarity of consciousness to...

The last peculiarity of consciousness to which attention is to be drawn in this first rough description of its stream is that it is always interested more in one part of its object than in another, and welcomes and rejects, or chooses, all the while it thinks.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. 9
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 2 days ago
In skating over thin ice our...

In skating over thin ice our safety is our speed.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Prudence
Philosophical Maxims
Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
3 months ago
Logos is the formal cause of...

Logos is the formal cause of the kosmos and all things, responsible for their nature and configuration.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
p. 37
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay
2 months 3 weeks ago
It will hardly be disputed, I...

It will hardly be disputed, I suppose, that the department of literature in which the Eastern writers stand highest is poetry. And I certainly never met with any orientalist who ventured to maintain that the Arabic and Sanscrit poetry could be compared to that of the great European nations. But when we pass from works of imagination to works in which facts are recorded and general principles investigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely immeasurable. It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanscrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in England. In every branch of physical or moral philosophy, the relative position of the two nations is nearly the same.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
4 months 1 week ago
Who knows whether the best of...

Who knows whether the best of men be known, or whether there be not more remarkable persons forgot, than any that stand remembered in the known account of time? Without the favour of the everlasting register, the first man had been as unknown as the last, and Methuselah's long life had been his only chronicle.Oblivion is not to be hired. The greater part must be content to be as though they had not been, to be found in the register of God, not in the record of man. Twenty seven names make up the first story before the flood, and the recorded names ever since contain not one living century. The number of the dead long exceedeth all that shall live. The night of time far surpasseth the day, and who knows when was the Æquinox? Every hour adds unto that current arithmetick, which scarce stands one moment.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Chapter V
Philosophical Maxims
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
1 month 3 days ago
I will not accept boundaries; appearances...

I will not accept boundaries; appearances cannot contain me; I choke! To bleed in this agony, and to live it profoundly, is the second duty. The mind is patient and adjusts itself, it likes to play; but the heart grows savage and will not condescend to play; it stifles and rushes to tear apart the nets of necessity.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Proclus
Proclus
4 months 2 weeks ago
For this, to draw a right...

For this, to draw a right line from every point, to every point, follows the definition, which says, that a line is the flux of a point, and a right line an indeclinable and inflexible flow.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Book III. Concerning Petitions and Axioms.
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
4 months 3 days ago
A trade begun with savage war,...

A trade begun with savage war, prosecuted with unheard of cruelty, continued during the mid passage with the most loathsome imprisonment, and ending in perpetual exile and unremitting slavery, was a trade so horrid in all its circumstances, that it was impossible a single argument could be adduced in its favour. On the score of prudence nothing could be said in defence of it, nor could it be justified by necessity, and no case of inhumanity could be justified, but upon necessity; but no such necessity could be made out strong enough to bear out such a traffick. It was the duty of that House, therefore, to put an end to it. If it were said, that the interest of individuals required that it should continue, that argument ought not to be listened to.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Speech in the House of Commons against the slave trade (12 May 1789), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England, From the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXVIII (1816), columns 68-69
Philosophical Maxims
William Whewell
William Whewell
1 month 2 days ago
Mechanical, chemical, and vital Forces form...

Mechanical, chemical, and vital Forces form an ascending progression, each including the preceding. Chemical Affinity includes in its nature Mechanical Force, and may often be practically resolved into Mechanical Force. (Thus the ingredients of gunpowder, liberated from their chemical union, exert great mechanical Force : a galvanic battery acting by chemical process does the like.) Vital Forces include in their nature both chemical Affinities and mechanical Forces: for Vital Powers produce both chemical changes, (digestion,) and motions which imply considerable mechanical force, (as the motion of the sap and of the blood.)

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
5 months 6 days ago
The administration of the great system...

The administration of the great system of the universe, however, the care of the universal happiness of all rational and sensible beings, is the business of God and not of man. To man is allotted a much humbler department, but one much more suitable to the weakness of his powers, and to the narrowness of his comprehension; the care of his own happiness, of that of his family, his friends, his country: that he is occupied in contemplating the more sublime, can never be an excuse for his neglecting the more humble department.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Section II, Chap. III.
Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months 2 days ago
Ivan Ilych's life had been most...

Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Ch. II
Philosophical Maxims
José Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset
3 months 3 weeks ago
Man's being is made of such...

Man's being is made of such strange stuff as to be partly akin to nature and partly not, at once natural and extranatural, a kind of ontological centaur, half immersed in nature, half transcending it.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"Man has no nature"
Philosophical Maxims
Nikolai Berdyaev
Nikolai Berdyaev
3 months 2 weeks ago
What one needs to do at...

What one needs to do at every moment of one's life is to put an end to the old world and to begin a new world.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
A. J. Ayer
A. J. Ayer
3 months 4 weeks ago
I see philosophy as a fairly...

I see philosophy as a fairly abstract activity, as concerned mainly with the analysis of criticism and concepts, and of course most usefully of scientific concepts.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
As quoted in Profile of Sir Alfred Ayer (June 1971) by Euro-Television, quoted in A.J. Ayer: A Life (1999), p. 2
Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 months 1 week ago
Before mass...
0
⚖0
Main Content / General
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman
3 months 2 weeks ago
Those who will not worship at...

Those who will not worship at the shrine of money, need not hope for recognition. On the other hand, they will also not have to think other people's thoughts or wear other people's political clothes. They will not have to proclaim as true that which is false, nor praise that as humanitarian which is brutal.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
5 months 4 days ago
Such arguments ill become us, since...

Such arguments ill become us, since the time of reformation came, under Gospel light. All distinctions of nations, and privileges of one above others, are ceased; Christians are taught to account all men their neighbours; and love their neighbours as themselves; and do to all men as they would be done by; to do good to all men; and Man-stealing is ranked with enormous crimes. Is the barbarous enslaving our inoffensive neighbours, and treating them like wild beasts subdued by force, reconcilable with all these Divine precepts? Is this doing to them as we would desire they should do to us? If they could carry off and enslave some thousands of us, would we think it just?-One would almost wish they could for once; it might convince more than Reason, or the Bible.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
4 months 4 weeks ago
The aspects of things that are...

The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity. (One is unable to notice something - because it is always before one's eyes.) The real foundations of his enquiry do not strike a man at all. Unless that fact has at some time struck him. - And this means: we fail to be struck by what, once seen, is most striking and most powerful.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
§ 129
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
2 months 4 weeks ago
Ignorance, to a scientist, is an...

Ignorance, to a scientist, is an itch that begs to be pleasurably scratched. Ignorance, if you are a theologian, is something to be washed away by shamelessly making something up.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
The Intellectual and Moral Courage of Atheism
Philosophical Maxims
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
5 months 3 days ago
Very similar were the views expressed...

Very similar were the views expressed by Raymundus of Sabunde or Sabeyde, a Spaniard of the fifteenth century, and professor at Toulouse about the year 1437. In his theologia natural is, which he handled in a speculative spirit, he dealt with the Nature of things, and with the revelation of God in Nature and in the history of the God-man. He sought to prove to unbelievers the Being, the trinity, the incarnation, the life, and the revelation of God in Nature, and in the history of the God-man, basing his arguments on Reason. From the contemplation of Nature he rises to God; and in the same way he reaches morality from; observation of man's inner nature. This purer and simpler style must be set off against the other, if we are to do justice to the Scholastic theologians in their turn.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of History Vol 3 1837 translated by ES Haldane and Francis H. Simson) first translated 1896 P. 91-92
Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
4 months 1 week ago
There is only one passion, the...

There is only one passion, the passion for happiness.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
"Will, Freedom"
Philosophical Maxims
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
3 months 2 weeks ago
The chief danger to philosophy is...

The chief danger to philosophy is narrowness in the selection of evidence.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Pt. V, ch. 1, sec. 1.
Philosophical Maxims
Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
1 month 3 weeks ago
Liberalism is... a protection of human...

Liberalism is... a protection of human autonomy.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
11:06
Philosophical Maxims
B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner
1 month 4 weeks ago
A person who has been punished...

A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.

0
⚖0
▼ Source
source
Beyond Freedom and Dignity
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
3 months 4 weeks ago
I have taken pains to make...

I have taken pains to make my distinction of icons, indices, and tokens clear, in order to enunciate this proposition: in a perfect system of logical notation signs of these several kinds must all be employed. Without tokens there would be no generality in the statements, for they are the only general signs; and generality is essential to reasoning. ... But tokens alone do not state what is the subject of discourse ; and this can, in fact, not be described in general terms ; it can only be indicated. The actual world cannot be distinguished from a world of imagination by any description. Hence the need of pronoun and indices, and the more complicated the subject the greater the need of them.

0
⚖0
Philosophical Maxims
  • Load More

User login

  • Create new account
  • Reset your password

Social

☰ ˟
  • Main Feed
  • Philosophical Maxims

Civic

☰ ˟
  • Propositions
  • Issue / Solution

Users

☰ ˟
  • All users
  • Historical Figures

Who's new

  • Søren Kierkegaard
  • Jesus
  • Friedrich Nietzsche
  • VeXed
  • Slavoj Žižek

Who's online

There are currently 0 users online.

CivilSimian.com created by AxiomaticPanic, CivilSimian, Kalokagathia