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William James
William James
5 months 1 week ago
Pragmatism, on the other hand, asks...

Pragmatism, on the other hand, asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true," it says, "what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's actual life? How will the truth be realized? What experiences will be different from those which would obtain if the belief were false? What, in short, is the truth's cash-value in experiential terms?"

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Lecture VI, Pragmatism's Conception of Truth
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
2 months 3 weeks ago
We have always thought that Mr....

We have always thought that Mr. Darwin has unnecessarily hampered himself by adhering so strictly to his favourite "Natura non facit saltum." We greatly suspect that she does make considerable jumps in the way of variation now and then, and that these saltations give rise to some of the gaps which appear to exist in the series of known forms.

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Philosophical Maxims
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
4 months 6 days ago
The preposterous distinction of rank, which...

The preposterous distinction of rank, which render civilization a curse, by dividing the world between voluptuous tyrants and cunning envious dependents, corrupt, almost equally, every class of people, because respectability is not attached to the discharge of the relative duties of life, but to the station, and when the duties are not fulfilled, the affections cannot gain sufficient strength to fortify the virtue of which they are the natural reward. Still there are some loop-holes out of which a man may creep, and dare to think and act for himself; but for a woman it is an herculean task, because she has difficulties peculiar to her sex to overcome, which require almost super-human powers.

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Ch. 9
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 1 week ago
Science seems to be at war...

Science seems to be at war with itself.... Naive realism leads to physics, and physics, if true, shows naive realism to be false. Therefore naive realism, if true, is false; therefore it is false.

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An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940), Introduction, p. 15
Philosophical Maxims
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4 months 1 week ago
All writers, not ours alone but...

All writers, not ours alone but foreigners also, who have sought to represent Absolute Beauty, were unequal to the task, for it is an infinitely difficult one. The beautiful is the ideal ; but ideals, with us as in civilized Europe, have long been wavering. There is in the world only one figure of absolute beauty: Christ. That infinitely lovely figure is, as a matter of course, an infinite marvel.

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Letter to his Niece Sofia Alexandrovna, Geneva, January 1, 1868. Ethel Golburn Mayne, Letters of Fyodor Michailovitch Dostoyevsky to His Family and Friends (1879), Dostoevsky's Letters XXXIX, p. 136
Philosophical Maxims
Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle
1 month 5 days 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
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months 1 week ago
The truth is that the State...

The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens ... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere.

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As quoted in Tolstoy (1988) by A. N. Wilson, p. 146
Philosophical Maxims
Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce
4 months 5 days ago
By an object, I mean anything...

By an object, I mean anything that we can think, i.e. anything we can talk about.

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"Reflections on Real and Unreal Objects", Undated, MS 966
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 3 weeks ago
It makes a big difference whether...

It makes a big difference whether you give something back or pay it off... The framers of the laws instituted festivals, in order that men should be publicly compelled to gaiety, as a necessary temperance for labors; We remember the great orator Pollio Asinius, who was not detained by anything beyond the tenth hour: he did not even need letters for an hour after that, so that no new concern arose, but he put the fatigue of the whole day in those two hours. Some joined in the middle of the day and put off some lighter work in the afternoon hours. Our elders also forbade a new report to be made in the senate after ten o'clock. The army divided the vigils, and the night was safe from the return of the expedition.

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Philosophical Maxims
Giordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno
4 months 2 weeks ago
Pray, O pray to God, dear...

Pray, O pray to God, dear friends, if you are not already asses - that he will cause you to become asses... There is none who praiseth not the golden age when men were asses: they knew not how to work the land. One knew not how to dominate another, one understood no more than another; caves and caverns were their refuge; they were not so well covered nor so jealous nor were they confections of lust and of greed. Everything was held in common.

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Philosophical Maxims
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
5 months 1 week ago
Life is a business that does...

Life is a business that does not cover the costs.

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Vol II "On the Vanity and Suffering of Life"
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
4 months 1 day ago
In the state of nature…

In the state of nature, Profit is the measure of Right.

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De Cive
Philosophical Maxims
Emil Cioran
Emil Cioran
4 months 5 days ago
There is no means of proving...

There is no means of proving it is preferable to be than not to be.

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Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months 1 week ago
The man is making preparations for...

The man is making preparations for a year, and does not know that he will die before evening. And I remembered God's second saying, "Learn what is not given to man." 'What dwells in man" I already knew. Now I learnt what is not given him. It is not given to man to know his own needs.

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Ch. XI
Philosophical Maxims
Hermann Weyl
Hermann Weyl
1 month 2 weeks ago
It was my wish to present...

It was my wish to present this great subject as an illustration of the itermingling of philosophical, mathematical, and physical thought, a study which is dear to my heart. This could be done only by building up the theory systematically from the foundations, and by restricting attention throughout to the principles. But I have not been able to satisfy these self-imposed requirements: the mathematician predominates at the expense of the philosopher.

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From the Author's Preface to First Edition
Philosophical Maxims
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
4 months 1 week ago
If you want me to believe...

If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.

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as quoted in Diderot and the Encyclopædists (1897) by John Morley, p. 92.
Philosophical Maxims
Horace
Horace
4 months 4 weeks ago
If the world should break….

If the world should break and fall on him, it would strike him fearless.

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Book III, ode iii, line 7
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
2 months ago
Is it not a right glorious...

Is it not a right glorious thing, and set of things, this that Shakspeare has brought us? For myself, I feel that there is actually a kind of sacredness in the fact of such a man being sent into this Earth.

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Philosophical Maxims
comfortdragon
comfortdragon
2 weeks 6 days ago
The best plan is....
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Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
3 months 6 days ago
Powerful indeed is the empire of...

Powerful indeed is the empire of habit.

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Maxim 305
Philosophical Maxims
Pythagoras
Pythagoras
4 months 2 weeks ago
Educate the children and it won't...

Educate the children and it won't be necessary to punish the men.

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As quoted in Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists‎ (2007) by James Geary
Philosophical Maxims
Simone Weil
Simone Weil
3 months 3 weeks ago
Just as a vagrant accused of...

Just as a vagrant accused of stealing a carrot from a field stands before a comfortably seated judge who keeps up an elegant flow of queries, comments and witticisms while the accused is unable to stammer a word, so truth stands before an intelligence which is concerned with the elegant manipulation of opinions.

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p. 68
Philosophical Maxims
Georges Sorel
Georges Sorel
1 month 2 weeks ago
Revolutionary syndicalism keeps alive the desire...

Revolutionary syndicalism keeps alive the desire to strike in the masses and only prospers when important strikes, accompanied by violence, take place.

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p. 39
Philosophical Maxims
Thomas Browne
Thomas Browne
4 months 2 weeks ago
Men that look no further than...

Men that look no further than their outsides, think health an appurtenance unto life, and quarrel with their constitutions for being sick; but I that have examined the parts of man, and know upon what tender filaments that fabric hangs, do wonder that we are not always so; and considering the thousand doors that lead to death, do thank my God that we can die but once.

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Section 44 Compare: "I know death hath ten thousand several doors / For men to take their exits.", John Webster, Duchess of Malfi (1623); Act IV, scene ii.
Philosophical Maxims
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach
4 months 1 week ago
A subject interests me and holds...

A subject interests me and holds my attention only so long as it presents me with difficulties, only so long as I am at odds with it and have, as it were, to struggle with it; but once I have mastered it I hurry on to something else, to a new subject; for my interest is not confined to any particular field or subject; it extends to everything human. This does not mean that I am an intellectual miser or egoist, who amasses knowledge for himself alone; by no means! What I do and think for myself, I must also think and do for others. But I feel the need of instructing others in a subject only so long as, while instructing others, I am also instructing myself.

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Lecture I, , R. Manheim, trans. (1967), p. 2
Philosophical Maxims
Voltaire
Voltaire
5 months 1 week ago
Even in those cities which seem...

Even in those cities which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace, and where the arts florish, the inhabitants are devoured by envy, cares and anxieties, which are greater plagues than any experienced in a town when it is under siege.

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Philosophical Maxims
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault
5 months 3 days ago
This aristocratic thesis is... the demos,...

This aristocratic thesis is... the demos, the people, are the most numerous... also comprised of the most ordinary, and... even the worst, citizens. Therefore... what is best for the demos cannot be what is best for the polis... the city.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 1 week ago
Belief in eternal hell fire was...

Belief in eternal hell fire was an essential item of Christian belief until pretty recent times. In this country, as you know, it ceased to be an essential item because of a decision of the Privy Council, and from that decision the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York dissented; but in this country our religion is settled by Act of Parliament, and therefore the Privy Council was able to override Their Graces and hell was no longer necessary to a Christian. Consequently I shall not insist that a Christian must believe in hell. What is a Christian?

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1927
Philosophical Maxims
Plutarch
Plutarch
4 months 3 weeks ago
"These Macedonians," said he, "are a...

"These Macedonians," said he, "are a rude and clownish people, that call a spade a spade."

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39 Philip
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
3 months 5 days ago
I am extremely pleased by Daniel...

I am extremely pleased by Daniel Fincke's article, which says exactly what I SHOULD have said and, to my regret, didn't make sufficiently clear in my Reason Rally speech. The best way to summarise it would be to modify the quotation from Johann Hari. Johann said, "I respect you too much to respect your ridiculous beliefs". From now on, my version will be, "I respect you too much to accept that you really believe anything so ridiculous as you claim. Please either defend those beliefs and explain why they are not ridiculous, or else declare that you do not hold them and publicly disown the church to which you claim loyalty."

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comment on Daniel Fincke (2 April 2012), "In Defense of Dawkins's Reason Rally Speech", RichardDawkins.net, retrieved on 1 May 2012
Philosophical Maxims
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius
1 month 6 days ago
If you don't have a consistent...

If you don't have a consistent goal in life, you can't live it in a consistent way."

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(Hays translation) XI, 21
Philosophical Maxims
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz
5 months 1 week ago
Everything that is possible…

Everything that is possible demands to exist.

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1686
Philosophical Maxims
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
4 months 5 days ago
My soul, my soul, where are...

My soul, my soul, where are you? Do you hear me? I speak, I call you-are you there? I have returned, here I am again. I have shaken the dust of all the lands from my feet, and I have come to you again, I am with you. After long years of long wandering, I have come to you anew. Shall I tell you everything I have seen, experienced, and drunk in? Or do you not want to hear about all the noise of life and the world? But one thing you must know, the one thing I have learned is that one must live this life. This life is the way, the long sought-after way to the unfathomable, which we call "divine". There is no other way. All other ways are false paths.

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Book 2, 12. Nov. 1913
Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 1 week ago
To choose one sock from each...

To choose one sock from each of infinitely many pairs of socks requires the Axiom of Choice, but for shoes the Axiom is not needed.

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As quoted in Williams' Weighing the Odds: A Course in Probability and Statistics (2001), p. 498
Philosophical Maxims
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
5 months 1 week ago
The finest workers in stone are...

The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 1 week ago
The principal source of the harm...

The principal source of the harm done by the State is the fact that power is its chief end.

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Principles of Social Reconstruction (1917), Ch. II: The State
Philosophical Maxims
Aristotle
Aristotle
6 months 1 week ago
It is absurd to hold that...

It is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs but not of being unable to defend himself with reason when the use of reason is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs.

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Philosophical Maxims
Jean Baudrillard
Jean Baudrillard
3 months 1 week ago
It is the fantasy of seizing...

It is the fantasy of seizing reality live that continues-ever since Narcissus bent over his spring. Surprising the real in order to immobilize it, suspending the real in the expiration of its double. You bend over the hologram like God over his creature: only God has this power of passing through walls, through people, and finding Himself immaterially in the beyond. We dream of passing through ourselves and of finding ourselves in the beyond: the day when your holographic double will be there in space, eventually moving and talking, you will have realized this miracle. Of course, it will no longer be a dream, so its charm will be lost.

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"Holograms," p. 105
Philosophical Maxims
David Hume
David Hume
5 months 1 week ago
Methinks I am like a man,...

Methinks I am like a man, who having struck on many shoals, and having narrowly escap'd shipwreck in passing a small frith, has yet the temerity to put out to sea in the same leaky weather-beaten vessel, and even carries his ambition so far as to think of compassing the globe under these disadvantageous circumstances.

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Part 4, Section 7
Philosophical Maxims
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
6 months 1 week ago
The truth is always in the...

The truth is always in the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because as a rule the minority is made up of those who actually have an opinion, while the strength of the majority is illusory, formed of that crowd which has no opinion - and which therefore the next moment (when it becomes clear that the minority is the stronger) adopts the latter's opinion, which now is in the majority, i.e. becomes rubbish by having the whole retinue and numerousness on its side, while the truth is again in a new minority.

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Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 3 weeks ago
For this reason those who are...

For this reason those who are tossed about at sea, who proceed uphill and downhill over toilsome crags and heights, who go on campaigns that bring the greatest danger, are heroes and front-rank fighters; but persons who live in rotten luxury and ease while others toil, are mere turtle-doves safe only because men despise them.

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Philosophical Maxims
Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
3 months 1 week ago
Love hinders death. Love is life....

Love hinders death. Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.

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Thoughts of Prince Andrew Bk XII, Ch. 16
Philosophical Maxims
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
3 months 5 days ago
If it's really true, that the...

If it's really true, that the museum at Liberty University has dinosaur fossils which are labelled as being 3000 years old, then that is an educational disgrace. It is debauching the whole idea of a university, and I would strongly encourage any members of Liberty University who may be here...to leave and go to a proper university.

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At Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia, (23 October 2006) Broadcasted by C-SPAN2
Philosophical Maxims
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
6 months 1 week ago
When someone hides something behind a...
When someone hides something behind a bush and looks for it again in the same place and finds it there as well, there is not much to praise in such seeking and finding. Yet this is how matters stand regarding seeking and finding "truth" within the realm of reason. If I make up the definition of a mammal, and then, after inspecting a camel, declare "look, a mammal' I have indeed brought a truth to light in this way, but it is a truth of limited value. That is to say, it is a thoroughly anthropomorphic truth which contains not a single point which would be "true in itself" or really and universally valid apart from man. At bottom, what the investigator of such truths is seeking is only the metamorphosis of the world into man.
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Philosophical Maxims
Mencius
Mencius
2 months 1 day ago
The virtues are not poured into...

The virtues are not poured into us, they are natural. Seek, and you will find them: neglect, and you will lose them.

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Uses and Sanctions, no. 22
Philosophical Maxims
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
2 months 3 weeks ago
There are no signposts in the...

There are no signposts in the sky to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas.

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North to the Orient (1935) Ch. 1
Philosophical Maxims
Seneca the Younger
Seneca the Younger
1 month 3 weeks ago
Great also are the souls of...

Great also are the souls of the defenders-men who know that, as long as the path to death lies open, the blockade is not complete, men who breathe their last in the arms of liberty.

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Philosophical Maxims
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
5 months 1 week ago
The fact that all Mathematics is...

The fact that all Mathematics is Symbolic Logic is one of the greatest discoveries of our age; and when this fact has been established, the remainder of the principles of mathematics consists in the analysis of Symbolic Logic itself.

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Principles of Mathematics (1903), Ch. I: Definition of Pure Mathematics, p. 5
Philosophical Maxims
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
4 months 1 week ago
The African [slave] trade was, in...

The African [slave] trade was, in his opinion, an absolute robbery. It therefore could not be a doubt with the House, whether it was proper to abolish it.

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Speech in the House of Commons (12 May 1789), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England, From the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXVIII (1816), column 96
Philosophical Maxims
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
5 months 1 week ago
You will hear every day the...

You will hear every day the maxims of a low prudence. You will hear, that the first duty is to get land and money, place and name. "What is this Truth you seek? What is this Beauty?" men will ask, with derision. If, nevertheless, God have called any of you to explore truth and beauty, be bold, be firm, be true. When you shall say, "As others do, so will I. I renounce, I am sorry for it, my early visions; I must eat the good of the land, and let learning and romantic expectations go, until a more convenient season." - then dies the man in you; then once more perish the buds of art, and poetry, and science, as they have died already in a thousand thousand men. The hour of that choice is the crisis of your history; and see that you hold yourself fast by the intellect. ... Bend to the persuasion which is flowing to you from every object in Nature, to be its tongue to the heart of man, and to show the besotted world how passing fair is wisdom.

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Philosophical Maxims
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