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530f8e5 Nietzsche, an infinitely harder and more courageous intellect, was incapable of any such confusion of ideas; he seldom allowed sentimentality to turn him from the glaring fact. courageous emotion facts friedrich-nietzsche hard ideas intellect nietzsche philosopher philosophy sentimentality H.L. Mencken
f786d03 When you're asked to stay out of a bar you don't just punch the owner--you come back with your army and tear the place down, destroy the whole edifice and everything it stands for. No compromise. If a man gets wise, mash his face. If a woman snubs you, rape her. This is the thinking, if not the reality, behind the whole Hell's Angels act. philosophy retaliation Hunter S. Thompson
385943b lqh btyryz kn HSyl@ Sdf st b`yd@ lHtml. lkn, khlfan ldhlk 'fl tqs 'hmy@ Hdth, wkthr@ m`nyh brtbTh b'kbr `dd mmkn mn lSdf? wHdh lSdf@ ymkn 'n tkwn dht mGz~. fm yHdth blDrwr@, m hw mtwq` wytkrr ywmyan ybq~ shyy'an 'bkm. wHdh lSdf@ nTq@. ns`~ l'n nqr' fyh km yqr' lGjrywn fy lrswm lty ykhTh thfl lqhw@ fy mqr lfnjn. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
6360409 "But technology is simply the making of things and the making of things can't by its own nature be ugly or there would be no possibility for beauty in the arts, which also include the making of things. Actually a root word of technology, , originally "art." The ancient Greeks never separated art from manufacture in their minds, and so never developed separate words for them." history manufacturing philosophy technology Robert M. Pirsig
8739e48 [N]ow we have a clearer idea what this story is all about: The world was made for man, and man was made to rule it. exploitation philosophy Daniel Quinn
fa91987 When cleaning I do it the way people go to church--not so much to discover anything new, although I'm alert for new things, but mainly to reacquaint myself with the familiar. It's nice to go over familiar paths. discovering-new-things getting-reacquainted motorcycles philosophy Robert M. Pirsig
bf3f574 Treatment for dependency at substance abuse treatment centers must change if alcoholism and addiction are to be overcome in our society. 12-steps alcohol-abuse alcohol-addiction alcoholism change chris-prentiss drug-abuse drug-addiction non-12-step-program passages-malibu passages-ventura pax-prentiss philosophy recovery society substance-addiction treatment Chris Prentiss
c56297b Sublime natures are seldom clean! decreation philosophy Longinus
778544c Our problem isn't that we're individualists. It's that our individualism is static rather than dynamic. We value what we think rather than what we do. We forget that we haven't done, or been, what we thought; that the first function of life is action, just as the first property of things is motion. dynamic identity individualism motion philosophy self static Fernando Pessoa
b1c1ec4 Though why should we expect age to mellow us? If it isn't life's business to reward merit, why should it be life's business to give us warm, comfortable feelings towards its end? What possible evolutionary purpose could nostalgia serve? history mellow memory merit nostalgia personality philosophy time Julian Barnes
5837ee9 "God is triune, and all reality is structured in terms of Him. A brief definition of the Trinity might be this: One God without division in a plurality of Persons, and three Persons without confusion in a unity of essence. philosophy the-one-and-the-many trinity David Chilton
a514c2b Existence is Identity, Consciousness is Identification. consciousness existence john-galt life man mind morality morals objectivism philosophy pursuit-of-happiness rational reason think thinking truth values virtue wisdom Ayn Rand
d4aa10e Rationality is the recognition of the fact that existence exists, that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it, which is thinking--that the mind is one's only judge of values and one's only guide of action--that reason is an absolute that permits no compromise--that a concession to the irrational invalidates one's consciousness and turns it from the task of perceiving to the task of faking reality--that the alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind--that the acceptance of a mystical invention is a wish for the annihilation of existence and, properly, annihilates one's consciousness. evil good happiness john-galt life man mind morality morals objectivism pain philosophy pursuit-of-happiness rational reason think thinking truth values virtue wisdom Ayn Rand
4c555ad Are you seeking to know what is wrong with the world? All the disasters that have wrecked your world, came from your leaders' attempt to evade the fact that A is A. All the secret evil you dread to face within you and all the pain you have ever endured, came from your own attempt to evade the fact that A is A. evil good john-galt life man mind morality morals objectivism philosophy pursuit-of-happiness rational reason think thinking truth values virtue wisdom Ayn Rand
9a8d877 j fy bdy@ sfr ltkwyn 'n llh khlq lnsn wj`lh ytslT `l~ lTywr wl'smk wlmshy@. bTby`@ lHl, lHq fy sfk dm 'yWlin 'w bqr@ hw lshy lwHyd ldhy tfqt `lyh lnsny@ jm` btakhin Ht~ khll lHrwb l'kthr dmwy@. qd ybdw ln hdh lHq bdyhyan l'nn n`tbr 'nfsn fy qm@ lslm. wlkn ykfy 'n ytdkhl shkhS shkhS thlth fy ll`b@, zy'r atin mthlan mn kwkb akhr wqd 'mrh llh: <>, ftSbH `ndy'dh bdh@ ltkwyn mwD` shk fy lHl friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
9171d1e Setting fire to the roofs, getting away with the loot, suiting herself. She studied modern philosophy, read Sartre on the side, smoked Gitanes, and cultivated a look of bored contempt. But inwardly, she was seething with unfocused excitement, and looking for someone to worship. philosophy rebel rebelliousness sartre worship Margaret Atwood
eb0add4 I am the man who loves his life. I am the man who does not sacrifice his love or his values. john-galt philosophy Ayn Rand
9c425e3 Life is a process of self-sustaining and self-generated action. If an organism fails in that action, it dies...It is only the concept of 'Life' that makes the concept of 'Value' possible. It is only to a living entity that things can be good or evil. evil good john-galt life man mind morality morals objectivism philosophy pursuit-of-happiness reason think thinking values virtue Ayn Rand
96cae36 If only a world-wide consciousness could arise that all division and fission are due to the splitting of opposites in the psyche, then we should know where to begin. consciousness duality individualism philosophy polarity psyche psychology society splitting subconscious the-self unconscious C.G. Jung
897bf6f What determines each person's state of happiness or unhappiness is not the event itself, but what the event means to that person. inspiration life philosophy zen zen-and-the-art-of-happiness Chris Prentiss
e8d3e20 y`tbr tftysh lmwTnyn wmrqbthm mn lnshTt ljtm`y@ l'ssy@ wldy'm@ fy lbldn lshyw`y@. faliky ynl rsm HqWh fy qm@ m`rD 'w mwTnun `l~ t'shyr@ lqD `Tlth `l~ lshTy', 'w lky ttm lmwfq@ `l~ nDmm l`b kr@ l~ lfryq lwTny, yjb 'n tjtm` 'Slan kl 'nw` ltqryr wlshhdt lty tkhShm, (shhd@ lnTwr wzml l`ml wlshrT@ wkhly@ mwZWfwn m`dWwn lhdhh lmhm@. 'm m yql fy hdhh ltSryH fl `lq@ lh lbt@ bmwhb@ lmwTn fy lrsm 'w fy l`b lkr@, wl `lq@ lh bm dh knt tsmH lh Hlth lSHy@ bqD `Tl@ `l~ lshTy'. hnk 'mr wHd yhm whw m ysmW~ <> ('y mdh yqwl lmwTn, bmdh yfkr, kyf ytSrf, hl yshrk fy ljtm`t 'w fy ltZhrt fy l'wl mn yr). wbm 'n kl shy (lHy@ lywmy@ wltrqy@ wl`Tlt) mrtbT blTryq@ lty yqyWmwn fyh slwk lmwTn, fn ljmy` mDTrwn dhan, (mn 'jl ll`b m` lfryq lwTny 'w lltmkn mn qm@ m`rD, 'w lqD `Tl@ `l~ shTy' lbHr) lltSrf bTryq@ tj`l `lmthm Hsn@. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
b31c32f She wants to have her notebooks so that the flimsy framework of events, as she has constructed them in her school notebook, will be provided with walls and become a house she can live in. Because if the tottering structure of her memories collapses like a clumsily pitched tent, all that Tamina will be left with is the present, that invisible point, that nothingness moving slowly toward death. czech existentialism meaning-of-life memory novel philosophy Milan Kundera
fb037ff "I would bear it for her if I could. pain philosophy wasted-time wishing Penelope Fitzgerald
9258267 It occurred to him that his scarcely perceptible attempts to struggle against what was considered good by the most highly placed people, those scarcely noticeable impulses which he had immediately suppressed, might have been the real thing, and all the rest false. human-nature inspiration life morality philosophy psychology societal-expectations society Leo Tolstoy
e1283f6 One believed what one was told to believe, what it made sense to believe. Unless one was a foreigner, of course, or a philosopher. cognitive-dissonance confirmation-bias foreigners philosophy Iain M. Banks
9b57c5f w'n hnk 'yDan w'yDan kwkb 'khr~ Hyth ymkn lljns lbshry 'n yld mn jdyd mrtqyan fy kl mr@ drj@an ('y Hy@) `l~ sulaWm lkml. tlk hy lfkr@ lty ykwWnh twms `n l`awd l'bdy. nHn 'yDan skn hdhh l'rD ('y lkwkb rqm wHd, kwkb n`dm lkhbr@), lys fy mknn Tb`an l 'n nkwWn fkr@ GmD@ jdan `m sySyr bHl lnsn fy lkwkb l'khr~. tur~ hl sykwn 'kthr thqlan? hl sykwn lkml fy mtnwl ydh? whl sytmkn mn lwSwl lyh bwsT@ ltkrr? Dmn 'fq hdhh lywTwby wHdh, ymkn lmfhwmy ltshw'm wltfw'l 'n ykwn lhm m`n~: flmtfy'l hw dhlk ldhy ytSwr 'n ltrykh lnsny sykwn 'ql dymwm@ `l~ lkwkb rqm 5. wlmtshy'm hw dhlk ldhy l ySdWq hdh l'mr. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
7312d88 For millennia philosophers and saints have tried to reason out a logical scheme for the universe... until Hilda came along and demonstrated that the universe is not logical but whimsical, its structure depending solely on the dreams and nightmares of non-logical dreamers. philosophy whimsy Robert A. Heinlein
c8ac054 I love even to see the domestic animals reassert their native rights -- any evidence that they have not wholly lost their original wild habits and vigor; as when my neighbor's cow breaks out of her pasture early in the Spring and boldly swims the river, a cold grey tide, twenty-five or thirty rods wide, swollen by the melted snow. It is the Buffalo crossing the Mississippi. nature philosophy Henry David Thoreau
75b61fe `dt tyryz l~ lnwm mn jdyd. wlknh hw lm ystT` lnwm. kn ytkhylh myt@ wtr~ 'Hlman rhyb@. wlm ykn fy stT`th yqZh l'nh myt@. n`m, hdh hw lmwt: 'n tnm tyryz wtr~ 'Hlman fZy`@ dwn 'n ytmkn mn yqZh. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
6056bb3 fy mmlk@ <> ltwtlytry@ t`T~ ljbt msbqan mHriWm@ bdhlk 'y sw'l jdyd. yntj `n dhlk 'n lnsn ldhy ytsl hw l`dw lHqyqy l <>. lsw'l hw mthl mskyn ymzq lqmsh@ lmrswm@ lldykwr fySbH fy lmstT` rw'y@ m ykhtby' khlfh. hkdh shrHt sbyn ltyryz m`n~ lwHth: mn l'mm lkdhb lSrkh, wmn lkhlf lHqyq@ lty l yudrk knhh. l 'n hw'l ldhyn ynDlwn Dd l'nZm@ lmsmW@ twtlytry@ qlaWm ymknhm lnDl mn khll 'sy'l@ wshkwk. fhum 'yDan bHj@ l~ qn`thm wl~ Hqyqthm lbsyT@ lty yftrD 'n yfhmh 'kbr `dd mmkn mn lns w'n tHdth frzan dm`yan jm`yan. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
9efe7a0 We live in a stocking which is in the process of being turned inside out, without our ever knowing for sure to what phase of the process our moment of consciousness corresponds. philosophy stockings Vladimir Nabokov
33b657a By heavens! there is something after all in the world allowing one man to steal a horse while another must not look at a halter. Steal a horse straight out. Very well. He has done it. Perhaps he can ride. But there is a way of looking at a halter that would provoke the most charitable of saints into a kick. humanity philosophy social-norms Joseph Conrad
d9ec681 When a man gets drunk he gets sentimental. That's what I wanted to avoid. freedom french-literature jean-paul-sartre philosophy the-age-of-reason the-roads-to-freedom Jean-Paul Sartre
6f6ac42 Terrible times breed terrible things, my lord. environment greed nurture philosophical philosophy rulers war George R.R. Martin
835a080 As you know, shibumi has to do with great refinement underlying commonplace appearances. It is a statement so correct that it does not have to be bold, so poignant it does not have to be pretty, so true it does not have to be real. Shibumi is understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. In demeanor, it is modesty without pudency. In art, where the spirit of shibumi takes the form of sabi, it is elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. In philosophy, where shibumi emerges as wabi, it is spiritual tranquility that is not passive; it is being without the angst of becoming. philosophy shibumi understatement Trevanian
fcf614f If you can't test it, it's not theorics -- it's metatheorics. A branch of philosophy. So, if you want to think of it this way, our test equipment is what defines the boundary separating theorics from philosophy. philosophy religion science Neal Stephenson
fa6be0e lkhyn@. mndh Tfwltn wlwld wm`lm lmdrs@ ykrrn `l~ msm`n b'nh 'fZ` shy fy lwjwd. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
7235232 Let those who want to save the world if you can get to see it clear and as a whole. Then any part you make will represent the whole if it's made truly. The thing to do is work and learn to make it. life literature philosophy writing Ernest Hemingway
3114d80 Whenever you see flies or insects in a still life--a wilted petal, a black spot on the apple--the painter is giving you a secret message. He's telling you that living things don't last--it's all temporary. Death in life. That's why they're called natures mortes. Maybe you don't see it at first, with all the beauty and bloom, the little speck of rot. But if you look closer--there it is. death life philosophy transience Donna Tartt
8e8ed8f And yet does the appetite for new days ever really cease? identity life-philosophy philosophy science John Updike
c733ada "Again, all of life presents us with two basic ways to treat events. We can either label them "god for us" or "bad for us." The event is only an event. It's how we treat the event that determines what it becomes in our lives. The event doesn't make that determination- we do." depression happiness life philosophy zen zen-and-the-art-of-happiness Chris Prentiss
8e88d89 "Is it not curious, that so vast a being as the whale should see the world through so small an eye, and hear the thunder through an ear which is smaller than a hare's? But if his eyes were broad as the lens of Herschel's great telescope; and his ears capacious as the porches of cathedrals; would that make him any longer of sight, or sharper of hearing? Not at all.--Why then do you try to "enlarge" your mind? Subtilize it" friedrich-wilhelm-herschel philosophy wilhelm-herschel william-herschel Herman Melville
946e723 If you are surrounded by people who not only don't believe in your goals and your positive outlook on life, but who also continually try to tear you down, it will be extremely challenging for you to hold firmly in mind that you will succeed and that you can be happy. life philosophy zen zen-and-the-art-of-happiness Chris Prentiss
9f74441 "I shall not be alive a half decade hence," said Seldon, "and yet it is of overpowering concern to me. Call it idealism. Call it an identification of myself with that mystical generalization to which we refer by the term, 'man." philosophy Isaac Asimov
f7bffa4 "You certainly remember this scene from dozens of films: a boy and a girl are running hand in hand in a beautiful spring (or summer) landscape. Running, running, running and laughing. By laughing the two runners are proclaiming to the whole world, to audiences in all the movie theaters: "We're happy, we're glad to be in the world, we're in agreement with being!" It's a silly scene, a cliche, but it expresses a basic human attitude: serious laughter, laughter "beyond joking." All churches, all underwear manufacturers, all generals, all political parties, are in agreement about that kind of laughter, and all of them rush to put the image of the two laughing runners on the billboards advertising their religion, their products, their ideology, their nation, their sex, their dishwashing powder." -- czech existentialism happiness kitsch laughter meaning-of-life novel philosophy Milan Kundera
b2db060 The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything. czech-literature foolishness literature novel philosophy questions stupidity Milan Kundera
7941611 The goal and meaning of individual life (which is the only real life) no longer lie in individual development but in the policy of the State, which is thrust upon the individual from outside and consists in the execution of an abstract idea which ultimately tends to attract all life to itself. mental-health philosophy politics psychology state system the-self truth welfare C.G. Jung
0e997f6 Civilizations... cannot flourish if they are beset with troublesome infections of beliefs. bullshit civilization philosophy Harry G. Frankfurt
21e36a0 When everything is social, suddenly nothing is. philosophy social-media Jean Baudrillard
d22efad I never said a word against eminent men of science. What I complain of is a vague popular philosophy which supposes itself to be scientific when it it really nothing but a sort of new religion and an uncommonly nasty one. philosophy science G.K. Chesterton
21606da She had lost herself in this old work, her personality dissolving into it, so that she had been set free. The immortality of the soul lies in its dissolution; this was the cryptic comment that so frustrated Olivier and which Julien had only ever grasped as evidence for the history of a particular school of thought. He had known all about its history, but Julia knew what it meant. He found the realization strangely reassuring. freedom immortality liberation meaning philosophy self-abandonment soul thought Iain Pears
a5c4d21 Things that seem morally obvious and intuitive now weren't necessarily so in the past; many started with nonconforming reasoning. ethics morality philosophy veganism Robert M. Sapolsky
d8290ac Primenenie protivozachatochnykh sredstv inogda kritikuiut kak <>. Da, eto tak -- ochen' protivoestestvennoe. Beda v tom, chto protivoestestvenno i vseobshchee blagosostoianie. Ia dumaiu, chto bol'shinstvo iz nas schitaet vseobshchee blagosostoianie v vysshei stepeni zhelatel'nym. Nevozmozhno, odnako, dobit'sia protivoestestvennogo vseobshchego blagosostoianiia, esli ne poiti pri etom takzhe na protivoestestvennuiu reguliatsiiu rozhdaemosti, tak kak eto privedet k eshche bol'shim nevzgodam, chem sushchestvuiushchie v prirode. medicine philosophy Richard Dawkins
06c2c2a My greatest urge in life is to do nothing. It's not even an absence of motivation, a lack, for I do have a strong urge: to do nothing. To down tools, to stop. Except I know that if I do that I will fall into despair, and I know that it is worth doing anything in one's power to avoid depression because from there, from being depressed, it is only an imperceptible step to despair: the last refuge of the ego. depression despair idleness motivation philosophy Geoff Dyer
e9c5809 The more you engage in any type of emotion or behavior, the greater your desire for it will become. chris-prentiss depression emotions happiness philosophy zen zen-and-the-art-of-happiness Chris Prentiss
9e3f23a But in doing so---moving forward...---he's still dealing with the past. It's always strung out behind us, innit, attached to our arses like a roll of toilet paper we trail out of the bathroom, pointing the way to the giant shite we just took. It doesn't matter if we flushed it down; Everyone still knows what we did there. So its fine to say it's all done and you have no connection with the past, that you're a new person every second, but silly in my view to pretend that person isn't made of the old one. humor past philosophy Kevin Hearne
dd8b2b1 The sense impressions of one-celled animals are not edited for the brain: 'This is philosophically interesting in a rather mournful way, since it means that only the simplest animals perceive the universe as it is (21). nature philosophy sight world Annie Dillard
b135fb6 There are no trivial facts in humanity, nor little leaves in vegetation. philosophy Victor Hugo
4c435a0 "In philosophy, metaphorical pluralism is the norm. Our most important abstract philosophical concepts, including time, causation, morality, and the mind, are all conceptualized by multiple metaphors, sometimes as many as two dozen. What each philosophical theory typically does is to choose one of those metaphors as "right," as the true literal meaning of the concept. One reason there is so much argumentation across philosophical theories is that different philosophers have chosen different metaphors as the "right" one, ignoring or taking as misleading all other commonplace metaphorical structurings of the concept. Philosophers have done this because they assume that a concept must have one and only one logic. But the cognitive reality is that our concepts have multiple metaphorical structurings." concept embodied-mind logic metaphor philosophy reason George Lakoff
777c837 The present importance of the Book of Job cannot be expressed adequately even by saying that it is the most interesting of ancient books. We may almost say of the Book of Job that it is the most interesting of modern books. In truth, of course, neither of the two phrases covers the matter, because fundamental human religion and fundamental human irreligion are both at once old and new; philosophy is either eternal or it is not philosophy. The modern habit of saying, 'This is my opinion, but I may be wrong,' is entirely irrational. If I say that it may be wrong I say that is not my opinion. The modern habit of saying 'Every man has a different philosophy; this is my philosophy and its suits me'; the habit of saying this is mere weak-mindedness. A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon. philosophy religion truth worldview G.K. Chesterton
369d051 The modern mind is merely a blank about the philosophy of toleration; and the average agnostic of recent times has really had no notion of what he meant by religious liberty and equality. He took his own ethics as self-evident and enforced them; such as decency or the error of the Adamite heresy. Then he was horribly shocked if he heard of anybody else, Moslem or Christian, taking his ethics as self-evident and enforcing them; such as reverence or the error of the Atheist heresy. And then he wound up by taking all this lop-sided illogical deadlock, of the unconscious meeting the unfamiliar, and called it the liberality of his own mind. Medieval men thought that if a social system was founded on a certain idea it must fight for that idea, whether it was as simple as Islam or as carefully balanced as Catholicism. Modern men really think the same thing, as is clear when communists attack their ideas of property. Only they do not think it so clearly, because they have not really thought out their idea of property. medieval morality philosophy religion st-francis toleration G.K. Chesterton
72376e1 What is the meaning of life? What is our purpose on earth? These are some of the great, false questions of religion. We need not answer them, for they are badly posed, but we can live our answers all the same. At a minimum, we can create the conditions for human flourishing in this life--the only life of which any of us can be certain. That means we should not terrify our children with thoughts of hell or poison them with hatred for infidels. We should not teach our sons to consider women their future property or convince our daughters that they are property even now. And we must decline to tell our children that human history began with bloody magic and will end with bloody magic in a glorious war between the righteous and the rest. philosophy religion Sam Harris
0e88053 The New Your energy goes beyond anything you'll find anywhere else. It's too much for some people and it grinds them down, but it lifts up and animates the rest of us. human-nature individuality inspiration knowledge-of-self life living-in-a-city philosophy sadness security Lawrence Block
fb81042 "I rather liked him.I asked him to come and see us.' 'Oh Christ !' 'But, Bradley, you mustn't reject people,you musn't just write them of. You must be curious about them. Curiosity is kind of charity.' 'I don't think curiosity is a kind of charity. I think it's a kind of malice.' 'That's what makes a writer, knowing the details.' 'It may make your kind of writer. It doesn't make mine.' 'Here we go again,' said Arnold. 'Why pile up a jumble of "details"? When you start really imagining something you have to forget the details anyhow, they just get in the way. Art isn't the reproduction of oddments out of life.' 'I never said it was!' said Arnold. 'I don't draw direct from life.' 'Your wife thinks you do.' 'Oh that. Oh God.' 'Inquisitive chatter and cataloguing of things one's spotted isn't art. ' 'Of course it isn't -' 'Vague romantic myth isn't art either. Art is imagination. Imagination changes, fuses. Without imagination you have stupid details on one side and empty dreams on the othet.' 'Bradley, I know you -' 'Art isn't chat plus fantasy. Art comes out of endless restraint and silnce.' 'If the silence is endless there isn't any art! It's people without creative gifts who say that more mean worse!' 'One should only complete something when one feels one's bloody privileged to have it all. Those who only do what's easy will never be rewarded by -' philosophy writing Iris Murdoch
33eb27d I find my data first in myself, not first in the poets. For if I did not find it in myself, I would not be able to find it in the poets. peter-kreeft philosophy poetry poets sea water Peter Kreeft
03fbe67 "individuals are concerned not with the moral issue of realizing these standards, but with the amoral issue of engineering a convincing impression that these standards are being realized. Our activity, then, is largely concerned with moral matters, but as performers we do not have a moral concern in these moral matters. As performers we are merchants of morality. Our day is given over to intimate contact with the goods we display and our minds are filled with intimate understandings of them; but it may well be that the more attention we give to these goods, th e more d is ta n t we feel from them and from those who are believing enough to buy them. To use a different imagery, the very obligation and profitablility of appearing always in a steady moral light, of being a socialized character, forces morals philosophy sociology Erving Goffman
d9441c6 Si se lo permitimos, los ninos pueden ensenarnos la salida. Hay una historia muy conocida de una madre que entra en la habitacion de su hijo recien nacido y se encuentra a su otro hijo, un nino de cuatro anos, asomado a la cuna. -Tienes que contarme como es el cielo y como es Dios -le implora el nino a su hermanito-. !Estoy empezando a olvidarme! philosophy spanish wisdom Brian L. Weiss
10fdac3 "An enthusiastic philosopher, of whose name we are not informed, had constructed a very satisfactory theory on some subject or other, and was not a little proud of it. "But the facts, my dear fellow," said his friend, "the facts do not agree with your theory."--"Don't they?" replied the philosopher, shrugging his shoulders, "then, ;"--so much the worse for the facts!" philosophy theory Charles Mackay
5a08535 The true source of happiness is within each of us. philosophy zen zen-and-the-art-of-happiness Chris Prentiss
35f8d51 I wrote this book to show you that a cure is entirely possible because I've seen it happen over and over again. addiction-and-recovery addiction-cure addiction-free alcohol-abuse alcohol-addiction alcohol-addiction-treatment alcoholism-cure amazon author book bookstore chris-prentiss cure-addiction drug-abuse drug-addiction drug-addiction-treatment end-the-cycle freedom great-authors great-books kindle life new-book nook passages-malibu passages-ventura philosophy self-help sober sobriety wisdom Chris Prentiss
422b297 "When a problem or a difficult situation arises, say to yourself, as if you already believe it: "This is for my benefit." chris-prentiss-quotes passages-malibu philosophy philosophy-of-life quotes struggle wisdom Chris Prentiss
3a428e7 They don't understand that religion and science are there to serve different purposes. We need science to understand how everything on this planet and beyond works - us, nature, everything we see around us. That's fact - no one with a working brain can question that. But we also need religion. Not for ridiculous counter-theories about things that science can prove. We need it for something else, to fill a different kind of need. The need for meaning. It's a basic need we have, as humans. And it's a need that's beyond the realm of science. Your scientists don't understand that it's a need they can't fulfill no matter how many Hadron colliders and Hubble telescopes they build- and your preachers don'[t understand that their job is to help you discover a personal, inner sense of meaning and not behave like a bunch of zealots intent on converting the rest of the planet to their rigid, literalist view of how everyone should live their lives. philosophy raymond-khoury religion science-and-religion Raymond Khoury
9a4b42f Considering he was neither priest nor scholar, the young man gave sensible, thoughtful replies -- the more so, perhaps, for being untrained, for he had not learned what he should believe or should not believe. Present a statement to him in flagrant contradiction to all Christian doctrine and he could be persuaded to agree on its good sense, unless he remembered it was the sort of thing of which pyres are made for the incautious. doctrine education freedom freedom-of-religion freedom-of-thought good-sense independent-thought inquisition persecution philosophy rationality reason schooling Iain Pears
0207709 I wasn't sure about that, but one never knows. Sometimes a neighborhood, like a culture or civilization, is strong enough to absorb and acculturate any number of newcomers. But I don't know if that's true around here any longer. The outward forms and appearances look the same - [...]- but the substance has been altered. life philosophy Nelson DeMille
30ff25a The solutions all are simple--after you have arrived at them. But they're simple only when you know already what they are. philosophy Robert M. Pirsig
985ab32 "That's all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel. There's no part in it, no shape in it, that is not out of someone's mind [...] I've noticed that people who have never worked with steel have trouble seeing this--that the motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon. They associate metal with given shapes--pipes, rods, girders, tools, parts--all of them fixed and inviolable., and think of it as primarily physical. But a person who does machining or foundry work or forger work or welding sees "steel" as having no shape at all. Steel can be any shape you want if you are skilled enough, and any shape but the one you want if you are not. Shapes, like this tappet, are what you arrive at, what you give to the steel. Steel has no more shape than this old pile of dirt on the engine here. These shapes are all of someone's mind. That's important to see. The steel? Hell, even the steel is out of someone's mind. There's no steel in nature. Anyone from the Bronze Age could have told you that. All nature has is a potential for steel. There's nothing else there." foundry machining mechanics motorcycle-maintenance motorcycles philosophy steel welding Robert M. Pirsig
0d8a7a3 There is no perfectly shaped part of the motorcycle and never will be, but when you come as close as these instruments take you, remarkable things happen, and you go flying across the countryside under a power that would be called magic if it were not so completely rational in every way. motorcycle-maintenance motorcycles perfection philosophy rationality Robert M. Pirsig
6e8f237 "Not everyone understands what a completely rational process this is, this maintenance of a motorcycle. They think it's some kind of "knack" or some kind of "affinity for machines" in operation. They are right, but the knack is almost purely a process of reason, and most of the troubles are caused by what old time radio men called a "short between the earphones," failures to use the head properly. A motorcycle functions entirely in accordance with the laws of reason, and a study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself." motorcycle motorcycle-maintenance philosophy rationality reason Robert M. Pirsig
c733dd8 I shall never sleep again. But then--how shall I endure my own company? philosophy Jean-Paul Sartre
d29743e "Philosophy is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat. Metaphysics is like being in a dark room and looking for a black cat that isn't there. christianity hinduism islam metaphysics philosophy religion science theology Anonymous
f96ea15 This 'web of discourses' as Robyn called it...is as much a biological product as any of the other constructions to be found in the animal world. (Clothes too, are part of the extended phenotype of Homo Sapiens almost every niche inhabited by that species.An illustrated encyclopedia of zoology should no more picture Homo Sapiens naked than it should picture Ursus arctus-the black bear- wearing a clown suit and riding a bicycle. dennett humor philosophy philosophy-of-mind science Daniel C. Dennett
25b3e22 We must have sinned greatly, at some juncture long buried in our protozoic past, to deserve such a universe identity life-philosophy philosophy science John Updike
41b56e3 My friend, it is not an arduous task that I bequeath, for our order knows only silken bonds. To be gentle and patient, to care for the riches of the mind, to preside in wisdom and secrecy while the storm rages without -- it will all be very pleasantly simple for you, and you will doubtless find great happiness. philosophy James Hilton
d660ea1 Mendel had a remarkable nature as a boy. I'm not talking about miracles. Miracles are a burden for a tzaddik, not the proof of one. Miracles prove nothing except to those whose faith is bought very cheap, sir. There was something in Mendele. There was a fire. philosophy Michael Chabon
0f713ad So live. I'll be the nun for you. I am now. philosophy Annie Dillard
1d389a6 To be whole is to be part; true voyage is return. philosophy taoism Ursula K. Le Guin
f1f3c26 "In the forty minutes I watched the muskrat, he never saw me, smelled me, or heard me at all. When he was in full view of course I never moved except to breathe. My eyes would move, too, following his, but he never noticed. Only once, when he was feeding from the opposite bank about eight feet away did he suddenly rise upright, all alert- and then he immediately resumed foraging. But he never knew I was there. I never knew I was there, either. For that forty minutes last night I was as purely sensitive and mute as a photographic plate; I received impressions, but I did not print out captions. My own self-awareness had disappeared; it seems now almost as though, had I been wired to electrodes, my EEG would have been flat. I have done this sort of thing so often that I have lost self-consciousness about moving slowly and halting suddenly. And I have often noticed that even a few minutes of this self-forgetfulness is tremendously invigorating. I wonder if we do not waste most of our energy just by spending every waking minute saying hello to ourselves. Martin Buber quotes an old Hasid master who said, "When you walk across the field with your mind pure and holy, then from all the stones, and all growing things, and all animals, the sparks of their souls come out and cling to you, and then they are purified and become a holy fire in you." beauty belief consciousness creation curiosity disbelief energy enoughness epiphany exploration exultant faith fate fearless fire free freedom gaps god grace growth hallelujah humility illumination intricacy joy joyful joyfulness life-force light living-in-the-present-moment mindfulness multiplicity mystery nature philosopher-s-stone philosophy poem poet poetry power praise prayer prayers praying religion religious-diversity ring-the-bells science seeing seeking soul spirit stalking-the-gaps the-tree-with-the-lights-in-it tolerance walking watching wonder Annie Dillard
157c737 It may be laid down as a general rule that if a man begins to sing, no one will take notice of this except his fellow human being. This is true even if his song is surpassingly beautiful. Other men may be in raptures at this skill, but the rest of creation is, by and large, unmoved. intellectual philosophy Susanna Clarke
7879b53 I want to think about trees. Trees have a curious relationship to the subject of the present moment. There are many created things in the universe that outlive us, that outlive the sun, even, but I can't think about them. I live with trees. There are creatures under our feet, creatures that live over our heads, but trees live quite convincingly in the same filament of air we inhabit, and in addition, they extend impressively in both directions, up and down, shearing rock and fanning air, doing their real business just out of reach. beauty belief consciousness creation curiosity disbelief energy enoughness epiphany exploration exultant faith fate fearless fire free freedom gaps god grace growth hallelujah humility illumination intricacy joy joyful joyfulness life-force light living-in-the-present-moment mindfulness multiplicity mystery nature philosopher-s-stone philosophy poem poet poetry power praise prayer prayers praying religion religious-diversity science seeing seeking soul spirit stalking-the-gaps the-tree-with-the-lights-in-it tolerance trees walking watching wonder Annie Dillard
9b573e9 "The color-patches of vision part, shift, and reform as I move through space in time. The present is the object of vision, and what I see before me at any given second is a full field of color patches scattered just so. The configuration will never be repeated. Living is moving; time is a live creek bearing changing lights. As I move, or as the world moves around me, the fullness of what I see shatters. "Last forever!" Who hasn't prayed that prayer? You were lucky to get it in the first place. The present is a freely given canvas. That it is constantly being ripped apart and washed downstream goes without saying; it is a canvas, nevertheless. But there is more to the present than a series of snapshots. We are not merely sensitized film; we have feelings, a memory for information and an eidetic memory for the imagery of our pasts. Our layered consciousness is a tiered track for an unmatched assortment of concentrically wound reels. Each one plays out for all of life its dazzle and blur of translucent shadow-pictures; each one hums at every moment its own secret melody in its own unique key. We tune in and out. But moments are not lost. Time out of mind is time nevertheless, cumulative, informing the present. From even the deepest slumber you wake with a jolt- older, closer to death, and wiser, grateful for breath. But time is the one thing we have been given, and we have been given to time. Time gives us a whirl. We keep waking from a dream we can't recall, looking around in surprise, and lapsing back, for years on end. All I want to do is stay awake, keep my head up, prop my eyes open, with toothpicks, with trees." beauty belief consciousness creation curiosity disbelief energy enoughness epiphany exploration exultant faith fate fearless fire free freedom gaps god grace growth hallelujah humility illumination intricacy joy joyful joyfulness life-force light living-in-the-present-moment mindfulness multiplicity mystery nature philosopher-s-stone philosophy poem poet poetry power praise prayer prayers praying religion religious-diversity science seeing seeking soul spirit stalking-the-gaps the-tree-with-the-lights-in-it tolerance walking watching wonder Annie Dillard
ab93ed2 When we say that this definition of good and evil is objective, what we mean is that it is as objective as we can be at this time, and to the best of our knowledge about the universe. This definition is based on what we know about how the universe works. It is not based on the revealed wisdom of any one faith or political movement. It is common to the best principles of all of them, but it is based on what we know rather than what we believe. In that sense, it is objective. Of course, what we know about the universe, and our place in it, is constantly changing as we add more information and gain new insights. We are never perfectly objective about anything, that is true, but we can be less objective, or we can be more objective. inspirational philosophy science Gregory David Roberts
36e0ef4 "Olivier took a deep breath, then turned and bowed in farewell. Gersonides nodded in return, then thought of something. "The manuscript you brought me, by that bishop. It argues that understanding is more important than movement. That action is virtuous only if it reflects pure comprehension, and that virtue comes from the comprehension, not the action." Olivier frowned. "So?" "Dear boy, I must tell you a secret." "What?" "I do believe it is wrong." comprehension philosophy right understanding virtue wrong Iain Pears
3c387f3 This is precisely how someone speaks who imagines that he is the world's divinely appointed ruler: 'I will not LET them starve. I will not LET the drought come. I will not LET the river flood. philosophy Daniel Quinn
1446294 "[T]aking the Third into account does not bring us into the position of pragmatic consideration, of comparing different Others; the task is rather to learn to distinguish between "false" conflicts and the "true" conflict. For example, today's conflict between Western liberalism and religious fundamentalism is a "false" one, since it is based on the exclusion of the third term which is its "truth": the Leftist emancipatory position." philosophy religion Slavoj Žižek
0894b6b My existence began to worry me seriously. Was I not a simple spectre? jean-paul-sartre nausea philosophy Jean-Paul Sartre
3d18a47 tjwzt md@ ltmthyly@ lmrtjl@ lHdwd. kn frnz yjd 'n hdhh lmlh@ (lty kn yqrW b'nh sHr@ `l~ kl Hl) qd Tlt 'kthr mn llzm. f'msk lqb`@ lrjly@ byn 'Sb`yh wntz`h `n r's sbyn whw ybtsm, thm `lqh fwq lq`d@. . kn l'mr kmn ymHw shrbyn rsmhm wld `fryt `l~ Swr@ mrym l`dhr. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
9c518c6 mdh bqy mn mHtDry kmbwdy? Swr@ kbyr@ llnjm@ l'myrky@ tHml byn dhr`yh Tflan 'Sfr. mdh bqy mn twms? ktb@u: 'rd mmlk@ llh `l~ l'rD. mdh bqy mn bythwvn? rjl mqTb lwjh, msh`th lsh`r kmjnwn wynTq bSwt mkty'b <> <>. mdh bqy mn frnz? ktb@u: b`d Twl Dll, l`wd@. whkdh dwlyk, whkdh dwlyk. qbl 'n nunsa~ ntHwl l~ <>. <> hw mHT@ tSl byn lky'n wlnsyn. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
8660966 knt tkhf mn 'n yuGlq `lyh dkhl n`sh w'n tudlaW~ fy 'rD 'myrk. ldhlk ktbt wSy@ shtrTt fyh 'n tuHrq jthth b`d mwth, w'n yunthr rmdh fy lhw. tyryz wtwms mt tHt sh`r lthql. 'm hy f'rdt 'n tmwt tHt sh`r lkhf@. swf tSyr 'khf mn lhw. wHsb r'y brmynyd, fn mwth tHwWl mn lslby l~ lyjby. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
6f2244a `ndm kn symwn yfkr fy dhlk llq kn ysh`r blkhjl mn wahalh. mn lmw'kd 'nh lm yu`jb 'bh. 'm hw f'u`jb b'byh. kn ytdhkr kl klm@ tfwWh bh mstSwban mwqfh 'kthr f'kthr. hnk jml@ `l~ l'khS `lqt bdhkrth: <>. w`ndm wD` `mW Sdyqth ktb ltwr@ byn ydyh, t'thr bklmt ysw` lty tqwl: <>. kn y`rf 'n 'bh mlHd wlkn ltshbh byn ljmltyn kn blnsb@ lh wk'nh rmz khfy y`ny 'n 'bh ystHsn lTryq lty khtrh. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
4136e82 fy mjtm` tt`ysh fyh tyrt shtW~ wHyth ymkn lt'thyr hdhh ltyrt 'n yumH~ 'w yHdW bshkl mtnwb, ybq~ fy lmstT` lflt tqryban mn mHkm <>. wymkn llfrd `ndy'dh 'n yHfZ `l~ tmyzh, wllfnn 'n ykhlq '`mlan fnyW@ mdhsh@. wlkn fy lbldn lty yst'thr fyh Hzb sysy blslT@ klh, njd 'nfsn Hlan fy mmlk@ <> ldkttwry@. dh knt 'qwl dykttwry@ fny 'qSd bdhlk 'n kl m yT`n b <> mlG~an mn lHy@: kl Zhr llfrdy@, (l'n 'y nshz hw bSf@ fy wjh l'khwW@ lbsm@) wklW shk (l'n mn ybd' blshk fy ltfSyl lSGyr@ ytwSl fy nhy@ lmTf l'n yshk fy lHy@ bHd dhth). kdhlk lskhry@ (l'n kl shy fy mmlk@ <> yw'khdh `l~ mHml ljd), w'yDan l'm lty hjrt `y'lth, 'w lrjl ldhy yfDWl lrjl `l~ lns mhddan bdhlk lsh`r lmqds <>. nTlqan mn wjh@ lnZr hdhh, fn m ysm~ b <> ymkn `tbrh thGr@ `fn@ yrmy fyh <> ltwtlytry b'wskhh. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
9f171ca yntj `n dhlk 'n lwfq ltm m` lky'n ytkhdh mthlh l'`l~ `lman yuntf~ mnh lbrz, wytSrf kl wHd fyh wk'n lbrz Gyr mwjwd. hdh lmthl ljmly yd`~ <>. <> hy klm@ 'lmny@ Zhrt fy 'wsT lqrn lts` `shr l`Tfy, thm ntshrt b`d dhlk fy jmy` llGt. wlkn st`mlh bkthr@ 'zl dllth lmytfyzyqy@ l'Sly@ why: klm@ kytsh fy l'ss nfy mTlq llbrz. wblm`n~ lHrfy km blm`n~ lmjzy <> tTrH jnban kl m hw Gyr mqbwl fy lwjwd lnsny. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
0f4e270 bmkn lkwkb 'n ythw~ `l~ 'thr tfjyr lqnbl. wymkn llwTn 'n ynhbh kl ywm mkhtls jdyd, wymkn lskn lHy jmy`hm 'n yusqw l~ ktyb@ l`dm. ymknh 'n ytHml kl hdh bshwl@ 'kbr mm yjrw' `l~ lqwl, wlknh Gyr qdr `l~ tHml lHzn ldhy ysbbh Hlm wHd mn 'Hlm tyryz. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
e22da21 thm ql <>. sd Smt jdyd thm qT`h qy'lan: <>. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
1f9e1f5 'Dft lmSwWr btHbWb 'mwmy : <<'jsd `ry@. wlkn hdh 'mr Tby`y jdan! wkl m hw Tby`y jmyl!>>. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
67468f3 `ndm hd' Srkhh, nmt qrb twms w'mskt bydh Twl llyl. mndh knt fy lthmn@ why tGfw jm`@ ydyh wmtkhyl@ 'nh tmsk lrjl ldhy tHbh, rjl Hyth. kn mfhwman dhan 'n tshd bhdh l`zm `l~ yd twms. friedrich-nietzche friedrich-nietzsche love milan-kundera neitzsche novel philosophy philosophy-of-life political psychological psychology religion religion-and-philoshophy sex sociology اجتماع جنس حب علم-نفس فلسفة فلسفة-حياة كائن-لا-تحتمل-خفته ميلان-كونديرا نيتشه ميلان كونديرا
8641e47 You know, it's really very peculiar. To be mortal is the most basic human experience, and yet man has never been able to accept it, grasp it, and behave accordingly. Man doesn't know how to be mortal. And when he dies, he doesn't even know how to be dead. dying immortality life living mortality philosophy Milan Kundera
a3d021b Die Wahrheit des Seins ist Wesen hegelian-dialectic philosophy Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
8b769f1 To say that life is meaningless is to express an attitude, not to state a fact meaning moral-philosophy nihilism philosophy purpose Peter Singer
cc97ca7 The moose will perhaps one day become extinct; but how naturally then, when it exists only as a fossil relic, and unseen as that, may the poet or sculptor invent a fabulous animal with similar branching and leafy horns, -- a sort of fucus or lichen in bone, -- to be the inhabitant of such a forest as this! philosophy wildlife Henry David Thoreau
8d46cc4 To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. philosophy Henry David Thoreau
d1059ef The fact that for tens of thousands of years humanity has used warfare as a solution for states of disequilibrium has no more demonstrable value than the fact that in the same period humanity learned to resolve states of psychological imbalance by using alcohol or other equally devastating substances. philosophy war Umberto Eco
85456c9 How charming is divine Philosophy! Not harsh, and crabbed as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo's lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, Where no crude surfet raigns. philosophy John Milton
d51c825 Death is the promise we're all born with, sir. A good death is better than a poor one. philosophy michael moorcock
bbda67b "A man feared that he might find an assassin; crane philosophy victim wisdom wise Stephen Crane
815ebf0 "If Elvis ..is the definition of rock, then rock is remembered as showbiz...It becomes a solely performative art form, where the meaning of a song matters less than the person singing it. It becomes ...if Dylan...becomes the definition of rock, everything reverses. In this contingency, lyrical authenticity becomes everything: Rock is galvanized as an intellectual craft, interlocked with the folk tradition...The fact that Dylan does not have a conventionally "good" singing voice becomes retrospective proof that rock audiences prioritized substance over style..." philosophy rock Chuck Klosterman
d68f494 Alle menschlichen Fehler sind Ungeduld, ein vorzeitiges Abbrechen des Methodischen, ein scheinbares Einpfahlen der scheinbaren Sache. life philosophy sin truth Franz Kafka
8e3dca1 Mma Ramotswe had listened to a World Service broadcast on her radio one day which had simply taken her breath away. It was about philosophers who called themselves existentialists and who, as far as Mma Ramotswe could ascertain, lived in France. These French people said that you should just live in a way which made you feel real, and that the real thing to do was the right thing too. Mma Ramotswe had listened in astonishment. You did not have to go to France to meet existentialists, she reflected; there were many existentialists right here in Botswana. Note Mokoti, for example. She had been married to an existentialist herself, without even knowing it. Note, that selfish man who never once put himself out for another--not even for his wife--would have approved of existentialists, and they of him. It was very existentialist, perhaps, to go out to bars every night while your pregnant wife stayed at home, and even more existentialist to go off with girls--young existentialist girls--you met in bars. It was a good life being an existentialist, although not too good for all the other, nonexistentialist people around one. morality philosophy Alexander McCall Smith
77be607 Is beauty enhanced or adulterated by utility? philosophy Sena Jeter Naslund
7230b8d By calling into question the very ideal of a universal, autonomous reason (which was, in the Enlightenment, the basis for rejecting religious thought) and further demonstrating that all knowledge is grounded in narrative or myth, Lyotard relativizes (secular) philosophy's claim to autonomy and so grants the legitimacy of a philosophy that grounds itself in Christian faith. Previously such a distinctly Christian philosophy would have been exiled from the 'pure' arena of philosophy because of its 'infection' with bias and prejudice. Lyotard's critique, however, demonstrates that no philosophy - indeed, no knowledge - is untainted by prejudice or faith commitments. In this way the playing field is leveled, and new opportunities to voice a Christian philosophy are created. Thus Lyotard's postmodern critique of metanarratives, rather than being a formidable foe of Christian faith and thought, can in fact be enlisted as an ally in the construction of a Christian philosophy. christianity knowledge lyotard metanarrative narrative objectivity philosophy prejudice the-enlightenment James K.A. Smith
053d7df "What about you, Snipes?" Dunbar asked. "You think there to be mountain lions up here or is it just folks' imaginings?" Snipes pondered the question a few moments before speaking. They's many a man of science would claim there aint because you got no irredeemable evidence like panther scat or fur or tooth or tail. In other words, some part of the animal in questions. Or better yet having the actual critter itself, the whole think kit and caboodle head to tail, which all your men of science argue is the best proof of all a thing exists, whether it be a panther, or a bird, or even a dinosaur." To put it another way, if you was to stub your toe and tell the man of science what happened he'd not believe a word of it less he could see how it'd stoved up or was bleeding. But your philosophers and theologians and such say there's things in the world that's every bit as real even though you can't see them." Like what?" Dunbar asked. Well," Snipes said. "They's love, that's one. And courage. You can't see neither of them, but they're real. And air, of course. That's one of your most important examples. You wouldn't be alive a minute if there wasn't air, but nobody's ever seen a single speck of it." courage darkness faith love philosophy science Ron Rash
9369419 Or, to put it another way, presuppositional apologetics--such as that developed by Francis Schaeffer, but also by Cornelius Van Til and, to a degree, Herman Dooeyeweerd--rejects classical apologetics precisely because presuppositionalism recognizes the truth of Derrida's claim that everything is interpretation (though I am admittedly radicalizing their intuitions). derrida interpretation philosophy postmodernism presuppositional-apologetics James K.A. Smith
d576214 Let us see what words can do. Will you understand me, for a start, if I tell you that I have never known what I am? My vices, my virtues, are under my nose, but I can't see them, nor stand far enough back to view myself as a whole. I seem to be a sort of flabby mass in which words are engulfed; no sooner do I name myself than what is named is merged in him who names, and one gets no farther. I have often wanted to hate myself and, as you know, had good reasons for so doing. But my attempted hatred of myself was absorbed into my insubstantiality and was nothing but a recollection. I could not love myself either, I am sure, though I have never tried to. But I was eternally compelled to be myself; I was my own burden, but never burdensome enough, Mathieu. For one instant, on that June evening when I elected to confess to you, I thought I had encountered myself in your bewildered eyes. You saw me, in your eyes I was solid and predictable; my acts and moods were the actual consequences of a definite entity. And through me you knew that entity. I described it to you in my words, I revealed to you facts unknown to you, which had helped you to visualize it. And yet you saw it, I merely saw you seeing it. For one instant you were the heaven-sent mediator between me and myself, you perceived that compact and solid entity which I was and wanted to be in just as simple and ordinary a way as I perceived you. For, after all, I exist, I am, though I have no sense of being; and it is an exquisite torment to discover in oneself such utterly unfounded certainty, such unsubstantiated pride. I then understood that one could not reach oneself except through another's judgment, another's hatred. And also through another's love perhaps; but there is here no question of that. For this revelation I am not ungrateful to you. I do not know how you would describe our present relations. Not goodwill, nor wholly hatred. Put it that there is a corpse between us. My corpse. existentialism philosophy Jean-Paul Sartre
54d729a Intellectual activity in a culture is not a one-way flow between the great minds and passive recipients; it is a discourse, a complex marketplace-like conglomeration of intellectual exchanges involving many participants all trying to manipulate the ideas available to them in order to explain, justify, lay blame for, or otherwise make sense of what is happening around them. Everyone, not just the great minds, participates in this complicated process. history-of-thought philosophy Gordon S. Wood
e954585 Between the self and the other, between the visionary and the psychopath, between the lover and his love, between the overworld and the underworld, falls the Shadow. philosophy Salman Rushdie
f58c00e The Greeks who rhapsodized about democracy in their rhetoric rarely created democratic institutions. A few cities such as Athens occasionally attempted a system vaguely akin to democracy for a few years. These cities functioned as slave societies and were certainly not egalitarian or democratic in the Indian sense. democracy philosophy political-theory Jack Weatherford
344581c "Now anybody can be "kind." And everybody's supposed to be. Except that long ago it was something you were born into and couldn't help. Now it's just a faked-up attitude half the time, like teachers the first day of class." kindness philosophy Robert M. Pirsig
617ede5 Our current modes of rationality are not moving society forward into a better world. They are taking it further and further from that better world. Since the Renaissance these modes have worked. As long as the need for food, clothing and shelter is dominant they will continue to work. But now that for huge masses of people these needs no longer overwhelm everything else, the whole structure of reason, handed down to us from ancient times, is no longer adequate. It begins to be seen for what it really is...emotionally hollow, esthetically meaningless and spiritually empty. That, today, is where it is at, and will continue to be at for a long time to come. american-culture american-society food-for-thought modern-problems philosophy Robert M. Pirsig
8e42c72 Empirical science, empiricism, takes no account of the soul, no account of what constitutes and determines personal being. philosophy science Oliver Sacks
3347acf Das Negative zu tun, ist uns noch auferlegt, das Positive ist uns schon gegeben. good-and-evil philosophy philosophy-of-life Franz Kafka
e10680f "Today is the winter solstice. The planet tilts just so to its star, lists and holds circling in a fixed tension between veering and longing, and spins helpless, exalted, in and out of that fleet blazing touch. Last night Orion vaulted and spread all over the sky, pagan and lunatic, his shoulder and knee on fire, his sword three suns at the ready-for what? I won't see this year again, not again so innocent; and longing wrapped round my throat like a scarf. "For the Heavenly Father desires that we should see," says Ruysbroeck, "and that is why He is ever saying to our inmost spirit one deep unfathomable word and nothing else." But what is the word? Is this mystery or coyness? A cast-iron bell hung from the arch of my rib cage; when I stirred, it rang, or it tolled, a long syllable pulsing ripples up my lungs and down the gritty sap inside my bones, and I couldn't make it out; I felt the voiced vowel like a sigh or a note but I couldn't catch the consonant that shaped it into sense." beauty belief consciousness creation curiosity disbelief energy enoughness epiphany exploration exultant faith fate fearless fire free freedom gaps god grace growth hallelujah humility illumination intricacy joy joyful joyfulness life-force light living-in-the-present-moment longing mindfulness multiplicity mystery nature philosopher-s-stone philosophy poem poet poetry power praise prayer prayers praying religion religious-diversity ring-the-bells science seeing seeking soul spirit stalking-the-gaps the-tree-with-the-lights-in-it tolerance walking watching wonder Annie Dillard
8741905 Ama bardagimin dibinde biram iliksa, aynada koyu renkli lekeler varsa, fazlaliksam; en icten ve en katisiksiz acim, ayibaligi gibi, hem bir yigin et hem gepgenis bir deriyle ve insanin icine dokunan islak, ama kotuluk dolu gozlerle suruklenip hantallasiyorsa bu benim kabahatim mi? philosophy Jean-Paul Sartre
67c56e3 It is winter proper; the cold weather, such as it is, has come to stay. I bloom indoors in the winter like a forced forsythia; I come in to come out. At night I read and write, and things I have never understood become clear; I reap the harvest of the rest of the year's planting. The woods are acres of sticks: I could walk to the Gulf of Mexico in a straight line. When the leaves fall, the striptease is over; things stand mute and revealed. Everywhere skies extend, vistas deepen, walls become windows, doors open. philosopher-s-stone philosophy reading soul spirit walking winter wonder writing Annie Dillard
7d8cbf6 Wenn man einmal das Bose bei sich aufgenommen hat, verlangt es nicht mehr, dass man ihm glaube. good-and-evil philosophy philosophy-of-life Franz Kafka
d90ee72 It looked as though the leaves of the autumn forest had taken flight, and were pouring down the valley like a waterfall, like a tidal wave, all the leaves of the hardwoods from here to Hudson's Bay. It was as if the season's colors were draining away like lifeblood, as if the year were molting and shedding. The year was rolling down, and a vital curve had been reached, the tilt that gives way to headlong rush. And when the monarch butterflies had passed and were gone, the skies were vacant, the air poised. The dark night into which the year was plunging was not a sleep but an awakening, a new and necessary austerity, the sparer climate for which I longed. The shed trees were brittle and still, the creek light and cold, and my spirit holding its breath. beauty belief consciousness creation curiosity disbelief energy enoughness epiphany exploration exultant faith fate fearless fire free freedom gaps god grace growth hallelujah humility illumination intricacy joy joyful joyfulness life-force light living-in-the-present-moment mindfulness multiplicity mystery nature philosopher-s-stone philosophy poem poet poetry power praise prayer prayers praying religion religious-diversity ring-the-bells science seeing seeking soul spirit stalking-the-gaps the-tree-with-the-lights-in-it tolerance walking watching wonder Annie Dillard
900bb3a And under the cicadas, deeper down that the longest taproot, between and beneath the rounded black rocks and slanting slabs of sandstone in the earth, ground water is creeping. Ground water seeps and slides, across and down, across and down, leaking from here to there, minutely at a rate of a mile a year. What a tug of waters goes on! There are flings and pulls in every direction at every moment. The world is a wild wrestle under the grass; earth shall be moved. What else is going on right this minute while ground water creeps under my feet? The galaxy is careening in a slow, muffled widening. If a million solar systems are born every hour, then surely hundreds burst into being as I shift my weight to the other elbow. The sun's surface is now exploding; other stars implode and vanish, heavy and black, out of sight. Meteorites are arcing to earth invisibly all day long. On the planet, the winds are blowing: the polar easterlies, the westerlies, the northeast and southeast trades. Somewhere, someone under full sail is becalmed, in the horse latitudes, in the doldrums; in the northland, a trapper is maddened, crazed, by the eerie scent of the chinook, the sweater, a wind that can melt two feet of snow in a day. The pampero blows, and the tramontane, and the Boro, sirocco, levanter, mistral. Lick a finger; feel the now. Spring is seeping north, towards me and away from me, at sixteen miles a day. Along estuary banks of tidal rivers all over the world, snails in black clusters like currants are gliding up and down the stems of reed and sedge, migrating every moment with the dip and swing of tides. Behind me, Tinker Mountain is eroding one thousandth of an inch a year. The sharks I saw are roving up and down the coast. If the sharks cease roving, if they still their twist and rest for a moment, they die. They need new water pushed into their gills; they need dance. Somewhere east of me, on another continent, it is sunset, and starlings in breathtaking bands are winding high in the sky to their evening roost. The mantis egg cases are tied to the mock-orange hedge; within each case, within each egg, cells elongate, narrow, and split; cells bubble and curve inward, align, harden or hollow or stretch. And where are you now? beauty belief consciousness creation curiosity disbelief energy enoughness epiphany exploration exultant faith fate fearless fire free freedom gaps god grace growth hallelujah humility illumination intricacy joy joyful joyfulness life-force light living-in-the-present-moment mindfulness multiplicity mystery nature philosopher-s-stone philosophy poem poet poetry power praise prayer prayers praying religion religious-diversity science seeing seeking soul spirit stalking-the-gaps the-tree-with-the-lights-in-it tolerance walking watching wonder Annie Dillard
ee83e05 "The remarkable thing about the world of insects, however, is precisely that there is no veil cast over these horrors. These are mysteries performed in broad daylight before our very eyes; we can see every detail, and yet they are still mysteries. If, as Heraclitus suggests, god, like an oracle, neither "declares nor hides, but sets forth by signs," then clearly I had better be scrying the signs. The earth devotes an overwhelming proportion of its energy to these buzzings and leaps in the grass. Theirs is the biggest wedge of the pie: Why? I ought to keep a giant water bug in an aquarium on my dresser, so I can think about it." consciousness energy insects mindfulness mystery nature philosophy signs spirit wonder Annie Dillard
b488979 "All at once, something wonderful happened, although at first, it seemed perfectly ordinary. A female goldfinch suddenly hove into view. She lighted weightlessly on the head of a bankside purple thistle and began emptying the seedcase, sowing the air with down. The lighted frame of my window filled. The down rose and spread in all directions, wafting over the dam's waterfall and wavering between the tulip trunks and into the meadow. It vaulted towards the orchard in a puff; it hovered over the ripening pawpaw fruit and staggered up the steep faced terrace. It jerked, floated, rolled, veered, swayed. The thistle down faltered down toward the cottage and gusted clear to the woods; it rose and entered the shaggy arms of pecans. At last it strayed like snow, blind and sweet, into the pool of the creek upstream, and into the race of the creek over rocks down. It shuddered onto the tips of growing grasses, where it poised, light, still wracked by errant quivers. I was holding my breath. Is this where we live, I thought, in this place in this moment, with the air so light and wild? The same fixity that collapses stars and drives the mantis to devour her mate eased these creatures together before my eyes: the thick adept bill of the goldfinch, and the feathery coded down. How could anything be amiss? If I myself were lighter and frayed, I could ride these small winds, too, taking my chances, for the pleasure of being so purely played. The thistle is part of Adam's curse. "Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." A terrible curse: But does the goldfinch eat thorny sorrow with the thistle or do I? If this furling air is fallen, then the fall was happy indeed. If this creekside garden is sorrow, then I seek martyrdom. I was weightless; my bones were taut skins blown with buoyant gas; it seemed that if I inhaled too deeply, my shoulders and head would waft off. Alleluia." beauty belief consciousness creation curiosity disbelief energy enoughness epiphany exploration exultant faith fate fearless fire free freedom gaps god grace growth hallelujah humility illumination intricacy joy joyful joyfulness life-force light living-in-the-present-moment mindfulness multiplicity mystery nature philosopher-s-stone philosophy poem poet poetry power praise prayer prayers praying religion religious-diversity ring-the-bells science seeing seeking soul spirit stalking-the-gaps the-tree-with-the-lights-in-it tolerance walking watching wonder Annie Dillard
fc3f023 I've said you can actually this fusion in skilled mechanics and machinists of a certain sort, and you can see it in the work they do. To say that they are not artists is to misunderstand the nature of art. They have patience, care and attentiveness to what they're doing, but more than this--there's a kind of inner peace of mind that isn't contrived but results from a kind of harmony with the work in which there's no leader and no follower. The material and the craftsman's thoughts change together in a progression of smooth, even changes until his mind is at rest at the exact instant the material is right. craftsmanship creating manufacturing philosophy Robert M. Pirsig
fdbe635 Existentialism's first move is to make every man aware of what he is and to make the full responsibility of his existence rest on him. philosophy sartre Jean-Paul Sartre
91b81be In truth, philosophy is the mode of thought shaped by the most radical form of prejudice: the passion of being-in-the-world. With the sole exception of specialists in the field, virtually everyone senses that anything which offers less than this passion play remains philosophically trivial. Cultural anthropologists suggest the appealing term 'deep play' for the comprehensively absorbing preoccupations of human beings. From the perspective of a theory of the practising life we would add: the deep plays are those which are moved by the heights. deep-play passion philosophy Peter Sloterdijk
4acfd87 An area of land used for crops will feed about ten times as many people as the same area of land used for grass-fed beef. ethics morality philosophy veganism Peter Singer
bb6b593 "Fate is the same for the man who holds back, the same if he fights hard. fate homer iliad life philosophy Richmond Lattimore
fd4adb7 Coastal people never really know what the ocean symbolizes to landlocked inland people--what a great distant dream it is, present but unseen in the deepest levels of subconsciousness, and when they arrive at the ocean and the conscious images are compared with the subconscious dream there is a sense of defeat at having come so far to be so stopped by the mystery that can never be fathomed. The source of it all. philosophy Robert M. Pirsig
cf57761 ...moral relativism, a position many find attractive only until they are faced with someone who is doing something really, really wrong. moral-philosophy philosophy Peter Singer
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