177 ideas
| 19608 | Wisdom is just the last gasp of a dying civilization [Cioran] |
| 23064 | So-called wisdom is just pondering things instead of acting [Cioran] |
| 19624 | Intelligence only fully flourishes at the end of a historical period [Cioran] |
| 19599 | Ideas are neutral, but people fill them with passion and weakness [Cioran] |
| 19631 | The history of ideas (and deeds) occurs in a meaningless environment [Cioran] |
| 19645 | Some thinkers would have been just as dynamic, no matter when they had lived [Cioran] |
| 19629 | A nation gives expression to its sum of values, and is then exhausted [Cioran] |
| 23889 | Among the Greeks Aristotle is the only philosopher in the modern style [Weil] |
| 23881 | All thought about values is philosophical, and thought about anything else is not philosophy [Weil] |
| 23885 | Philosophy aims to change the soul, not to accumulate knowledge [Weil] |
| 19618 | I abandoned philosophy because it didn't acknowledge melancholy and human weakness [Cioran] |
| 19621 | Originality in philosophy is just the invention of terms [Cioran] |
| 19607 | The mind is superficial, only concerned with the arrangement of events, not their significance [Cioran] |
| 19638 | Metaphysics is a universalisation of physical anguish [Cioran] |
| 23886 | Systems are not unique to each philosopher. The platonist tradition is old and continuous [Weil] |
| 19620 | Great systems of philosophy are just brilliant tautologies [Cioran] |
| 23072 | Systems are the worst despotism, in philosophy and in life [Cioran] |
| 23075 | A text explained ceases to be a text [Cioran] |
| 19630 | No great idea ever emerged from a dialogue [Cioran] |
| 23884 | Truth is a value of thought [Weil] |
| 23755 | Genius and love of truth are always accompanied by great humility [Weil] |
| 23877 | Most people won't question an idea's truth if they depend on it [Weil] |
| 23825 | We seek truth only because it is good [Weil] |
| 23853 | Truth is not a object we love - it is the radiant manifestation of reality [Weil] |
| 19636 | Truth is just an error insufficiently experienced [Cioran] |
| 19642 | Eventually every 'truth' is guaranteed by the police [Cioran] |
| 23066 | Negation doesn't arise from reasoning, but from deep instincts [Cioran] |
| 19632 | An axiom has no more authority than a frenzy [Cioran] |
| 6007 | If you know your father, but don't recognise your father veiled, you know and don't know the same person [Eubulides, by Dancy,R] |
| 6006 | If you say truly that you are lying, you are lying [Eubulides, by Dancy,R] |
| 6008 | Removing one grain doesn't destroy a heap, so a heap can't be destroyed [Eubulides, by Dancy,R] |
| 23077 | The word 'being' is very tempting, but in fact means nothing at all [Cioran] |
| 23855 | Creation produced a network or web of determinations [Weil] |
| 23068 | People who really believe anti-realism don't bother to prove it [Cioran] |
| 23900 | Chance is compatible with necessity, and the two occur together [Weil] |
| 23888 | Knowledge is beyond question, as an unavoidable component of thinking [Weil] |
| 23078 | Opinions are fine, but having convictions means something has gone wrong [Cioran] |
| 23073 | Convictions are failures to study anything thoroughly [Cioran] |
| 19626 | Our instincts had to be blunted and diminished, to make way for consciousness! [Cioran] |
| 23747 | What is sacred is not a person, but the whole physical human being [Weil] |
| 23076 | If people always acted without words we would take them for robots [Cioran] |
| 23756 | The mind is imprisoned and limited by language, restricting our awareness of wider thoughts [Weil] |
| 19633 | We use concepts to master our fears; saying 'death' releases us from confronting it [Cioran] |
| 23065 | If only we could write like a reptile, of endless sensations and no concepts! [Cioran] |
| 23878 | Weakness of will is the inadequacy of the original impetus to carry through the action [Weil] |
| 19615 | I want to suppress in myself the normal reasons people have for action [Cioran] |
| 23071 | We could only be responsible if we had consented before birth to who we are [Cioran] |
| 23899 | The secret of art is that beauty is a just blend of unity and its opposite [Weil] |
| 23832 | We both desire what is beautiful, and want it to remain as it is [Weil] |
| 23848 | The aesthete's treatment of beauty as amusement is sacreligious; beauty should nourish [Weil] |
| 23070 | We morally dissolve if we spend time with excessive beauty [Cioran] |
| 23758 | Beauty is an attractive mystery, leaving nothing to be desired [Weil] |
| 23887 | Art (like philosophy) establishes a relation between world and self, and between oneself and others [Weil] |
| 23903 | When we admire a work, we see ourselves as its creator [Weil] |
| 23898 | Those who say immorality is not an aesthetic criterion must show that all criteria are aesthetic [Weil] |
| 19628 | At a civilisation's peak values are all that matters, and people unconsciously live by them [Cioran] |
| 23814 | Every human yearns for an unattainable transcendent good [Weil] |
| 23826 | Beauty, goodness and truth are only achieved by applying full attention [Weil] |
| 23854 | Beauty is the proof of what is good [Weil] |
| 23824 | Where human needs are satisfied we find happiness, friendship and beauty [Weil] |
| 23879 | In a violent moral disagreement, it can't be that both sides are just following social morality [Weil] |
| 19646 | Values don't accumulate; they are ruthlessly replaced [Cioran] |
| 23882 | Ends, unlike means, cannot be defined, which is why people tend to pursue means [Weil] |
| 23760 | All we need are the unity of justice, truth and beauty [Weil] |
| 23883 | Minds essentially and always strive towards value [Weil] |
| 23748 | The sacred in every human is their expectation of good rather than evil [Weil] |
| 23759 | Everything which originates in love is beautiful [Weil] |
| 19614 | Lovers are hateful, apart from their hovering awareness of death [Cioran] |
| 23762 | Evil is transmitted by comforts and pleasures, but mostly by doing harm to people [Weil] |
| 23808 | There are two goods - the absolute good we want, and the reachable opposite of evil [Weil] |
| 23833 | The good is a nothingness, and yet real [Weil] |
| 23865 | Morality would improve if people could pursue private interests [Weil] |
| 23896 | We see our character as a restricting limit, but also as an unshakable support [Weil] |
| 23894 | The concept of character is at the centre of morality [Weil] |
| 23893 | We don't see character in a single moment, but only over a period of time [Weil] |
| 23895 | We modify our character by placing ourselves in situations, or by attending to what seems trivial [Weil] |
| 23837 | Respect is our only obligation, which can only be expressed through deeds, not words [Weil] |
| 23815 | We cannot equally respect what is unequal, so equal respect needs a shared ground [Weil] |
| 23834 | Friendship is partly universal - the love of a person is like the ideal of loving everyone [Weil] |
| 19634 | Man is never himself; he always aims at less than life, or more than life [Cioran] |
| 19619 | To live authentically, we must see that philosophy is totally useless [Cioran] |
| 19622 | The pointlessness of our motives and irrelevance of our gestures reveals our vacuity [Cioran] |
| 19617 | Evidence suggests that humans do not have a purpose [Cioran] |
| 19612 | The universe is dirty and fragile, as if a scandal in nothingness had produced its matter [Cioran] |
| 19604 | Unlike other creatures, mankind seems lost in nature [Cioran] |
| 19606 | We can only live because our imagination and memory are poor [Cioran] |
| 19601 | Life is now more dreaded than death [Cioran] |
| 23074 | In anxiety people cling to what reinforces it, because it is a deep need [Cioran] |
| 19640 | No one is brave enough to say they don't want to do anything; we despise such a view [Cioran] |
| 19602 | You are stuck in the past if you don't know boredom [Cioran] |
| 23069 | Fear cures boredom, because it is stronger [Cioran] |
| 19644 | History is the bloody rejection of boredom [Cioran] |
| 23823 | Life needs risks to avoid sickly boredom [Weil] |
| 19641 | If you lack beliefs, boredom is your martyrdom [Cioran] |
| 23062 | It is better to watch the hours pass, than trying to fill them [Cioran] |
| 23844 | The most important human need is to have multiple roots [Weil] |
| 23838 | The need for order stands above all others, and is understood via the other needs [Weil] |
| 23836 | Obligations only bind individuals, not collectives [Weil] |
| 19613 | It is pointless to refuse or accept the social order; we must endure it like the weather [Cioran] |
| 23840 | A citizen should be able to understand the whole of society [Weil] |
| 23822 | We all need to partipate in public tasks, and take some initiative [Weil] |
| 23843 | Even the poorest should feel collective ownership, and participation in grand display [Weil] |
| 23846 | Culture is an instrument for creating an ongoing succession of teachers [Weil] |
| 23857 | People in power always try to increase their power [Weil] |
| 23866 | In oppressive societies the scope of actual control is extended by a religion of power [Weil] |
| 23812 | Force is what turns man into a thing, and ultimately into a corpse [Weil] |
| 23831 | The essence of power is illusory prestige [Weil] |
| 19627 | Opportunists can save a nation, and heroes can ruin it [Cioran] |
| 23839 | A lifelong head of society should only be a symbol, not a ruler [Weil] |
| 23871 | No central authority can initiate decentralisation [Weil] |
| 23856 | Spontaneous movements are powerless against organised repression [Weil] |
| 23867 | After a bloody revolution the group which already had the power comes to the fore [Weil] |
| 23830 | A group is only dangerous if it endorses an abstract entity [Weil] |
| 23870 | Decentralisation is only possible by co-operation between strong and weak - which is absurd [Weil] |
| 23809 | Our only social duty is to try to limit evil [Weil] |
| 23829 | National leaders want to preserve necessary order - but always the existing order [Weil] |
| 23817 | We need both equality (to attend to human needs) and hierarchy (as a scale of responsibilities) [Weil] |
| 23842 | Party politics in a democracy can't avoid an anti-democratic party [Weil] |
| 23859 | True democracy is the subordination of society to the individual [Weil] |
| 23863 | Only individual people of good will can achieve social progress [Weil] |
| 23869 | In the least evil societies people can think, control community life, and be autonomous [Weil] |
| 23847 | Socialism tends to make a proletariat of the whole population [Weil] |
| 23750 | It is not more money which the wretched members of society need [Weil] |
| 23807 | The collective is the one and only object of false idolatry [Weil] |
| 23749 | The problem of the collective is not suppression of persons, but persons erasing themselves [Weil] |
| 23861 | Marx showed that capitalist oppression, because of competition, is unstoppable [Weil] |
| 23897 | Once money is the main aim, society needs everyone to think wealth is possible [Weil] |
| 23845 | The capitalists neglect the people and the nation, and even their own interests [Weil] |
| 23828 | National prestige consists of behaving as if you could beat the others in a war [Weil] |
| 23810 | Charity is the only love, and you can feel that for a country (a place with traditions), but not a nation [Weil] |
| 23811 | If effort is from necessity rather than for a good, it is slavery [Weil] |
| 23868 | The pleasure of completing tasks motivates just as well as the whip of slavery [Weil] |
| 23819 | Deliberate public lying should be punished [Weil] |
| 23818 | We have liberty in the space between nature and accepted authority [Weil] |
| 23901 | Relationships depend on equality, so unequal treatment kills them [Weil] |
| 23753 | People absurdly claim an equal share of things which are essentially privileged [Weil] |
| 23841 | By making money the sole human measure, inequality has become universal [Weil] |
| 23864 | Inequality could easily be mitigated, if it were not for the struggle for power [Weil] |
| 23835 | People have duties, and only have rights because of the obligations of others to them [Weil] |
| 23751 | Rights are asserted contentiously, and need the backing of force [Weil] |
| 23752 | Giving centrality to rights stifles all impulses of charity [Weil] |
| 23820 | People need personal and collective property, and a social class lacking property is shameful [Weil] |
| 23813 | Only people who understand force, and don't respect it, are capable of justice [Weil] |
| 23757 | The spirit of justice needs the full attention of truth, and that attention is love [Weil] |
| 23761 | Justice (concerning harm) is distinct from rights (concerning inequality) [Weil] |
| 23852 | To punish people we must ourselves be innocent - but that undermines the desire to punish [Weil] |
| 23764 | The only thing in society worse than crime is repressive justice [Weil] |
| 23821 | Crime should be punished, to bring the perpetrator freely back to morality [Weil] |
| 23763 | Punishment aims at the good for men who don't desire it [Weil] |
| 23827 | Modern wars are fought in the name of empty words which are given capital letters [Weil] |
| 23880 | When war was a profession, customary morality justified any act of war [Weil] |
| 23850 | The soldier-civilian distinction should be abolished; every citizen is committed to a war [Weil] |
| 23858 | War is perpetuated by its continual preparations [Weil] |
| 19625 | The ideal is to impose a religion by force, and then live in doubt about its beliefs [Cioran] |
| 23851 | Education is essentially motivation [Weil] |
| 19637 | History is wonderfully devoid of meaning [Cioran] |
| 23873 | Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous [Weil] |
| 19605 | Despite endless suggestions, no one has found a goal for history [Cioran] |
| 19610 | Religions see suicide as insubordination [Cioran] |
| 19611 | No one has ever found a good argument against suicide [Cioran] |
| 19609 | If you have not contemplated suicide, you are a miserable worm [Cioran] |
| 23067 | Suicide is pointless, because it always comes too late [Cioran] |
| 23860 | Even if a drowning man is doomed, he should keep swimming to the last [Weil] |
| 19639 | We all need sexual secrets! [Cioran] |
| 23754 | The only choice is between supernatural good, or evil [Weil] |
| 23816 | Attention to a transcendent reality motivates a duty to foster the good of humanity [Weil] |
| 23892 | The only legitimate proof of God by order derives from beauty [Weil] |
| 19603 | Why is God so boring, and why does God resemble humanity so little? [Cioran] |
| 23904 | The cruelty of the Old Testament put me off Christianity [Weil] |
| 19616 | As the perfect wisdom of detachment, philosophy offers no rivals to Taoism [Cioran] |
| 23849 | Religion should quietly suffuse all human life with its light [Weil] |
| 19600 | When man abandons religion, he then follows new fake gods and mythologies [Cioran] |
| 19643 | A religion needs to motivate killings, and cannot tolerate rivals [Cioran] |
| 23902 | I attach little importance to immortality, which is an undecidable fact, and irrelevant to us [Weil] |
| 23765 | The soul is the intrinsic value of a human [Weil] |
| 23063 | The first man obviously found paradise unendurable [Cioran] |
| 19623 | Circles of hell are ridiculous; all that matters is to be there [Cioran] |