65 ideas
19608 | Wisdom is just the last gasp of a dying civilization [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] |
19629 | A nation gives expression to its sum of values, and is then exhausted [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] |
19621 | Originality in philosophy is just the invention of terms [Cioran] |
19618 | I abandoned philosophy because it didn't acknowledge melancholy and human weakness [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] |
19620 | Great systems of philosophy are just brilliant tautologies [Cioran] |
19630 | No great idea ever emerged from a dialogue [Cioran] |
19636 | Truth is just an error insufficiently experienced [Cioran] |
19642 | Eventually every 'truth' is guaranteed by the police [Cioran] |
19632 | An axiom has no more authority than a frenzy [Cioran] |
2614 | Modern phenomenalism holds that objects are logical constructions out of sense-data [Ayer] |
2615 | The concept of sense-data allows us to discuss appearances without worrying about reality [Ayer] |
19626 | Our instincts had to be blunted and diminished, to make way for consciousness! [Cioran] |
19633 | We use concepts to master our fears; saying 'death' releases us from confronting it [Cioran] |
19615 | I want to suppress in myself the normal reasons people have for action [Cioran] |
19628 | At a civilisation's peak values are all that matters, and people unconsciously live by them [Cioran] |
19646 | Values don't accumulate; they are ruthlessly replaced [Cioran] |
19614 | Lovers are hateful, apart from their hovering awareness of death [Cioran] |
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] |
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] |
19622 | The pointlessness of our motives and irrelevance of our gestures reveals our vacuity [Cioran] |
19606 | We can only live because our imagination and memory are poor [Cioran] |
19604 | Unlike other creatures, mankind seems lost in nature [Cioran] |
19601 | Life is now more dreaded than death [Cioran] |
19641 | If you lack beliefs, boredom is your martyrdom [Cioran] |
19644 | History is the bloody rejection of boredom [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] |
19613 | It is pointless to refuse or accept the social order; we must endure it like the weather [Cioran] |
19627 | Opportunists can save a nation, and heroes can ruin it [Cioran] |
7337 | In Mosaic legal theory, crimes are sins and sins are crimes [Johnson,P] |
7339 | Because human life is what is sacred, Mosaic law has no death penalty for property violations [Johnson,P] |
7353 | The Pharisees undermined slavery, by giving slaves responsibility and status in law courts [Johnson,P] |
7340 | Mosaic law was the first to embody the rule of law, and equality before the law [Johnson,P] |
19625 | The ideal is to impose a religion by force, and then live in doubt about its beliefs [Cioran] |
19605 | Despite endless suggestions, no one has found a goal for history [Cioran] |
19637 | History is wonderfully devoid of meaning [Cioran] |
7338 | Man's life is sacred, because it is made in God's image [Johnson,P] |
19610 | Religions see suicide as insubordination [Cioran] |
19609 | If you have not contemplated suicide, you are a miserable worm [Cioran] |
19611 | No one has ever found a good argument against suicide [Cioran] |
19639 | We all need sexual secrets! [Cioran] |
19603 | Why is God so boring, and why does God resemble humanity so little? [Cioran] |
7348 | The Jews sharply distinguish human and divine, but the Greeks pull them closer together [Johnson,P] |
7336 | A key moment is the idea of a single moral God, who imposes his morality on humanity [Johnson,P] |
7341 | Sampson illustrates the idea that religious heroes often begin as outlaws and semi-criminals [Johnson,P] |
7342 | Isaiah moved Israelite religion away from the local, onto a more universal plane [Johnson,P] |
7355 | The Torah pre-existed creation, and was its blueprint [Johnson,P] |
7345 | In exile the Jews became a nomocracy [Johnson,P] |
7344 | Judaism involves circumcision, Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, New Year, and Atonement [Johnson,P] |
7347 | Zoroastrians believed in one eternal beneficent being, Creator through the holy spirit [Johnson,P] |
19616 | As the perfect wisdom of detachment, philosophy offers no rivals to Taoism [Cioran] |
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] |
7349 | Immortality based on judgement of merit was developed by the Egyptians (not the Jews) [Johnson,P] |
7354 | The main doctrine of the Pharisees was belief in resurrection and the afterlife [Johnson,P] |
7356 | Pious Jews saw heaven as a vast library [Johnson,P] |
19623 | Circles of hell are ridiculous; all that matters is to be there [Cioran] |