77 ideas
19608 | Wisdom is just the last gasp of a dying civilization [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] |
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] |
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] |
16588 | I prefer a lack of form to mean non-existence, than to think of some quasi-existence [Augustine] |
22979 | Three main questions seem to be whether a thing is, what it is, and what sort it is [Augustine] |
17954 | Essence is a thing's necessities, but what about its possibilities (which may not be realised)? [Vetter] |
17953 | Real definition fits abstracta, but not individual concrete objects like Socrates [Vetter] |
17952 | Modal accounts make essence less mysterious, by basing them on the clearer necessity [Vetter] |
17959 | Metaphysical necessity is even more deeply empirical than Kripke has argued [Vetter] |
17955 | Possible worlds allow us to talk about degrees of possibility [Vetter] |
17957 | Maybe possibility is constituted by potentiality [Vetter] |
17958 | The apparently metaphysically possible may only be epistemically possible [Vetter] |
17956 | Closeness of worlds should be determined by the intrinsic nature of relevant objects [Vetter] |
22981 | Mind and memory are the same, as shown in 'bear it in mind' or 'it slipped from mind' [Augustine] |
22980 | Memory contains innumerable principles of maths, as well as past sense experiences [Augustine] |
22977 | I can distinguish different smells even when I am not experiencing them [Augustine] |
22983 | We would avoid remembering sorrow or fear if that triggered the emotions afresh [Augustine] |
22982 | Why does joy in my mind make me happy, but joy in my memory doesn't? [Augustine] |
22978 | Memory is so vast that I cannot recognise it as part of my mind [Augustine] |
19626 | Our instincts had to be blunted and diminished, to make way for consciousness! [Cioran] |
22984 | Without memory I could not even speak of myself [Augustine] |
5982 | If the future does not exist, how can prophets see it? [Augustine] |
22976 | Memories are preserved separately, according to category [Augustine] |
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] |
22985 | Everyone wants happiness [Augustine] |
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] |
19612 | The universe is dirty and fragile, as if a scandal in nothingness had produced its matter [Cioran] |
19617 | Evidence suggests that humans do not have a purpose [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] |
19602 | You are stuck in the past if you don't know boredom [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] |
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] |
19625 | The ideal is to impose a religion by force, and then live in doubt about its beliefs [Cioran] |
19637 | History is wonderfully devoid of meaning [Cioran] |
19605 | Despite endless suggestions, no one has found a goal for history [Cioran] |
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] |
5984 | Maybe time is an extension of the mind [Augustine] |
22888 | To be aware of time it can only exist in the mind, as memory or anticipation [Augustine, by Bardon] |
5980 | How can ten days ahead be a short time, if it doesn't exist? [Augustine] |
5979 | If the past is no longer, and the future is not yet, how can they exist? [Augustine] |
5981 | The whole of the current year is not present, so how can it exist? [Augustine] |
5978 | I know what time is, until someone asks me to explain it [Augustine] |
5983 | I disagree with the idea that time is nothing but cosmic movement [Augustine] |
5977 | Heaven and earth must be created, because they are subject to change [Augustine] |
22887 | If God existed before creation, why would a perfect being desire to change things? [Augustine, by Bardon] |
5976 | If God is outside time in eternity, can He hear prayers? [Augustine] |
19603 | Why is God so boring, and why does God resemble humanity so little? [Cioran] |
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] |
19623 | Circles of hell are ridiculous; all that matters is to be there [Cioran] |