Philosophy Bits
@philosophybits.com
A collection of fine philosophical and literary quotations. Curated by @suliqyre.com
philosophybits.com
philosophybits.com
“There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or another.”
— Rene Descartes, Discourse on the Method
— Rene Descartes, Discourse on the Method
November 11, 2025 at 3:04 AM
“There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or another.”
— Rene Descartes, Discourse on the Method
— Rene Descartes, Discourse on the Method
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“Any loss of identity prompts people to seek reassurance and rediscovery of themselves by testing, and even by violence. Today, the electric revolution, the wired planet, and the information environment involve everybody in everybody to the point of individual extinction.”
— Marshall McLuhan
— Marshall McLuhan
November 11, 2025 at 12:23 AM
“Any loss of identity prompts people to seek reassurance and rediscovery of themselves by testing, and even by violence. Today, the electric revolution, the wired planet, and the information environment involve everybody in everybody to the point of individual extinction.”
— Marshall McLuhan
— Marshall McLuhan
“It is solely on the basis of common interest that every society should be governed.”
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
November 10, 2025 at 8:32 PM
“It is solely on the basis of common interest that every society should be governed.”
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
Reposted by Philosophy Bits
“The tension between the self and the other often produces curiosity, the desire to know the other person better and incorporate their otherness into the self. The other is not the self, so there is always something the other has that the self does not, and vice versa.”
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209. Tension With The Other
When the other is still an other, there is a palpable tension with the self. The tension originates in the perception of the other person’s otherness. At the forefront of attention is the simple fact ...
suliqyre.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:02 PM
“The tension between the self and the other often produces curiosity, the desire to know the other person better and incorporate their otherness into the self. The other is not the self, so there is always something the other has that the self does not, and vice versa.”
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“Emotions are not just the fuel that powers the psychological mechanism of a reasoning creature, they are parts, highly complex and messy parts, of this creature’s reasoning itself.”
— Martha Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought
— Martha Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought
November 10, 2025 at 4:54 PM
“Emotions are not just the fuel that powers the psychological mechanism of a reasoning creature, they are parts, highly complex and messy parts, of this creature’s reasoning itself.”
— Martha Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought
— Martha Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought
“Man exists for his own sake and not to add a laborer to the state.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (1822–1863)
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (1822–1863)
November 10, 2025 at 3:45 AM
“Man exists for his own sake and not to add a laborer to the state.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (1822–1863)
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (1822–1863)
“There are people whose whole life consists in always saying no. It would be no small accomplishment always to be able to say no properly, but whoever can do no more, surely cannot do so properly.”
— Friedrich Schlegel, Athenaeum Fragments
— Friedrich Schlegel, Athenaeum Fragments
November 9, 2025 at 8:36 PM
“There are people whose whole life consists in always saying no. It would be no small accomplishment always to be able to say no properly, but whoever can do no more, surely cannot do so properly.”
— Friedrich Schlegel, Athenaeum Fragments
— Friedrich Schlegel, Athenaeum Fragments
“Whenever the powers of government are placed in any hands other than those of the community, whether those of one man, of a few, or of several, those principles of human nature which imply that government is at all necessary, imply that
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November 9, 2025 at 4:57 PM
“Whenever the powers of government are placed in any hands other than those of the community, whether those of one man, of a few, or of several, those principles of human nature which imply that government is at all necessary, imply that
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“Life is long, if you know how to use it.”
— Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
— Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
November 9, 2025 at 3:00 AM
“Life is long, if you know how to use it.”
— Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
— Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
“The poet is the inventor of symptoms a priori. Since words belong to symptoms, language is a poetic invention — and all revelations and phenomena, as symptomatic systems — are poetic in origin.”
— Novalis, General Draft
— Novalis, General Draft
November 8, 2025 at 8:51 PM
“The poet is the inventor of symptoms a priori. Since words belong to symptoms, language is a poetic invention — and all revelations and phenomena, as symptomatic systems — are poetic in origin.”
— Novalis, General Draft
— Novalis, General Draft
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“She hides most of her feelings and shares only what passes through a narrow filter. He thinks most people do this, but she has taken the practice to an extreme. She hides almost everything, supplying little more than a carefully-curated portrait of herself.”
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208. Hidden Treasures
He looks at her but she does not return his glance. Her eyes are aimed elsewhere, but where exactly, he does not know. She seems to be looking straight ahead, but there is nothing there but a blank wa...
suliqyre.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:37 PM
“She hides most of her feelings and shares only what passes through a narrow filter. He thinks most people do this, but she has taken the practice to an extreme. She hides almost everything, supplying little more than a carefully-curated portrait of herself.”
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“In philosophy no inferences are drawn. “But it must be like this!” is not a philosophical proposition. Philosophy only states what everyone concedes to it.”
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations
November 8, 2025 at 4:24 PM
“In philosophy no inferences are drawn. “But it must be like this!” is not a philosophical proposition. Philosophy only states what everyone concedes to it.”
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
— Albert Einstein, “What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck”, The Saturday Evening Post (26 October 1929)
— Albert Einstein, “What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck”, The Saturday Evening Post (26 October 1929)
November 8, 2025 at 3:03 AM
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
— Albert Einstein, “What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck”, The Saturday Evening Post (26 October 1929)
— Albert Einstein, “What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck”, The Saturday Evening Post (26 October 1929)
Reposted by Philosophy Bits
“Thinking is trying to think the unthinkable: thinking the thinkable is not worth the effort. Painting is trying to paint what you cannot paint and writing is writing what you cannot know before you have written: it is preknowing and not knowing, blindly, with words.
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November 7, 2025 at 11:46 PM
“Thinking is trying to think the unthinkable: thinking the thinkable is not worth the effort. Painting is trying to paint what you cannot paint and writing is writing what you cannot know before you have written: it is preknowing and not knowing, blindly, with words.
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“Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day, and you will come at last to love the world with an all-embracing love.”
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky
November 7, 2025 at 8:48 PM
“Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day, and you will come at last to love the world with an all-embracing love.”
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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“All I want is to feel better, and it doesn't seem like this could actually harm me. But if I'm attached to this desire, it will produce suffering just like any other, as I will manipulate my attention and actions to reach the desired result.”
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207. Wanting To Feel Better
When I’m feeling down, I can also feel unable to do anything. There are tasks I need to complete, actions I must take to support myself and others, but I feel I can’t do them because my negative feeli...
suliqyre.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:17 PM
“All I want is to feel better, and it doesn't seem like this could actually harm me. But if I'm attached to this desire, it will produce suffering just like any other, as I will manipulate my attention and actions to reach the desired result.”
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suliqyre.com/posts/wantin...
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“The most optimistic ethics have all begun by emphasizing the element of failure involved in the condition of man; without failure, no ethics;
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November 7, 2025 at 5:07 PM
“The most optimistic ethics have all begun by emphasizing the element of failure involved in the condition of man; without failure, no ethics;
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“You’ve only got to grow old to be more lenient; I see no fault committed of which I too haven’t been guilty.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections
November 7, 2025 at 3:26 AM
“You’ve only got to grow old to be more lenient; I see no fault committed of which I too haven’t been guilty.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections
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“Capitalism is obsessed with death. The unconscious fear of death is what spurs it on. The threat of death is what stirs its compulsion of accumulation and growth. This compulsion drives us towards not only ecological but also mental catastrophe.”
— Byung-chul Han, Capitalism and the Death Drive
— Byung-chul Han, Capitalism and the Death Drive
November 6, 2025 at 11:53 PM
“Capitalism is obsessed with death. The unconscious fear of death is what spurs it on. The threat of death is what stirs its compulsion of accumulation and growth. This compulsion drives us towards not only ecological but also mental catastrophe.”
— Byung-chul Han, Capitalism and the Death Drive
— Byung-chul Han, Capitalism and the Death Drive
“As the mass of mankind remains always at about the same pitch of misery, it never assents long to any one remedy, but is always best pleased by a novelty which has not yet proved illusive.”
— Baruch Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
— Baruch Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
November 6, 2025 at 8:26 PM
“As the mass of mankind remains always at about the same pitch of misery, it never assents long to any one remedy, but is always best pleased by a novelty which has not yet proved illusive.”
— Baruch Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
— Baruch Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
Reposted by Philosophy Bits
“When failure happens repeatedly, you begin to close yourself off. You begin to narrow the scope of your actions in order to reduce the risk of further grief. You fall into the stagnation of habit, a kind of repetitive non-life, where you go through the same motions day in, day out.”
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206. The Pain Of Failure
You put your whole being into everything you do. You do this automatically, because you care about the things you do and you want them done right.
To act in any other way would feel hollow and false. ...
suliqyre.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:28 PM
“When failure happens repeatedly, you begin to close yourself off. You begin to narrow the scope of your actions in order to reduce the risk of further grief. You fall into the stagnation of habit, a kind of repetitive non-life, where you go through the same motions day in, day out.”
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“In creativity the way will be found for subject to pass into object, the identity of subject with object will be restored. All the great creators have foreseen this turning-point.”
— Nikolai Berdyaev, The Meaning of the Creative Act
— Nikolai Berdyaev, The Meaning of the Creative Act
November 6, 2025 at 4:34 PM
“In creativity the way will be found for subject to pass into object, the identity of subject with object will be restored. All the great creators have foreseen this turning-point.”
— Nikolai Berdyaev, The Meaning of the Creative Act
— Nikolai Berdyaev, The Meaning of the Creative Act
“Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable.”
— Bertrand Russell, Fact and Fiction
— Bertrand Russell, Fact and Fiction
November 6, 2025 at 3:02 AM
“Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the devotion of which the human spirit is capable.”
— Bertrand Russell, Fact and Fiction
— Bertrand Russell, Fact and Fiction
“The proper function of the intelligence demands total freedom.”
— Simone Weil, Waiting on God
— Simone Weil, Waiting on God
November 5, 2025 at 8:59 PM
“The proper function of the intelligence demands total freedom.”
— Simone Weil, Waiting on God
— Simone Weil, Waiting on God
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“To act boldly and keep yourself open to the world is a courageous choice. It means accepting that you'll fail sometimes, and that it will mean pain. It will be painful simply because you care.”
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“The Pain Of Failure”, etc. (206-210)
When failure happens, it's devastating because you've invested so much of yourself and still you didn't succeed.
suliqyre.substack.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:17 PM
“To act boldly and keep yourself open to the world is a courageous choice. It means accepting that you'll fail sometimes, and that it will mean pain. It will be painful simply because you care.”
Read more:
suliqyre.substack.com/p/the-pain-o...
Read more:
suliqyre.substack.com/p/the-pain-o...