• Streetlight
    9.1k
    Place your quotable quotes here! Words of beauty, words of wisdom; all things silly and sage, the quote cabinet is open to all!

    Here's part of a recent read of mine to kick things off:

    “We can be loved by someone only to the extent that we definitely expel from ourselves every possible resemblance to the rest of humanity. For this reason, love does not have an angelic nature. The angel is, in fact, according to medieval theology, one who gathers in themselves all the possible matter of the species. He who repels it, who expels it from themselves, is called a demon. The angels mediate and fade the face of the single into the universal; the demons divide and distinguish; they impede the recognition in this individual of the mark and character of the human.

    Eros is a demon, and it is only thanks to life’s demons that it enters into love: it is always the absolute individual, and never the ‘type’ who is loved … Without the influence of love, every life becomes generic, resuming obvious, universal characteristics, losing its demonic nature and becoming human, and angelically common. Every angel is the end of love … every love is a struggle with an angel, with our own angel, custodian and guardian of our identity."

    - Emanuele Coccia, End of Love
  • Pneumenon
    469
    "A cause-creating drive is powerful within him [the anarchist]: someone must be to blame for his feeling vile. His 'righteous indignation' itself already does him good; every poor devil finds pleasure in scolding - i gives him a little of the intoxication of power. Even complaining and wailing can give life a charm for the sake of which one endures it: there is a small dose of revenge in every complaint. One reproaches those who are different for one's feeling vile... as if they had perpetrated an injustice or possessed an impermissible privilege."

    - Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of The Idols
  • _db
    3.6k
    "The richest experience that a tragedy can give is a pseudo-solution of the metaphysical problem of meaning through poetic sublimation"

    - Peter Zapffe, On the Tragic
  • Janus
    16.2k
    “Since the race does not begin anew with every individual, .... the sinfulness of the race does indeed acquire a history. Meanwhile, this proceeds in quantitative determinations while the individual participates in it by the qualitative leap. For this reason the race does not begin anew with every individual, in which case there would be no race at all, but every individual begins anew with the race.”

    - Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety
  • The Great Whatever
    2.2k
    I really like this. Although I think this hysterical tone, where every complaint is one of (sanctimonious) reaction to injustice is becoming universal in political discourse. To be powerful or to be smart is to see some horrible systemic wrong and be enraged by it.
  • Nils Loc
    1.4k
    My only complaint is that you've not credited the source of your quote.

    It really does feel good to scold you softly here.

    The suspicion is that the TPF elites all already know the source and that the omission is to further exclude us lesser educated laypersons.

    Viva la revolución

    Moderator's Note
    The source has since been added by myself, Sapientia.
  • Pneumenon
    469
    I would rather say that to be powerful or smart is to be singled out as the perpetrator of a horrible wrong. "How dare you have what I do not?"
  • Baden
    16.3k
    On a related note from Robert Wright in The Moral Animal:

    "...the feeling of moral "rightness" is something natural selection created so that people would employ it selfishly".
  • Mongrel
    3k
    With each moment the world is made and moral value is it's expression.TheWillowOfDarkness
  • Wosret
    3.4k
    "Memories are what our reason is based on, to deny them is to deny reason itself. Although, what's wrong with that, really? It's not like we're contractually tied down to rationality. There is no "sanity clause". So when you find yourself locked onto an unpleasant train of thought headed for places in your past where the screaming is unavoidable, remember this: there's always madness". - The Joker.
  • Mongrel
    3k
    Where is that from?
  • Michael
    15.4k
    Batman: The Killing Joke
  • Wosret
    3.4k


    Yeah, the killing joke, I was watching it and had to share that sweet quotable. Has kind of mixed reviews, but I thought it was pretty good.
  • Mongrel
    3k
    I'm watching it now... not finished yet. Insanity used to be my biggest fear. I used to be unable to make it all the way through watching the Shining.

    I've been reading Neil Gaiman stories lately. He's cool.
  • Wosret
    3.4k


    What did you think?
  • Streetlight
    9.1k
    "The first principle of philosophy is that Universals explain nothing but must themselves be explained"

    - Deleuze and Guattari, What Is Philosophy?
  • Janus
    16.2k


    What must be explained: particular universals or universals in general?
  • Streetlight
    9.1k
    I see what you did thar
  • Pierre-Normand
    2.4k
    "No soup for you!"

    --The Soup Nazi
  • _db
    3.6k
    "The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity." - George Bernard Shaw
  • Hoo
    415
    "He who despises himself nevertheless respects himself as one who despises." -- Nietzsche
  • Streetlight
    9.1k
    "A nation is a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past, a hatred of their present neighbors, and dangerous illusions about their future."

    -Slavoj Zizek
  • The Great Whatever
    2.2k
    "Beneath the uniformity that unites us in communication there is a chaotic personal diversity of connections, and, for each of us, the connections continue to evolve. No two of us ever learn our language alike, nor, in a sense, does any finish learning it while he lives."

    "Different persons growing up in the same languages are like different bushes trimmed and trained to take the shape of identical elephants. The anatomical details of twigs and branches will fulfill the elephantine form differently from bush to bush, but the overall outward results are alike."

    -Quine
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    "The only error is your failure to adjust your preconceptions to reality." --Brian Eno
  • Ciceronianus
    3k
    "There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it."

    And, just for the sake of balance, one for the lawyers:

    "When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff."

    Both quotations from Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • _db
    3.6k
    “No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little”
    - Edmund Burke
  • Hoo
    415
    "To be seen is the ambition of ghosts, and to be remembered is the ambition of the dead."

    -- Norman O. Brown.
  • The Great Whatever
    2.2k
    "Justifications do explain choices, whether or not the agent actually goes through the process of reasoning following the justification. For it is a fact of human nature that we tend to act in ways justified by our beliefs and desires, even when we do not think through the justification."

    - David Lewis
bold
italic
underline
strike
code
quote
ulist
image
url
mention
reveal
youtube
tweet
Add a Comment

Welcome to The Philosophy Forum!

Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.