Philosophy Bits
@philosophybits.com
A collection of fine philosophical and literary quotations. Curated by @suliqyre.com
philosophybits.com
philosophybits.com
“Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.”
— Confucius, Analects
— Confucius, Analects
January 31, 2026 at 2:01 AM
“Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.”
— Confucius, Analects
— Confucius, Analects
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“No one who wholeheartedly shares in a given sensibility can analyze it; he can only, whatever his intention, exhibit it. To name a sensibility, to draw its contours and to recount its history, requires a deep sympathy modified by revulsion.”
— Susan Sontag, “Notes on “Camp””
— Susan Sontag, “Notes on “Camp””
January 30, 2026 at 11:52 PM
“No one who wholeheartedly shares in a given sensibility can analyze it; he can only, whatever his intention, exhibit it. To name a sensibility, to draw its contours and to recount its history, requires a deep sympathy modified by revulsion.”
— Susan Sontag, “Notes on “Camp””
— Susan Sontag, “Notes on “Camp””
“It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves.”
— Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
— Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
January 30, 2026 at 9:25 PM
“It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves.”
— Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
— Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace
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“If someone sees injustice in our harsh behaviour, we quickly label them an outsider in need of punishment. This is especially true when we know deep down that the naysayers are right. We can see the wrongness of our actions, but we are too controlled by our anxiety to change course.”
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257. Anxiety To Conform
We want everyone to conform to the norms of society because we are deeply concerned for our safety and the safety of our loved ones. A lack of conformity suggests the possibility of social disruption ...
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January 30, 2026 at 7:24 PM
“If someone sees injustice in our harsh behaviour, we quickly label them an outsider in need of punishment. This is especially true when we know deep down that the naysayers are right. We can see the wrongness of our actions, but we are too controlled by our anxiety to change course.”
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“If in communicating a thought, one fluctuates between absolute comprehension and absolute incomprehension, then this process might already be termed a philosophical friendship.
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January 30, 2026 at 5:56 PM
“If in communicating a thought, one fluctuates between absolute comprehension and absolute incomprehension, then this process might already be termed a philosophical friendship.
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“Daring begins an action, but luck controls its end.”
— Democritus, Fragments, B269
— Democritus, Fragments, B269
January 30, 2026 at 2:37 AM
“Daring begins an action, but luck controls its end.”
— Democritus, Fragments, B269
— Democritus, Fragments, B269
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“Machines produce only machines. The texts, images, films, speech and programmes which come out of the computer are machine products, and they bear the marks of such products: they are artificially padded-out, face-lifted by the machine; …
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January 30, 2026 at 12:14 AM
“Machines produce only machines. The texts, images, films, speech and programmes which come out of the computer are machine products, and they bear the marks of such products: they are artificially padded-out, face-lifted by the machine; …
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“Show me the man you honour; I know by that symptom, better than by any other, what kind of man you yourself are.”
— Thomas Carlyle, “Hudson’s Statue”, Latter-Day Pamphlets
— Thomas Carlyle, “Hudson’s Statue”, Latter-Day Pamphlets
January 29, 2026 at 10:07 PM
“Show me the man you honour; I know by that symptom, better than by any other, what kind of man you yourself are.”
— Thomas Carlyle, “Hudson’s Statue”, Latter-Day Pamphlets
— Thomas Carlyle, “Hudson’s Statue”, Latter-Day Pamphlets
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“Having one of my own needs met can be a source of joy, for it gives me both fulfillment and release from concern over that need. Helping to meet the needs of another person can be sometimes even more joyful, as it grants me a sense of purpose and value.”
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256. The Joy Of Compassion
When I’m aware of my needs and the needs of the people around me, it feels necessary for me to take action to meet those needs. This is the action of compassion, which arises directly from awareness o...
suliqyre.com
January 29, 2026 at 7:09 PM
“Having one of my own needs met can be a source of joy, for it gives me both fulfillment and release from concern over that need. Helping to meet the needs of another person can be sometimes even more joyful, as it grants me a sense of purpose and value.”
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“The individual is the true reality in life. A cosmos in himself, he does not exist for the State, nor for that abstraction called “society,” or the “nation,” which is only a collection of individuals.
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January 29, 2026 at 5:18 PM
“The individual is the true reality in life. A cosmos in himself, he does not exist for the State, nor for that abstraction called “society,” or the “nation,” which is only a collection of individuals.
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“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.”
— David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
— David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
January 29, 2026 at 3:01 AM
“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.”
— David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
— David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
“Individuality, conceived as a temporal development involves uncertainty, indeterminacy, or contingency. Individuality is the source of whatever is unpredictable in the world.”
— John Dewey, “Time and Individuality”, The Later Works, vol 14
— John Dewey, “Time and Individuality”, The Later Works, vol 14
January 28, 2026 at 9:55 PM
“Individuality, conceived as a temporal development involves uncertainty, indeterminacy, or contingency. Individuality is the source of whatever is unpredictable in the world.”
— John Dewey, “Time and Individuality”, The Later Works, vol 14
— John Dewey, “Time and Individuality”, The Later Works, vol 14
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“Joy is powerful and it supplies the fuel to continue acting from compassion regardless of the problems I face.”
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“The Joy Of Compassion”, etc. (256-260)
Joy is powerful and it supplies the fuel to continue acting from compassion regardless of the problems I face.
suliqyre.substack.com
January 28, 2026 at 8:21 PM
“Joy is powerful and it supplies the fuel to continue acting from compassion regardless of the problems I face.”
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“All are unhappy because all are afraid to express their will. Man has hitherto been so unhappy and so poor because he has been afraid to assert his will in the highest point and has shown his self-will in little things, like a schoolboy.”
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Demons
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Demons
January 28, 2026 at 4:59 PM
“All are unhappy because all are afraid to express their will. Man has hitherto been so unhappy and so poor because he has been afraid to assert his will in the highest point and has shown his self-will in little things, like a schoolboy.”
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Demons
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Demons
“Prejudice sets all logic at defiance. It takes no account of reason or consistency.”
— Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
— Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
January 28, 2026 at 3:34 AM
“Prejudice sets all logic at defiance. It takes no account of reason or consistency.”
— Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
— Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
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“Do anything, but let it produce joy. Do anything, but let it yield ecstasy.”
— Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
— Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
January 28, 2026 at 12:11 AM
“Do anything, but let it produce joy. Do anything, but let it yield ecstasy.”
— Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
— Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
“It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of maturer age are already sunk into corruption.”
— Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws
— Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws
January 27, 2026 at 9:28 PM
“It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of maturer age are already sunk into corruption.”
— Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws
— Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws
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“You want to understand the world as well as you can. You want to see how the parts form a single, coherent whole. But the more you read, the more complex the problem of knowledge seems to be, and you're no longer certain there are any final answers.”
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255. Caught In A Net
You want to understand the world as well as you can, so you’re always reading. You read thick academic books, books about science and technology, books where experiments, models, and data are used to ...
suliqyre.com
January 27, 2026 at 7:04 PM
“You want to understand the world as well as you can. You want to see how the parts form a single, coherent whole. But the more you read, the more complex the problem of knowledge seems to be, and you're no longer certain there are any final answers.”
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suliqyre.com/posts/caught...
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“What is meaningful cannot in fact be isolated… We achieve understanding within a circular movement from particular facts to the whole that includes them and back again from the whole thus reached to the particular significant facts.”
— Karl Jaspers, General Psychopathology
— Karl Jaspers, General Psychopathology
January 27, 2026 at 5:04 PM
“What is meaningful cannot in fact be isolated… We achieve understanding within a circular movement from particular facts to the whole that includes them and back again from the whole thus reached to the particular significant facts.”
— Karl Jaspers, General Psychopathology
— Karl Jaspers, General Psychopathology
“Boredom is a kind of yearning towards an ideal pleasure.”
— Immanuel Kant, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (Remarks)
— Immanuel Kant, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (Remarks)
January 27, 2026 at 3:19 AM
“Boredom is a kind of yearning towards an ideal pleasure.”
— Immanuel Kant, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (Remarks)
— Immanuel Kant, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (Remarks)
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“Whoever tries to live faster, will ultimately also die faster. It is not the total number of events, but the experience of duration which makes life more fulfilling. Where one event follows close on the heels of another, nothing enduring comes about.”
— Byung-chul Han, The Scent of Time
— Byung-chul Han, The Scent of Time
January 27, 2026 at 12:17 AM
“Whoever tries to live faster, will ultimately also die faster. It is not the total number of events, but the experience of duration which makes life more fulfilling. Where one event follows close on the heels of another, nothing enduring comes about.”
— Byung-chul Han, The Scent of Time
— Byung-chul Han, The Scent of Time
“A man’s face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man’s thoughts and aspirations.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims
— Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims
January 26, 2026 at 9:01 PM
“A man’s face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man’s thoughts and aspirations.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims
— Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims
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“When I see someone suffering, I feel the need to help them. I feel this is necessary not only because I rationally understand that their suffering is no different from my own, but because I feel their suffering as my own.”
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254. Blocked Empathy
When I see someone suffering, I feel the need to help them. I feel this is necessary not only because I rationally understand that their suffering is no different from my own, but because I feel their...
suliqyre.com
January 26, 2026 at 8:03 PM
“When I see someone suffering, I feel the need to help them. I feel this is necessary not only because I rationally understand that their suffering is no different from my own, but because I feel their suffering as my own.”
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suliqyre.com/posts/blocke...
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“Failure is a very condition of life; one can never dream of eliminating it without immediately dreaming of death. This does not mean that one should consent to failure, but rather one must consent to struggle against it without respite.”
— Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity
— Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity
January 26, 2026 at 6:28 PM
“Failure is a very condition of life; one can never dream of eliminating it without immediately dreaming of death. This does not mean that one should consent to failure, but rather one must consent to struggle against it without respite.”
— Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity
— Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity
“Everyday language is a part of the human organism and is no less complicated than it.”
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
January 26, 2026 at 3:26 AM
“Everyday language is a part of the human organism and is no less complicated than it.”
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus