Maxims Quotes - Page 4

• The maxim is, that whatever can be affirmed (or denied) of a class, may be affirmed (or denied) of everything included in the class. This axiom, supposed to be the basis of the syllogistic theory, is termed by logicians the dictum de omni et nullo.

  John Stuart Mill

  Science, Class, Nomenclature

  John Stuart Mill (1858). “A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation”, p.117

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• Men are very apt to run into extremes, hatred to England may carry come into an excess of Confidence in France... I am heartily disposed to entertain the most favourable sentiments of our new ally and to cherish them in others to a reasonable degree; but it is a maxim founded on the universal experience of mankind, that no nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest; and no prudent statesman or politician will venture to depart from it.

  George Washington

  Running, Men, History

  George Washington, David Maydole Matteson (1936). “The Writings of George Washington: From the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799”

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• All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.

  Adam Smith

  People, Age, Libertarian

  Adam Smith (1827). “An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, p.169

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• How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours. Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you. If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.

  Wayne Dyer

  Karma, People, Judging

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• The young people who come to me in the hope of hearing me utter a few memorable maxims are quite disappointed. Aphorisms are not my forte, I say nothing but banalities.... I listen to them and they go away delighted.

  Andre Gide

  Memorable, People, Listening

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• The maxim of courts is that manner is power.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Behavior, Court

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.97, Harvard University Press

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• To live with our enemies as if they may some time become our friends, and to live with our friends as if they may some time become our enemies, is not a moral but a political maxim

  Thomas Paine

  Political, Enemy, May

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• The Grecian’s maxim would indeed be a sweeping clause in Literature; it would reduce many a giant to a pygmy; many a speech to a sentence; and many a folio to a primer.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Giants, Literature, Speech

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.4

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• One of my central maxims is how a major part of what a conductor tries to do is get a large group of people to agree on where "now" actually is.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  People, Trying, Groups

  "The Superconductor: SF Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas". Interview with Clara Jeffery, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2010.

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• I would not like to live in the past because you don't get anesthetic when you go to the dentist. You don't get antibiotics. You don't get the things that you are used to now, cell phones and televisions and things that are very convenient. You don't want that. But, it would be fun if you could, every now and then, just meet a friend for lunch at Maxim's in Paris in 1900, or go back to 1870 just for a couple of hours, take a walk in the park, and then come right back to Broadway.

  Woody Allen

  Couple, Fun, Past

  Source: www.moviesonline.ca

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• The maxim that the "best is the cheapest" does not apply to food.

  Wilbur Olin Atwater

  Inspirational, Doe

  Wilbur Olin Atwater (1894). “Foods: nutritive value and cost”, p.20

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• There are no guarantees in life. The simple twists of fate and the breaks of the game are the two maxims that define so much of the success and failure in life.

  Bill Walton

  Fate, Simple, Guarantees In Life

  Source: blitzweekly.com

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• The simple rely on a bolstering mass of maxim and precept, so do the timid, so do the mentally lazy – and so do all of us, more than we imagine.

  John Wyndham

  Simple, Lazy, Imagine

  John Wyndham (2003). “The Day of the Triffids”

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• I will not be doing any FHM or crazy Maxim magazines. I will leave that to the other actresses in Hollywood who want to shed their clothes because they think that's beneficial to them. I would much rather chose a creative way - like in a movie.

  Michelle Trachtenberg

  Crazy, Thinking, Clothes

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• The true historian, therefore, seeking to compose a true picture of the thing acted, must collect facts and combine facts. Methods will differ, styles will differ. Nobody ever does anything like anybody else; but the end in view is generally the same, and the historian's end is truthful narration. Maxims he will have, if he is wise, never a one; and as for a moral, if he tell his story well, it will need none; if he tell it ill, it will deserve none.

  Augustine Birrell

  Wise, Views, Style

  Augustine Birrell (1923). “The collected essays & addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920”

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• Nothing, except the weather report or a general maxim of conduct, is so unsafe to rely upon as a theory of fiction.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Weather, Rely Upon, Fiction

  Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (1938). “Works”

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• All the good maxims which are in the world fail when applied to one's self.

  Blaise Pascal

  Self, World, Failing

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• A maxim is a conclusion upon observation of matters of fact, and is merely speculative; a "principle" carries knowledge within itself, and is prospective.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Principles, Matter, Facts

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• It is from our enemies that we often gain excellent maxims, and are frequently surprised into reason by their mistakes.

  Thomas Paine

  Mistake, Enemy, Gains

  Thomas Paine (2015). “The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies”, p.32, Ravenio Books

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• It was the maxim, I think, of Alphonsus of Aragon, that dead counsellors are safest. The grave puts an end to flattery and artifice, and the information we receive from books is pure from interest, fear, and ambition. Dead counsellors are likewise most instructive, because they are heard with patience and with reverence.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Ambition, Thinking

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Rambler”, p.410

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• The simplest rudiment of mystical experience would seem to be that deepened sense of the significance of a maxim or formula which occasionally sweeps over one.

  William James

  Mystical Experiences, Natural, Significance

  William James (2015). “The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature”, p.129, Xist Publishing

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• My third maxim was to try always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world, and generally to accustom myself to believing that there is nothing entirely in our power except our thoughts, so that after we have done our best regarding things external to us, everything in which we do not succeed is for us absolutely impossible.

  Rene Descartes

  Change, Believe, Power

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• Let nothing dupe you! Such is the horrible maxim that acts as a solvent upon every noble feeling man experiences.

  Honore de Balzac

  Men, Stupidity, Feelings

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• Search out the wisdom of nature, there is depth in all her doings; she seemeth prodigal of power, yet her rules are the maxims of frugality.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Nature, Depth, Frugality

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1860). “Tupper's Complete Poetical Works: Containing "Proverbial Philosophy," "A Thousand Lines," "Hactenus," "Geraldine," and "Miscellaneous Poems"”, p.18

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• All who have been great and good without Christianity would have been much greater and better with it. If there be, amongst the sons of men, a single exception to this maxim, the divine Socrates may be allowed to put in the strongest claim. It was his high ambition to deserve, by deeds, not by creeds, an unrevealed heaven, and by works, not by faith, to enter an unpromised land.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Ambition, Son, Men

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.155

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