Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.-Hebrew Proverb. This is what I call debasing the moral currency; lowering the value of every inspiring fact and tradition.-George Eliot. Many of us must have frequently reflected over the origin, the development, the present meaning, and the probable future of the words […]

I have called you friends. Jesus. The fountains of my hidden life Are through thy friendship fair. Emerson. In his entire being man stands related to many things. First, he comes in contact with a material world. With his feet he presses upon the unyielding earth. His hands grasp a hundred tangible objects. The sense […]

God setteth the solitary in families. Hebrew Poetry. Whatever is excellent in the state must always begin at the fireside.—Plato. If that which the men of science teach is true, these two sentences must have been written a very long time after the human race appeared on earth. They both belong to a far remote […]

Be not slothful in business; be fervent in spirit; serve the Lord.—Paul. By common usage a distinction is made between the term business and the term work. When, singly or in groups, persons toil for some end with brain or muscle their activity is called work. If a certain amount of capital is involved with […]

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.—Paul. The canons of society, growing out of that something we call good taste, have succeeded in banishing from conversation nearly all allusions to personal affairs. The prohibition is based upon two […]

Thou wilt show me the path of life; in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for-evermore. Hebrew Poetry. It is impossible to crowd all the many meanings of human life into one word. Were we to listen only to poets and artists and musicians, we might conclude that the […]

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. Jesus. It has been more customary to represent Jesus as a supernatural savior from inherited sin than as a natural teacher and personal example of a high morality. This is partly an error. His words refer much more to conduct in the present than to […]

Strive to enter in at the strait gate.— New Testament. So he went on with haste like one treading on forbidden ground ; neither spake he to any man by the way. So in process of time Christian got up to the gate. Pilgrim’s Progress. These sentences might be supplemented by many others of similar […]

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.-PAUL. The beginnings of things are usually small and unpromising. In that company of men and women and children, fleeing out of Egypt by night, an observer could not have seen much prospect of a coming nation whose acts would some time be-come history, and whose […]

Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.-Jesus. Prayer purifies. it is a self-preached sermon.-Richter. God helps them that help themselves.-Franklin. We have long since abandoned hope of finding all good persons ranged on one side of any question whose solution depends upon logic. With the exception of a few […]