noun
definition
A self-evident axiom or premise; a pithy expression of a general principle or rule.
definition
A precept; a succinct statement or observation of a rule of conduct or moral teaching.
Examples of maxims in a Sentence
The collection of moral maxims, compiled in Arabic but best known (in the Hebrew translation of Judah ibn Tibbon) as Mibhar ha-peninim, is generally ascribed to Ibn Gabirol, though on less certain grounds.
His manner of life was ascetic; the sayings of the Sermon on the Mount and the practical maxims of the Stoics were his guiding stars.
The general tendency both of the imperial constitutions and of the maxims of the legists is in favour of liberty.
That downright, gossiping German princess, the duchess of Orleans, cared little for the Maxims; but she was enraptured by their author, and his "ugly face, all skin and bone, though he laughed and talked quite unaffectedly and easily."
It is not surprising that with such maxims as these in his mouth, unguarded in his expressions and careless of his reputation, he should have afforded room for the circulation of many stories to his disadvantage."
Landor's maxims of "few acquaintances, fewer friends, no familiarities" had his cordial approval.
To buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest; to secure cheapness by lowering the expenses of production; to adopt the less expensive rather than the more expensive method of obtaining a given result - these and other maxims are as old as human society.
In March Babington, pursuing De la Rey after the latter's Lichtenburg misadventure, captured three guns and six maxims near Ventersdorp. In April Plumer occupied Pietersburg, the last remaining seat of government open to the enemy.
He has, indeed, described in graphic terms the greatest of the more superficial changes he underwent; how he had " carried into logical and ethical problems the maxims and postulates of physical knowledge," and had moved within the narrow lines drawn by the philosophical instructions of the class-room " interpreting human phenomena by the analogy of external nature "; how he served in willing captivity " the ` empirical ' and ` necessarian ' mode of thought," even though " shocked " by the dogmatism and acrid humours " of certain distinguished representatives "; 1 and how in a period of " second education " at Berlin, " mainly under the admirable guidance of Professor Trendelenburg," he experienced " a new intellectual birth" which " was essentially the gift of fresh conceptions, the unsealing of hidden openings of self-consciousness, with unmeasured corridors and sacred halls behind; and, once gained, was more or less available throughout the history of philosophy, and lifted the darkness from the pages of Kant and even Hegel."
Appius also published a collection of moral maxims and reflections in verse.
When the Parthian War (162-5) broke out, Polyaenus, too old to share in the campaign, dedicated to the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus a work, still extant, called Strategica or Strategemata, a historical collection of stratagems and maxims of strategy written in Greek and strung together in the form of anecdotes.
How shall we estimate the permanent worth of his method, the residuum of value in his maxims?
It effected a revolution in his mode of thinking; so completely did the Kantian doctrine of the inherent moral worth of man harmonize with his own character, that his life becomes one effort to perfect a true philosophy, and to make its principles practical maxims. At first he seems to have thought that the best method for accomplishing his object would be to expound Kantianism in a popular, intelligible form.
The principles involved in it were lost sight of under the mass of spurious maxims on social order which had slowly grown up and stiffened into system.
The title of philosopher as used in Franklin's lifetime referred neither in England nor in France to him as author of moral maxims, but to him as a scientist - a " natural philosopher."
Domitian had been arbitrary and high-handed, and had heaped favours on the soldiery while humiliating the senate; Nerva showed himself anxious to respect the traditional privileges of the senate, and such maxims of constitutional government as still survived.
The best known of such works are Rules for the Conduct of Kings, translated from the Bali, and The Maxims of Phra Ruang, the national hero-king, on whose wonderful sayings and doings the imagination of Siamese youth is fed.
The Wisdomliterature of the Hebrews concerned itself with what we should call the philosophy of human nature, and sometimes also of physical nature as well; its writers observed human character, studied action in its consequences, laid down maxims for education and conduct, and reflected on the moral problems which human society presents.
We might cite the maxims of Ani in the Egyptian papyrus Prisse (XIIth dynasty).
Maxims of criticism to which we may here refer are that "harder readings are better than easier" and that "the shorter reading is generally the truer."
The relieving force that marched into Kumasi consisted of moo fighting men (all West Africans), with 60 white officers and non-commissioned officers, two 75-millimetre guns, four seven-pounder guns and six Maxims.
But, after making all allowances, it remains true that he had a pefect sense of proportion, sound maxims and thorough common-sense.
It consists mainly of maxims which may be described in turn as moral, utilitarian and secular.
In his maxims of life he shows a somewhat frigid and narrow mind.
It seems to be certain that St Francis at the beginning had no intention of forming his disciples into an Order, but only of making a great brotherhood of all those who were prepared to carry out in their lives certain of the greater and more arduous of the maxims of the Gospel.
The former he imitates in the maxims (-yv14at) he throws in and the speeches which he puts into the mouth of the chief actors; the latter in his frequent geographical digressions, in the personal anecdotes, in the tendency to collect and attach some credence to marvellous tales.
Although the Makhzan is mainly devoted to philosophic meditations, the propensity of Nizämi's genius to purely epic poetry, which was soon to assert itself in a more independent form, makes itself felt even here, all the twenty chapters being interspersed with short tales illustrative of the maxims set forth in each.
They seem to have preserved among them the primitive manual called the Teaching of the Apostles, for Bishop Longland in England condemned an Anabaptist for repeating one of its maxims " that alms should not be given before they did sweat in a man's hand."
It goes on to reverse the ordinary maxims of conduct.
It reverses ordinary judgments and conventional maxims of conduct.
Some of the material may have existed in aphoristic form before, but the composition of the present book may be put approximately in the century 300-200 B.C. Even its simplest maxims have a certain academic form.
They despised tradition and Old World ways and notions; and they accepted the Jeffersonian dogmas, not only as maxims, but as social forces - the causes of the material prosperity of the country.
Education in general has rendered many familiar with the teachings of science, and, moreover, its practical benefits have given authority to its maxims and theories.
The senate listened with delight to his promises to rule according to the maxims of Augustus, and to avoid the errors which had rendered unpopular the rule of his predecessor, while his unfailing clemency, liberality and affability were the talk of Rome.
In fact the special maxims usually placed under the head of taxation have really a wider scope as governing the whole financial system.
The Professional works include the Reading on the Statute of Uses, the Maxims of Law and the treatise (possibly spurious) on the Use of the Law.
Her father, Constant d'Aubigne, was the son of Agrippa d'Aubigne, the famous friend and general of Henry IV., and had been imprisoned as a Huguenot malcontent, but her mother, a fervent Catholic, had the child baptized in her religion, her sponsors being the duc de la Rochefoucauld, father of the author of the Maxims, and the comtesse de Neuillant.
Among the moralists of the time three at least deserve the title of masters of prose style, Heitor Pinto for his Imagens da vida Christa, Bishop Arraez for his Dialogos, and Frei Thome de Jesus for his noble devotional treatise Trabalhos de Jesus, while the maxims of Joanna da Gama, entitled Ditos da Freira, though lacking depth, form a curious psychological document.
The artillery includes Krupps, Maxims and Nordenfeldts.
With these instincts and maxims, and with his strength, granting it almost more than human, spent ever tunnelling in abstruse mines of knowledge, his moral experience is not likely to have been deeply troubled.
It may be observed, however, that while general maxims are easy, the application presents difficulties, and since Adam Smith wrote, and especially in modern times, new questions of some interest have been raised.
Politically one might differ from him, but economists as such must either be silent when political reasons are alleged for taxes that are against fundamental maxims, or must be content to point out the cost of the taxes in order that the communities concerned may decide whether the object in view is obtainable by means of the taxation, and is worth the price.
Periander was reckoned one of the seven sages of Greece, and was the reputed author of a collection of maxims (T7roOi Kac) in 2000 verses.
From the Bucharest press, besides a variety of ecclesiastical books, there were issued in the Ruman tongue a translation of a French work entitled The Maxims of the Orientals and The Romance of Alexander the Great.
Of far greater interest is the literature of maxims, and lives of saints, real or apocryphal, intended to teach by example.
Such are the maxims in the Floaerea darurilor, translated from the Greek (Sneagov, 1700), and going back to the Italian Fiore.
Mention may be made of a few more moral treatises such as the Ufa poceiintei, " Gate of Penitence " (Kronstadt, 1812); Oglinda omului din eiuntru, " The Mirror of the Inner Man "; or Pilde filosofesti, " Philosophical Saws and Maxims " (Tirgovishtea, 1715).
Radovici or Dinu din Golesti, an enlightened Walachian boyar, who was one of the first Rumanians to describe a journey in Western Europe, is also the author of a collection of maxims and parables, Adunare de pilde bisericesti filosofesti (Budapest, 1824); he left a larger collection in MS. partly edited by Zane in his Proverbele Romdnilor, vols.
When this last sacrifice had been made, he was, even when tried by the maxims of that austere time, faultless.
A Machiavellian tract on the fundamental maxims of Venetian policy (Opinione come debba governarsi la repubblica di Venezia), used by his adversaries to blacken his memory, is undoubtedly not his.