Civilized man has always had a great inclination to read his conceptions and feelings into the mind of primitive man; read more

Civilized man has always had a great inclination to read his conceptions and feelings into the mind of primitive man; but he has only a limited capacity for understanding the latter's undeveloped mental life and for interpreting, as it were, his nature.

Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.

Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.

...far from failing in its intended task, our educational system is in fact succeeding magnificently, because its aim is to read more

...far from failing in its intended task, our educational system is in fact succeeding magnificently, because its aim is to keep the American people thoughtless enough to go on supporting the system.

Wherever we find orderly, stable systems in Nature, we find that they are hierarchically structured, for the simple reason that read more

Wherever we find orderly, stable systems in Nature, we find that they are hierarchically structured, for the simple reason that without such structuring of complex systems into sub-assemblies, there could be no order and stability- except the order of a dead universe filled with a uniformly distributed gas.

The real cause of personal existence is not the favor of the Almighty, but the sexual love of one's earthly read more

The real cause of personal existence is not the favor of the Almighty, but the sexual love of one's earthly parents.

Civilized ages inherit the human nature which was victorious in barbarous ages, and that nature is, in many respects, not read more

Civilized ages inherit the human nature which was victorious in barbarous ages, and that nature is, in many respects, not at all suited to civilized circumstances.

Without an element of the obscene there can be no true and deep aesthetic or moral conception of life...It is read more

Without an element of the obscene there can be no true and deep aesthetic or moral conception of life...It is only the great men who are truly obscene. If they had not dared to be obscene they could never have dared to be great.

I take as my guide the hope of a saint: in crucial things, unity. . . in important things, diversity. read more

I take as my guide the hope of a saint: in crucial things, unity. . . in important things, diversity. . . in all things, generosity.

Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense.

Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense.