The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither read more

The fact is that up to now a free society has not been good for the intellectual. It has neither accorded him a superior status to sustain his confidence nor made it easy for him to acquire an unquestioned sense of social usefulness. For he derives his sense of usefulness mainly from directing, instructing, and planning- from minding other people's business- and is bound to feel superfluous and neglected where people believe themselves competent to manage individual and communal affairs, and are impatient of supervision and regulation. A free society is as much a threat to the intellectual's sense of worth as an automated economy is to the workingman's sense of worth. Any social order that can function with a minimum of leadership will be anathema to the intellectual.

By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of the healing.

By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of the healing.

To include freedom in the very definition of democracy is to define a process not by its actual characteristics as read more

To include freedom in the very definition of democracy is to define a process not by its actual characteristics as a process but by its hoped for results. This is not only intellectually invalid, it is, in practical terms, blinding oneself in advance to some of the unwanted consequences of the process.

Liberty is an opportunity for doing good, but this is only so when it is also an opportunity for doing read more

Liberty is an opportunity for doing good, but this is only so when it is also an opportunity for doing wrong.

When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have read more

When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities.

Peace is liberty in tranquillity.

Peace is liberty in tranquillity.

The world is full of cactus, but we don't have to sit on it.

The world is full of cactus, but we don't have to sit on it.

There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are read more

There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are unavoidably related in our minds with the state of things around us. Hence it is that people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to preserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change. The tendency to look for all causes outside ourselves persists even when it is clear that our state of being is the product of personal qualities such as ability, character, appearance, health and so on.

...the differences between the conservative and the radical seem to spring mainly from their attitude toward the future. Fear of read more

...the differences between the conservative and the radical seem to spring mainly from their attitude toward the future. Fear of the future causes us to lean against and cling to the present, while faith in the future renders us receptive to change.