When we leave people on their own, we are delivering them into the hands of a ruthless taskmaster from whose read more

When we leave people on their own, we are delivering them into the hands of a ruthless taskmaster from whose bondage there is no escape. The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.

Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it read more

Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so.

All prayers and hopes are a reaching-out for coincidences.

All prayers and hopes are a reaching-out for coincidences.

In the world of reality, life, and human action there is no such thing as interests independent of ideas, preceding read more

In the world of reality, life, and human action there is no such thing as interests independent of ideas, preceding them temporarily and logically. What a man considers his interest is the result of his ideas.

There are many who find the burdens, the anxiety, and the isolation of an individual existence unbearable. This is particularly read more

There are many who find the burdens, the anxiety, and the isolation of an individual existence unbearable. This is particularly true when the opportunities for self-advancement are relatively meager, and one's individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for. Such persons sooner or later turn their backs on an individual existence and strive to acquire a sense of worth and a purpose by an identification with a holy cause, a leader, or a movement. The faith and pride they derive from such an identification serve them as substitutes for the unattainable self-confidence and self-respect.

Our knowledge and our ability to handle our problems progress through the open conflict of ideas, through the tests of read more

Our knowledge and our ability to handle our problems progress through the open conflict of ideas, through the tests of phenomenological adequacy, inner consistency, and practical-moral consequences. Reason may err, but it can be moral. If we must err, let it be on the side of our creativity, our freedom, our betterment.

In matters of intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard for any other consideration.

In matters of intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard for any other consideration.

Because we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a read more

Because we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a model for trying to understand it. In my childhood we were always assured that the brain was a telephone switchboard. ('What else could it be?') I was amused to see that Sherrington, the great British neuroscientist, thought that the brain worked like a telegraph system. Freud often compared the brain to hydraulic and electro-magnetic systems. Leibniz compared it to a mill, and I am told some of the ancient Greeks thought the brain functions like a catapult. At present, obviously, the metaphor is the digital computer.

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the read more

We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.