The continuous disasters of man's history are mainly due to his excessive capacity and urge to become identified with a tribe, nation, church or cause, and to espouse its credo uncritically and enthusiastically, even if its tenets are contrary to reason, devoid of self-interest and detrimental to the claims of self-preservation.We are thus driven to the unfashionable conclusion that the trouble with our species is not an excess of aggression, but an excess capacity for fanatical devotion.
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To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.
To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.
Courage is not a virtue or value among other personal values like love or fidelity. It is the foundation that read more
Courage is not a virtue or value among other personal values like love or fidelity. It is the foundation that underlies and gives reality to all other virtues and personal values. Without courage our love pales into mere dependency. Without courage our fidelity becomes conformism.
Every fairly intelligent person is aware that the price of respectability is a muffled soul bent on the trivial and read more
Every fairly intelligent person is aware that the price of respectability is a muffled soul bent on the trivial and the mediocre.
A healthy appetite for righteousness, kept in due control by good manners, is an excellent thing; but to "hunger and read more
A healthy appetite for righteousness, kept in due control by good manners, is an excellent thing; but to "hunger and thirst" after it is often merely a symptom of spiritual diabetes.
A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves.
A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves.
My enemy is not the man who wrongs me, but the man who means to wrong me.
My enemy is not the man who wrongs me, but the man who means to wrong me.
Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. One read more
Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. One often obtains a clue to a person's nature by discovering the reasons for his or her imperviousness to certain impressions.
It should be noted that the seeds of wisdom that are to bear fruit in the intellect are sown less read more
It should be noted that the seeds of wisdom that are to bear fruit in the intellect are sown less by critical studies and learned monographs than by insights, broad impressions, and flashes of intuition.
Power concedes nothing without a demand.
Power concedes nothing without a demand.
