Thus we find that people who fail in everyday affairs show a tendency to reach out for the impossible. They read more

Thus we find that people who fail in everyday affairs show a tendency to reach out for the impossible. They become responsive to grandiose schemes, and will display unequaled steadfastness, formidable energies and a special fitness in the performance of tasks which would stump superior people. It seems paradoxical that defeat in dealing with the possible should embolden people to attempt the impossible, but a familiarity with the mentality of the weak reveals that what seems a path of daring is actually an easy way out: It is to escape the responsibility for failure that the weak so eagerly throw themselves into grandiose undertakings. For when we fail in attaining the impossible we are justified in attributing it to the magnitude of the task.

This is the constitutional limitation of man's knowledge and interests, the fact that he cannot know more than a tiny read more

This is the constitutional limitation of man's knowledge and interests, the fact that he cannot know more than a tiny part of the whole of society and that therefore all that can enter into his motives are the immediate effects which his actions will have in the sphere he knows.

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.

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.

The world's greatest thinkers have often been amateurs; for high thinking is the outcome of fine and independent living, and read more

The world's greatest thinkers have often been amateurs; for high thinking is the outcome of fine and independent living, and for that a professional chair offers no special opportunities.

When an elephant is in trouble even a frog will kick him.

When an elephant is in trouble even a frog will kick him.

We often use strong language not to express a powerful emotion but to evoke it in us.

We often use strong language not to express a powerful emotion but to evoke it in us.

Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it's more sanitary.

Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it's more sanitary.

Society cannot contribute anything to the breeding and growing of ingenious men. A creative genius cannot be trained. There are read more

Society cannot contribute anything to the breeding and growing of ingenious men. A creative genius cannot be trained. There are no schools for creativeness. A genius is precisely a man who defies all schools and rules, who deviates from the traditional roads of routine and opens up new paths through land inaccessible before. A genius is always a teacher, never a pupil; he is always self-made.