Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power, and is often, in point of fact, useless.

Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power, and is often, in point of fact, useless.

Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steady gains in strength, At first it may be read more

Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steady gains in strength, At first it may be but as a spider's web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel.

Habits... the only reason they persist is that they are offering some satisfaction. You allow them to persist by not read more

Habits... the only reason they persist is that they are offering some satisfaction. You allow them to persist by not seeking any other, better form of satisfying the same needs. Every habit, good or bad, is acquired and learned in the same way -- by finding that it is a means of satisfaction.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.

We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.

Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of read more

Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of progress and improvement, but conservatories of tradition and unvarying modes of thought.

When the weak want to give an impression of strength they hint menacingly at their capacity for evil. It is read more

When the weak want to give an impression of strength they hint menacingly at their capacity for evil. It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.

There is apparently some connection between dissatisfaction with oneself and proneness to credulity. The urge to escape our real self read more

There is apparently some connection between dissatisfaction with oneself and proneness to credulity. The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious. The refusal to see ourselves as we are develops a distaste for facts and cold logic. There is no hope for the frustrated in the actual and the possible. Salvation can come to them only from the miraculous, which seeps through a crack in the iron wall of inexorable reality. They asked to be deceived.

I have taken all knowledge to be my province.

I have taken all knowledge to be my province.