Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.

Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.

We shall assume that what each man does is based not on direct and certain knowledge, but by pictures made read more

We shall assume that what each man does is based not on direct and certain knowledge, but by pictures made by himself or given to him. If his atlas tells him the world is flat he will not sail near what he believes to be the edge of our planet for fear of falling off. If his maps include a fountain of eternal youth, a Ponce de Leon will go off in quest of it. If someone digs up yellow dirt that looks like gold, he will for a time act exactly as if he has found gold. The way in which the world is imagined determines at any particular moment what men will do. It does not determine what they will achieve. It determines their effort, their feelings, their hopes, not their accomplishments and results.

Men never do evil so fully and so happily as when they do it for conscience's sake.

Men never do evil so fully and so happily as when they do it for conscience's sake.

The hatred and cruelty which have their source in selfishness are ineffectual things compared with the venom and ruthlessness born read more

The hatred and cruelty which have their source in selfishness are ineffectual things compared with the venom and ruthlessness born of selflessness.

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus read more

Probably the difference between man and the monkeys is that the monkeys are merely bored, while man has boredom plus imagination.

...aesthetic values are changed under the influence of sexual emotion; from the lover's point of view many things are beautiful read more

...aesthetic values are changed under the influence of sexual emotion; from the lover's point of view many things are beautiful which are unbeautiful from the point of view of him who is not a lover, and the greater the degree to which the lover is swayed by his passion the greater the extent to which his normal aesthetic standard is liable to be modified.

It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict read more

It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world.

The rational individualist is not the enemy of benevolence or civility, but their truest exemplar.

The rational individualist is not the enemy of benevolence or civility, but their truest exemplar.