The envious man thinks that if his neighbor breaks a leg, he will be able to walk better himself.

The envious man thinks that if his neighbor breaks a leg, he will be able to walk better himself.

No child is born with a really cold heart, and it is only in proportion as we lose that youthful read more

No child is born with a really cold heart, and it is only in proportion as we lose that youthful heart that we lose the inner warmth in ourselves.

A line runs from the meditations of the heart to the words of the mouth. The meditations are not clear read more

A line runs from the meditations of the heart to the words of the mouth. The meditations are not clear to us until the mouth utters its words. If what the mouth utters is unclear or foolish or mendacious, it must be that the meditations are the same. But the line runs both ways. The words of the mouth will become the meditations of the heart, and the habit of loose talk loosens the fastenings of our understanding.

The weak are not a noble breed. Their sublime deeds of faith, daring, and self-sacrifice usually spring from questionable motives. read more

The weak are not a noble breed. Their sublime deeds of faith, daring, and self-sacrifice usually spring from questionable motives. The weak hate not wickedness but weakness; and one instance of their hatred of weakness is hatred of self. All the passionate pursuits of the weak are in some degree a striving to escape, blur, or disguise an unwanted self. It is a striving shot through with malice, envy, self-deception, and a host of petty impulses; yet it often culminates in superb achievements.

The class of those who have the ability to think their own thoughts is separated by an unbridgeable gulf from read more

The class of those who have the ability to think their own thoughts is separated by an unbridgeable gulf from the class of those who cannot.

Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.

Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.

Don't be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small read more

Don't be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small steps.

Everything that we think God has in his mind necessarily proceeds from our own mind; it is what we imagine read more

Everything that we think God has in his mind necessarily proceeds from our own mind; it is what we imagine to be in God's mind, and it is really difficult for human intelligence to guess at a divine intelligence. What we usually end up with by this sort of reasoning is to make God the color-sergeant of our army and to make Him as chauvinistic as ourselves.

Ideals are very often formed in the effort to escape from the hard task of dealing with facts, which is read more

Ideals are very often formed in the effort to escape from the hard task of dealing with facts, which is the function of science and art. There is no process by which to reach an ideal. There are no tests by which to verify it. It is therefore impossible to frame a proposition about an ideal which can be proved or disproved. It follows that the use of ideals is to be strictly limited to proper cases, and that the attempt to use ideals in social discussion does not deserve serious consideration.