Innovators and creators are persons who can to a higher degree than average accept the condition of aloneness. They are more willing to follow their own vision, even when it takes them far from the mainland of the human community. Unexplored places do not frighten them- or not, at any rate, as much as they frighten those around them. This is one of the secrets of their power. That which we call "genius" has a great deal to do with courage and daring, a great deal to do with nerve.
You May Also Like / View all maxioms
Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.
Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.
The continuous disasters of man's history are mainly due to his excessive capacity and urge to become identified with a read more
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.
Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of read more
Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.
No one has ever had an idea in a dress suit.
No one has ever had an idea in a dress suit.
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.
There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man read more
There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man with a superior capacity for happiness.
What are we when we are alone? Some, when they are alone, cease to exist.
What are we when we are alone? Some, when they are alone, cease to exist.
Of all sexual aberrations, perhaps the most peculiar is chastity.
Of all sexual aberrations, perhaps the most peculiar is chastity.
Persons of high self-esteem are not driven to make themselves superior to others; they do not seek to prove their read more
Persons of high self-esteem are not driven to make themselves superior to others; they do not seek to prove their value by measuring themselves against a comparative standard. Their joy is being who they are, not in being better than someone else.
