Animals can learn, but it is not by learning that they become dogs, cats, or horses. Only man has to read more

Animals can learn, but it is not by learning that they become dogs, cats, or horses. Only man has to learn to become what he is supposed to be.

Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is more important than the judgment we pass on ourselves.

Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is more important than the judgment we pass on ourselves.

It is by becoming increasingly complex that the self might be said to grow.

It is by becoming increasingly complex that the self might be said to grow.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be...The nation and the read more

The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be...The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

...ideas have a tendency to live lives of their own, and having become a part of tradition, they are very read more

...ideas have a tendency to live lives of their own, and having become a part of tradition, they are very difficult to root out. When summarized in a few neat words or phrases, these gems of wisdom become substitutes for thought, and gradually take on much of the status of revealed truth. Occasionally, some iconoclast sees fit to challenge one of them, and a brief flurry ensues, after which things go on about as before. It is easy to think of plenty of ideas that are passing, if they have not already passed, beyond the stage of effective discussion.

Love, friendship, respect, do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.

Love, friendship, respect, do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.

The highest stage in moral culture at which we can arrive is when we recognize that we ought to control read more

The highest stage in moral culture at which we can arrive is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.

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.