Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.

Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.

It is part of the formidableness of a genuine mass movement that the self-sacrifice it promotes includes also a sacrifice read more

It is part of the formidableness of a genuine mass movement that the self-sacrifice it promotes includes also a sacrifice of some of the moral sense which cramps and restrains our nature.

Compared with the totality of knowledge which is continually utilized in the evolution of a dynamic civilization, the difference between read more

Compared with the totality of knowledge which is continually utilized in the evolution of a dynamic civilization, the difference between the knowledge that the wisest and that which the most ignorant individual can deliberately employ is comparatively insignificant.

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.

Because we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a read more

Because we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a model for trying to understand it. In my childhood we were always assured that the brain was a telephone switchboard. ('What else could it be?') I was amused to see that Sherrington, the great British neuroscientist, thought that the brain worked like a telegraph system. Freud often compared the brain to hydraulic and electro-magnetic systems. Leibniz compared it to a mill, and I am told some of the ancient Greeks thought the brain functions like a catapult. At present, obviously, the metaphor is the digital computer.

In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped read more

In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.

Anyone can escape into sleep, we are all geniuses when we dream, the butcher's the poet's equal there. - The read more

Anyone can escape into sleep, we are all geniuses when we dream, the butcher's the poet's equal there. - The Tempation to Exist.

...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.

The short-lived self, teetering on the edge of extinction, is the only thing that can ever really matter.

The short-lived self, teetering on the edge of extinction, is the only thing that can ever really matter.