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    There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing a book, painting a picture, and so on, we have an alibi for not writing the greatest book and not painting the greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the attainment of a most marked achievement.

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  6  /  9  

Considering the enormous range of human knowledge, from intimate personal knowledge of specific individuals to the complexities of organizations and read more

Considering the enormous range of human knowledge, from intimate personal knowledge of specific individuals to the complexities of organizations and the subtleties of feelings, it is remarkable that one speck in this firmament should be the sole determinant of whether someone is considered knowledgeable or ignorant in general. Yet it is a fact of life that an unlettered person is considered ignorant, however much he may know about nature and man, and a Ph.D. is never considered ignorant, however barren his mind might be outside his narrow specialty and however little he grasps about human feeling or social complexities.

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  6  /  12  

The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and read more

The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way, and must compensate for what they miss by realizing and cultivating their capacities and talents.

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If you're naturally kind you attract a lot of people you don't like.

If you're naturally kind you attract a lot of people you don't like.

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  14  /  24  

Conscious and unconscious experiences do not belong to different compartments of the mind; they form a continuous scale of gradations, read more

Conscious and unconscious experiences do not belong to different compartments of the mind; they form a continuous scale of gradations, of degrees of awareness.

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He who can take no interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great.

He who can take no interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great.

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  16  /  24  

If you hate something thoroughly without knowing why, you can be sure there is something of it in your own read more

If you hate something thoroughly without knowing why, you can be sure there is something of it in your own nature.

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To believe that if we could but have this or that we would be happy is to suppress the realization read more

To believe that if we could but have this or that we would be happy is to suppress the realization that the cause of our unhappiness is in our inadequate and blemished selves. Excessive desire is thus a means of suppressing our sense of worthlessness.

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Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it's more sanitary.

Sex should be friendly. Otherwise stick to mechanical toys; it's more sanitary.

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  7  /  10  

The most effective way to silence our guilty conscience is to convince ourselves and others that those we have sinned read more

The most effective way to silence our guilty conscience is to convince ourselves and others that those we have sinned against are indeed depraved creatures, deserving every punishment, even extermination. We cannot pity those we have wronged, nor can we be indifferent toward them. We must hate and persecute them or else leave the door open to self-contempt.

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