It is a juvenile notion that a society needs a lofty purpose and a shining vision to achieve much. Both in the marketplace and on the battlefield men who set their hearts on toys have often displayed unequal initiative and drive. And one must be ignorant of the creative process to look for a close correspondence between motive and achievement in the world of thought and imagination.
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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.
The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.
The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.
Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.
Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.
Habits are to the soul what the veins and arteries are to the blood, the courses in which it moves.
Habits are to the soul what the veins and arteries are to the blood, the courses in which it moves.
The inertia of the human mind and its resistance to innovation are most clearly demonstrated not, as one might expect, read more
The inertia of the human mind and its resistance to innovation are most clearly demonstrated not, as one might expect, by the ignorant mass- which is easily swayed once its imagination is caught- but by professionals with a vested interest in tradition and in the monopoly of learning. Innovation is a twofold threat to academic mediocrities: it endangers their oracular authority, and it evokes the deeper fear that their whole, laboriously constructed intellectual edifice might collapse. The academic backwoodsmen have been the curse of genius from Aristarchus to Darwin and Freud; they stretch, a solid and hostile phalanx of pedantic mediocrities, across the centuries.
A mind that is fast is sick. A mind that is slow is sound. A mind that is still is read more
A mind that is fast is sick. A mind that is slow is sound. A mind that is still is divine.
One might equate growing up with a mistrust of words. A mature person trusts his eyes more than his ears. read more
One might equate growing up with a mistrust of words. A mature person trusts his eyes more than his ears. Irrationality often manifests itself in upholding the word against the evidence of the eyes.Children, savages, and true believers remember far less what they have seen than what they have heard.
Evil witnesses are eyes and ears of men, if they have souls that do not understand their language.
Evil witnesses are eyes and ears of men, if they have souls that do not understand their language.
My enemy is not the man who wrongs me, but the man who means to wrong me.
My enemy is not the man who wrongs me, but the man who means to wrong me.
