Insanity -- a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.

Insanity -- a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.

Great innovators and original thinkers and artists attract the wrath of mediocrities as lightning rods draw the flashes.

Great innovators and original thinkers and artists attract the wrath of mediocrities as lightning rods draw the flashes.

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.

Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.

Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.

In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes- courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, and so on- read more

In the alchemy of man's soul almost all noble attributes- courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty, and so on- can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us. Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion, even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.

The first step in freeing yourself from social restrictions is the realization that there is no such thing as a read more

The first step in freeing yourself from social restrictions is the realization that there is no such thing as a "safe" code of conduct - one that would earn everyone's approval. Your actions can always be condemned by someone - for being too bold or too apathetic, for being too conformist or too nonconformist, for being too liberal or too conservative. So it's necessary to decide whose approval is important to you.

Ideals are very often formed in the effort to escape from the hard task of dealing with facts, which is read more

Ideals are very often formed in the effort to escape from the hard task of dealing with facts, which is the function of science and art. There is no process by which to reach an ideal. There are no tests by which to verify it. It is therefore impossible to frame a proposition about an ideal which can be proved or disproved. It follows that the use of ideals is to be strictly limited to proper cases, and that the attempt to use ideals in social discussion does not deserve serious consideration.

Innovators and creators are persons who can to a higher degree than average accept the condition of aloneness. They are read more

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.

In that the wisdom of the few becomes available to the many, there is progress in human affairs; without it, read more

In that the wisdom of the few becomes available to the many, there is progress in human affairs; without it, the static routine of tradition continues.