Nature attains perfection, but man never does. There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished. He is both an unfinished animal and an unfinished man. It is this incurable unfinishedness which sets man apart from other living things. For, in the attempt to finish himself, man becomes a creator. Moreover, the incurable unfinishedness keeps man perpetually immature, perpetually capable of learning and growing.
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It is a juvenile notion that a society needs a lofty purpose and a shining vision to achieve much. Both read more
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.
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.
To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.
To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.
The Americans are poor haters in international affairs because of their innate feeling of superiority over all foreigners. An American's read more
The Americans are poor haters in international affairs because of their innate feeling of superiority over all foreigners. An American's hatred for a fellow American...is far more virulent than any antipathy he can work up against foreigners...Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life.
The stricter standards and independent, often conclusive, evidence in the physical sciences cannot be generalized to intellectual activity as a read more
The stricter standards and independent, often conclusive, evidence in the physical sciences cannot be generalized to intellectual activity as a whole, even though the aura of scientific processes and results is often appropriated by other intellectuals.
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.
In every passionate pursuit, the pursuit counts more than the object pursued.
In every passionate pursuit, the pursuit counts more than the object pursued.
Knowledge can be enormously costly, and is often scattered in widely uneven fragments, too small to be individually usable in read more
Knowledge can be enormously costly, and is often scattered in widely uneven fragments, too small to be individually usable in decision making. The communication and coordination of these scattered fragments of knowledge is one of the basic problems- perhaps the basic problem- of any society.
The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.
The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.
