The genuine creator creates something that has a life of its own, something that can exist and function without him. This is true not only of the writer, artist and scientist, but of creators in other fields...With the noncreative it is the other way around: in whatever they do, they arrange things so that they themselves become indispensable.
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The class of those who have the ability to think their own thoughts is separated by an unbridgeable gulf from read more
The class of those who have the ability to think their own thoughts is separated by an unbridgeable gulf from the class of those who cannot.
People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.
People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.
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.
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.
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.
The awareness of their individual blemishes and shortcomings inclines the frustrated to detect ill will and meanness in their fellow read more
The awareness of their individual blemishes and shortcomings inclines the frustrated to detect ill will and meanness in their fellow men. Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.
The unphilosophical majority among men are the ones most helplessly dependent on their era's dominant ideas. In times of crises read more
The unphilosophical majority among men are the ones most helplessly dependent on their era's dominant ideas. In times of crises these men need the guidance of some kind of theory; but, being unfamiliar with the field of ideas, they do not know that alternatives to the popular theories are possible. They know only what they have always been taught.
...the more original a discovery the more obvious it seems afterwards.
...the more original a discovery the more obvious it seems afterwards.
Every animal is sad after coitus except the human female and the rooster.
Every animal is sad after coitus except the human female and the rooster.
