And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are read more

And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps.

To our real, naked selves there is not a thing on earth or in heaven worth dying for. It is read more

To our real, naked selves there is not a thing on earth or in heaven worth dying for. It is only when we see ourselves as actors in a staged (and therefore unreal) performance that death loses its frightfulness and finality and becomes an act of make-believe and a theatrical gesture. It is one of the main tasks of a real leader to mask the grim reality of dying and killing by evoking in his followers the illusion that they are participating in a grandiose spectacle, a solemn or lighthearted dramatic performance.

However different the holy causes people die for, they perhaps die basically for the same thing.

However different the holy causes people die for, they perhaps die basically for the same thing.

Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling read more

Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling to what they have in beliefs, ideas and possessions. The sterile radical, too, is basically conservative. He is afraid to let go of the ideas and beliefs he picked up in his youth lest his life be seen as empty and wasted.

I think I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.

I think I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.

Historical knowledge is indispensable for those who want to build a better world.

Historical knowledge is indispensable for those who want to build a better world.

The methods of the natural sciences cannot be applied to human behavior because this behavior...lacks the peculiarity that characterizes events read more

The methods of the natural sciences cannot be applied to human behavior because this behavior...lacks the peculiarity that characterizes events in the field of the natural sciences, viz., regularity.

He might have proved a useful adjunct, if not an ornament to
society.

He might have proved a useful adjunct, if not an ornament to
society.

I find it valid to understand man as an animal before I am prepared to know him as a man.

I find it valid to understand man as an animal before I am prepared to know him as a man.