A man that would expect to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic; but a man read more

A man that would expect to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic; but a man that thinks men can be turned into angels by an election is a reformer and remains at large.

All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not read more

All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them.

A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.

A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.

...everything is too important ever to be entrusted to professional experts, because every organization of such professionals and every established read more

...everything is too important ever to be entrusted to professional experts, because every organization of such professionals and every established social organization becomes a vested-interest institution more concerned with its efforts to maintain itself or advance its own interests than to achieve the purpose that society expects it to achieve.

The rout is Folly's circle, which she draws
With magic wand. So potent is the spell,
That read more

The rout is Folly's circle, which she draws
With magic wand. So potent is the spell,
That none decoy'd into that fatal ring,
Unless by Heaven's peculiar grace, escape.
There we grow early gray, but never wise.

The demands of unbounded individualism need to be weighed in the light of inherent social constraints which can only change read more

The demands of unbounded individualism need to be weighed in the light of inherent social constraints which can only change their form but cannot be eliminated without eliminating civilization.

Man is a luxury loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, read more

Man is a luxury loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, sluggish creature, barely energetic enough to obtain a bare subsistence. A society becomes stagnant when its people are too rational or too serious to be tempted by baubles.

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

Quite often the social doctors become part of the disease.

Quite often the social doctors become part of the disease.