Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation read more

Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation is in the self, or rather the rejection of the self. Dedication is the obverse side of self-rejection. Man alone is a religious animal because, as Montaigne points out, "it is a malady confined to man, and not seen in any other creature, to hate and despise ourselves.".

In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves:
the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of read more

In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves:
the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.

Scientists tell us that the fastest animal on earth, with a top speed of 120 ft/sec, is a cow that read more

Scientists tell us that the fastest animal on earth, with a top speed of 120 ft/sec, is a cow that has been dropped out of a helicopter.

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough read more

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher. - Life and Letters of Thomas Huxley.

All of us necessarily hold many casual opinions that are ludicrously wrong simply because life is far too short for read more

All of us necessarily hold many casual opinions that are ludicrously wrong simply because life is far too short for us to think through even a small fraction of the topics that we come across.

The affairs of life embrace a multitude of interests, and he who reasons in any one of them, without consulting read more

The affairs of life embrace a multitude of interests, and he who reasons in any one of them, without consulting the rest, is a visionary unsuited to control the business of the world.

But the development of human society does not go straight forward; and the epic process will therefore be a recurring read more

But the development of human society does not go straight forward; and the epic process will therefore be a recurring process, the series a recurring series - though not in exact repetition .

Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns.

Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns.

The more backwoodish a social group, juvenile or adult, the stricter its conception of the normal, and the readier it read more

The more backwoodish a social group, juvenile or adult, the stricter its conception of the normal, and the readier it will ridicule any departure from it.