We know that words cannot move mountains, but they can move the multitude; and men are more ready to fight and die for a word than for anything else. Words shape thought, stir feeling, and beget action; they kill and revive, corrupt and cure. The "men-of-words"- priests, prophets, intellectuals- have played a more decisive role in history than military leaders, statesmen, and businessmen.
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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.
Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.
Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.
Only great minds can afford a simple style.
Only great minds can afford a simple style.
Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the read more
Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the fanatic and the moderate who are poles apart and never meet.
There arises from a bad and inapt formation of words, a wonderful obstruction to the mind.
There arises from a bad and inapt formation of words, a wonderful obstruction to the mind.
Wherever we find orderly, stable systems in Nature, we find that they are hierarchically structured, for the simple reason that read more
Wherever we find orderly, stable systems in Nature, we find that they are hierarchically structured, for the simple reason that without such structuring of complex systems into sub-assemblies, there could be no order and stability- except the order of a dead universe filled with a uniformly distributed gas.
If you pray hard enough, water will run uphill. How hard? Why, hard enough to make water run uphill, of read more
If you pray hard enough, water will run uphill. How hard? Why, hard enough to make water run uphill, of course!
It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress. In read more
It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress. In the process by which opinion is formed, it is very probable that, by the time any view becomes a majority view, it is no longer the best view: somebody will already have advanced beyond the point which the majority have reached. It is because we do not yet which of the many competing new opinions will prove itself the best that we wait until it has gained sufficient support.
Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns.
Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns.
