A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.This minding of other people's business expresses itself in gossip, snooping and meddling, and also in feverish interest in communal, national and racial affairs. In running away from ourselves we either fall on our neighbor's shoulder or fly at his throat.
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Society is a madhouse whose wardens are the officials and the police.
Society is a madhouse whose wardens are the officials and the police.
A system in which the two great commandments were, to hate your
neighbour and to love your neighbour's wife.
A system in which the two great commandments were, to hate your
neighbour and to love your neighbour's wife.
Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns.
Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns.
I live in the crowds of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as
to shun myself.
I live in the crowds of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as
to shun myself.
What one generation sees as a luxury, the next sees as a necessity.
What one generation sees as a luxury, the next sees as a necessity.
Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience.
Glory is largely a theatrical concept. There is no striving for glory without a vivid awareness of an audience.
The theory of evolution must be considered as a scientific theory, as theory, that is, proposed to explain or systemize read more
The theory of evolution must be considered as a scientific theory, as theory, that is, proposed to explain or systemize a set of facts, and that no one has any claim to be considered as a serious rival to Darwin in the "discovery" of this theory who did not conduct his evolutionary studies upon a reasonably wide basis of facts. To have ideas, apercus, is not enough, and it is the overevalutation of such clever but uncontrolled guesses which is apt to produce the ludicrous fallacy of combination, in which fragments of the final theory are collected from widely scattered sources and are combined in such a way as to impugn the originality of him who was the first to see how such a synthesis was possible.
We know that words cannot move mountains, but they can move the multitude; and men are more ready to fight read more
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.
The fanatic is not really a stickler to principle. He embraces a cause not primarily because of its justness or read more
The fanatic is not really a stickler to principle. He embraces a cause not primarily because of its justness or holiness but because of his desperate need for something to hold onto.
