Without an element of the obscene there can be no true and deep aesthetic or moral conception of life...It is read more

Without an element of the obscene there can be no true and deep aesthetic or moral conception of life...It is only the great men who are truly obscene. If they had not dared to be obscene they could never have dared to be great.

Society is like a large piece of frozen water; and skating well
is the great art of social life.

Society is like a large piece of frozen water; and skating well
is the great art of social life.

Under normal conditions the research scientist is not an innovator but a solver of puzzles, and the puzzles upon which read more

Under normal conditions the research scientist is not an innovator but a solver of puzzles, and the puzzles upon which he concentrates are just those which he believes can be both stated and solved within the existing scientific tradition.

Morality, like other inputs into the social process, follows the law of diminishing returns- meaning ultimately, negative returns. People can read more

Morality, like other inputs into the social process, follows the law of diminishing returns- meaning ultimately, negative returns. People can be too moral.

We must beware of trying to build a society in which nobody counts for anything except a politician or an read more

We must beware of trying to build a society in which nobody counts for anything except a politician or an official, a society where enterprise gains no reward and thrift no privileges.

If anything were FULLY explained, everything would be explained.

If anything were FULLY explained, everything would be explained.

Rejoicing not in the many but in the probity of the few, we toil for truth alone.

Rejoicing not in the many but in the probity of the few, we toil for truth alone.

You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is read more

You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn.

It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men already have "something worth fighting for," they do not feel read more

It is a perplexing and unpleasant truth that when men already have "something worth fighting for," they do not feel like fighting.