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.
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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.
Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.
Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.
Today the world changes so quickly that in growing up we take leave not just of youth but of the read more
Today the world changes so quickly that in growing up we take leave not just of youth but of the world we were young in.
Society is like air; very high up, it is sublimated--too low down, a perfect choke-damp.
Society is like air; very high up, it is sublimated--too low down, a perfect choke-damp.
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.
Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.
Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.
Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling read more
Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling to what they have in beliefs, ideas and possessions. The sterile radical, too, is basically conservative. He is afraid to let go of the ideas and beliefs he picked up in his youth lest his life be seen as empty and wasted.
The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it read more
The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It penetrates into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the minds of its recipients.
Mathematics is as little a science as grammar is a language.
Mathematics is as little a science as grammar is a language.
