The rout is Folly's circle, which she draws
With magic wand. So potent is the spell,
That read more

The rout is Folly's circle, which she draws
With magic wand. So potent is the spell,
That none decoy'd into that fatal ring,
Unless by Heaven's peculiar grace, escape.
There we grow early gray, but never wise.

American society will never completely understand the true meaning of equality.

American society will never completely understand the true meaning of equality.

He who allows oppression shares the crime.

He who allows oppression shares the crime.

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.

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 is a fundamental difference between the appeal of a mass movement and the appeal of a practical organization. The read more

There is a fundamental difference between the appeal of a mass movement and the appeal of a practical organization. The practical organization offers opportunities for self-advancement, and its appeal is mainly to self-interest. On the other hand, a mass movement, particularly in its active, revivalist phase, appeals not to those intent on bolstering and advancing a cherished self, but to those who crave to be rid of an unwanted self. A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation.

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.

The Don Quixote of one generation may live to hear himself called
the savior of society by the next.

The Don Quixote of one generation may live to hear himself called
the savior of society by the next.

The nineteenth century planted the words which the twentieth century ripened into the atrocities of Stalin and Hitler. There is read more

The nineteenth century planted the words which the twentieth century ripened into the atrocities of Stalin and Hitler. There is hardly an atrocity committed in the twentieth century that was not foreshadowed or even advocated by some noble man of words in the nineteenth.