We must think of human progress, not as of something going on in the race in general, but as something going on in a small minority, perpetually beleaguered in a few walled towns. Now and then the horde of barbarians outside breaks through, and we have an armed effort to halt the process. That is, we have a Reformation, a French Revolution, a war for democracy, a Great Awakening. The minority is decimated and driven to cover. But a few survive- and a few are enough to carry on.
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A man that would expect to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic; but a man read more
A man that would expect to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic; but a man that thinks men can be turned into angels by an election is a reformer and remains at large.
Curiosity killed the cat, but for awhile I was a suspect.
Curiosity killed the cat, but for awhile I was a suspect.
Man is the animal that intends to shoot himself out into interplanetary space, after having given up on the problem read more
Man is the animal that intends to shoot himself out into interplanetary space, after having given up on the problem of an efficient way to get himself five miles to work and back each day.
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.
There are plenty of people to whom the crucial problem of their lives never get presented in terms that they read more
There are plenty of people to whom the crucial problem of their lives never get presented in terms that they can understand.
There is in the universe something for the description and analysis of which the natural sciences cannot contribute anything. There read more
There is in the universe something for the description and analysis of which the natural sciences cannot contribute anything. There are events beyond the range of those events that the procedures of the natural sciences are fit to observe and describe. There is human action.
The Darwinian theory is in principle capable of explaining life. No other theory that has ever been suggested is in read more
The Darwinian theory is in principle capable of explaining life. No other theory that has ever been suggested is in principle capable of explaining life.
The nature of a society is largely determined by the direction in which talent and ambition flow--by the tilt of read more
The nature of a society is largely determined by the direction in which talent and ambition flow--by the tilt of the social landscape.
The 'missing link' between ape and man will probably never be found- because it was an embryo.
The 'missing link' between ape and man will probably never be found- because it was an embryo.
