Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.

Humiliating to human pride as it may be, we must recognize that the advance and even the preservation of civilization read more

Humiliating to human pride as it may be, we must recognize that the advance and even the preservation of civilization are dependent upon a maximum of opportunity for accidents to happen.

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

The best way I know to win an argument is to start by being in the right.

The best way I know to win an argument is to start by being in the right.

You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it.

You can't make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire. All you're doing is recording it.

It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone- that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows read more

It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone- that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous...The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge.

While modern technology has given people powerful new communication tools, it apparently can do nothing to alter the fact that read more

While modern technology has given people powerful new communication tools, it apparently can do nothing to alter the fact that many people have nothing useful to say.

A society that refuses to strive for superfluities is likely to end up lacking in necessities.

A society that refuses to strive for superfluities is likely to end up lacking in necessities.

Scientific progress consists in the development of new concepts.

Scientific progress consists in the development of new concepts.