Implicit in the activist conception of government is the assumption that you can take the good things in a complex read more

Implicit in the activist conception of government is the assumption that you can take the good things in a complex system for granted, and just improve the things that are not so good. What is lacking in this conception is any sense that a society, an institution, or even a single human being, is an intricate system of fragile inter-relationships, whose complexities are little understood and easily destabilized.

If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.

If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.

The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.

The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.

The damning tho't stuck in my throat and cut me like a knife,
That she, whom all my life read more

The damning tho't stuck in my throat and cut me like a knife,
That she, whom all my life I'd loved, should be another's wife.

One might equate growing up with a mistrust of words. A mature person trusts his eyes more than his ears. read more

One might equate growing up with a mistrust of words. A mature person trusts his eyes more than his ears. Irrationality often manifests itself in upholding the word against the evidence of the eyes.Children, savages, and true believers remember far less what they have seen than what they have heard.

Opposition to the truth is inevitable, especially if it takes the form of a new idea, but the degree of read more

Opposition to the truth is inevitable, especially if it takes the form of a new idea, but the degree of resistance can be diminished- by giving thought not only to the aim but to the method of approach. Avoid a frontal attack on a long established position; instead, seek to turn it by flank movement, so that a more penetrable side is exposed to the thrust of truth. But, in any such indirect approach, take care not to diverge from the truth- for nothing is more fatal to its real advancement than to lapse into untruth.

...the more original a discovery the more obvious it seems afterwards.

...the more original a discovery the more obvious it seems afterwards.

The natural inclination of a child is to take pleasure in the use of the mind no less than of read more

The natural inclination of a child is to take pleasure in the use of the mind no less than of the body. The child's primary business is learning. It is also the primary entertainment. To retain that orientation into adulthood, so that consciousness is not a burden but a joy, is the mark of the successfully developed human being.

That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.