The great questions are those an intelligent child asks and, getting no answers, stops asking.

The great questions are those an intelligent child asks and, getting no answers, stops asking.

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 main fuel to speed the world's progress is our stock of knowledge, and the brake is our lack of read more

The main fuel to speed the world's progress is our stock of knowledge, and the brake is our lack of imagination.

Men never do evil so fully and so happily as when they do it for conscience's sake.

Men never do evil so fully and so happily as when they do it for conscience's sake.

To illustrate the difference between the innovator and the dull crowd of routinists who cannot even imagine that any improvement read more

To illustrate the difference between the innovator and the dull crowd of routinists who cannot even imagine that any improvement is possible, we need only refer to a passage in Engel's most famous book. Here, in 1878, Engels apodictically announced that military weapons are "now so perfected that no further progress of any revolutionizing influence is any longer possible." Henceforth "all further [technological] progress is by and large indifferent for land warfare. The age of evolution is in this regard essentially closed." This complacent conclusion shows in what the achievement of the innovator consists: he accomplishes what other people believe to be unthinkable and unfeasible.

Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.

Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.

The highest stage in moral culture at which we can arrive is when we recognize that we ought to control read more

The highest stage in moral culture at which we can arrive is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

Such is human psychology that if we don't express our joy, we soon cease to feel it.

Such is human psychology that if we don't express our joy, we soon cease to feel it.