Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.

Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.

Thus we find that people who fail in everyday affairs show a tendency to reach out for the impossible. They read more

Thus we find that people who fail in everyday affairs show a tendency to reach out for the impossible. They become responsive to grandiose schemes, and will display unequaled steadfastness, formidable energies and a special fitness in the performance of tasks which would stump superior people. It seems paradoxical that defeat in dealing with the possible should embolden people to attempt the impossible, but a familiarity with the mentality of the weak reveals that what seems a path of daring is actually an easy way out: It is to escape the responsibility for failure that the weak so eagerly throw themselves into grandiose undertakings. For when we fail in attaining the impossible we are justified in attributing it to the magnitude of the task.

To think is to differ.

To think is to differ.

Love and envy make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual.

Love and envy make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual.

Every step in human progress, from the first feeble stirrings in the abyss of time, has been opposed by the read more

Every step in human progress, from the first feeble stirrings in the abyss of time, has been opposed by the great majority of men. Every valuable thing that has been added to the store of man's possessions has been derided by them when it was new, and destroyed by them when they had the power. They have fought every new truth ever heard of, and they have killed every truth-seeker who got into their hands.

The primary sign of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his read more

The primary sign of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.

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.

Society cannot contribute anything to the breeding and growing of ingenious men. A creative genius cannot be trained. There are read more

Society cannot contribute anything to the breeding and growing of ingenious men. A creative genius cannot be trained. There are no schools for creativeness. A genius is precisely a man who defies all schools and rules, who deviates from the traditional roads of routine and opens up new paths through land inaccessible before. A genius is always a teacher, never a pupil; he is always self-made.

It needs some intelligence to be truly selfish. The unintelligent can only be self-righteous.

It needs some intelligence to be truly selfish. The unintelligent can only be self-righteous.