Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.

Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.

Quite often in history action has been the echo of words. An era of talk was followed by an era read more

Quite often in history action has been the echo of words. An era of talk was followed by an era of events. The new barbarism of the twentieth century is the echo of words bandied about by brilliant speakers and writers in the second half of the nineteenth.

"Mediocrity" doesn't mean average intelligence, it means an average intelligence that resents and envies its betters

"Mediocrity" doesn't mean average intelligence, it means an average intelligence that resents and envies its betters

There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.

There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.

Action based on reason, action therefore which is only to be understood by reason, knows only one end, the greatest read more

Action based on reason, action therefore which is only to be understood by reason, knows only one end, the greatest pleasure of the acting individual.

What information consumes is rather obvious: It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a read more

What information consumes is rather obvious: It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.

Indeed he knows not how to know who knows not also how to un-know.

Indeed he knows not how to know who knows not also how to un-know.

Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. The difference lies not in the respective natures of read more

Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. The difference lies not in the respective natures of savagery and civilization, but in their attendant circumstances, institutions, and so forth. The difference, therefore, does not operate in every sense, but it does in most of them. Even the most civilized peoples, in short, can be fired with passionate hatred for each other.

Again men have been kept back as by a kind of enchantment from progress in science by reverence for antiquity, read more

Again men have been kept back as by a kind of enchantment from progress in science by reverence for antiquity, by the authority of men counted great in philosophy, and then by general consent.