Mediocrity would always win by force of numbers, but it would win only more mediocrity.

Mediocrity would always win by force of numbers, but it would win only more mediocrity.

You will not become a saint through other people's sins.

You will not become a saint through other people's sins.

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

This is the constitutional limitation of man's knowledge and interests, the fact that he cannot know more than a tiny read more

This is the constitutional limitation of man's knowledge and interests, the fact that he cannot know more than a tiny part of the whole of society and that therefore all that can enter into his motives are the immediate effects which his actions will have in the sphere he knows.

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds.

What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds.

The continuous disasters of man's history are mainly due to his excessive capacity and urge to become identified with a read more

The continuous disasters of man's history are mainly due to his excessive capacity and urge to become identified with a tribe, nation, church or cause, and to espouse its credo uncritically and enthusiastically, even if its tenets are contrary to reason, devoid of self-interest and detrimental to the claims of self-preservation.We are thus driven to the unfashionable conclusion that the trouble with our species is not an excess of aggression, but an excess capacity for fanatical devotion.

...originality consists of the achievement of new combinations, and not of the creation of something out of nothing.

...originality consists of the achievement of new combinations, and not of the creation of something out of nothing.

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.