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.

Power concedes nothing without a demand.

Power concedes nothing without a demand.

The ideas which now pass for brilliant innovations and advances are in fact mere revivals of ancient errors, and a read more

The ideas which now pass for brilliant innovations and advances are in fact mere revivals of ancient errors, and a further proof of the dictum that those who are ignorant of the past are condemned to repeat it.

Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.

Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.

There is no other way to judge the work of a mind except through its words.

There is no other way to judge the work of a mind except through its words.

Truth...never comes into the world but like a Bastard, to the ignominy of him that brought her forth.

Truth...never comes into the world but like a Bastard, to the ignominy of him that brought her forth.

A large part of the popularity and persuasiveness of psychology comes from its being a sublimated spiritualism: a secular, ostensibly read more

A large part of the popularity and persuasiveness of psychology comes from its being a sublimated spiritualism: a secular, ostensibly scientific way of affirming the primacy of "spirit" over matter.

Civilization is an enormous device for economizing knowledge,.

Civilization is an enormous device for economizing knowledge,.

The class of those who have the ability to think their own thoughts is separated by an unbridgeable gulf from read more

The class of those who have the ability to think their own thoughts is separated by an unbridgeable gulf from the class of those who cannot.