The mind has exactly the same power as the hands; not merely to grasp the world, but to change it.

The mind has exactly the same power as the hands; not merely to grasp the world, but to change it.

the tragic or the humorous is a matter of perspective

the tragic or the humorous is a matter of perspective

You'll come to learn a great deal if you study the Insignificant in depth.

You'll come to learn a great deal if you study the Insignificant in depth.

Prepare yourself for the world, as the athletes used to do for their exercise; oil your mind and your manners, read more

Prepare yourself for the world, as the athletes used to do for their exercise; oil your mind and your manners, to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility; strength alone will not do.

The man who will follow precedent, but never create one, is merely an obvious example of the routineer. You find read more

The man who will follow precedent, but never create one, is merely an obvious example of the routineer. You find him desperately numerous in the civil service, in the official bureaus. To him government is something given as unconditionally, as absolutely as ocean or hill. He goes on winding the tape that he finds. His imagination has rarely extricated itself from under the administrative machine to gain any sense of what a human, temporary contraption the whole affair is. What he thinks is the heavens above him is nothing but the roof.

When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can read more

When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.

It takes a kind of shabby arrogance to survive in our time, and a fairly romantic nature to want to.

It takes a kind of shabby arrogance to survive in our time, and a fairly romantic nature to want to.

There is nothing more wonderful than freedom of speech.

There is nothing more wonderful than freedom of speech.

If intellection and knowledge were mere passion from without, or the bare reception of extraneous and adventitious forms, then no read more

If intellection and knowledge were mere passion from without, or the bare reception of extraneous and adventitious forms, then no reason could be given at all why a mirror or looking-glass should not understand; whereas it cannot so much as sensibly perceive those images which it receives and reflects to us.