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.

Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate ting, read more

Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate ting, like pain or a particular smell. - Tremendous Trifles.

Humor is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: an awareness that some things are really important, others not; and that read more

Humor is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: an awareness that some things are really important, others not; and that the two kinds are most oddly jumbled in everyday affairs.

I like nonsense -- it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way read more

I like nonsense -- it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope...and that enables you to laugh at all of life's realities.

Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding on to.

Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding on to.

A pleasant illusion is better than a harsh reality.

A pleasant illusion is better than a harsh reality.

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.

Take a look at your natural river. What are you? Stop playing games with yourself. Where's your river going? Are read more

Take a look at your natural river. What are you? Stop playing games with yourself. Where's your river going? Are you riding with it? Or are you rowing against it? Don't you see that there is no effort if you're riding with your river?

It is not good to have an oar in everyone's boat.

It is not good to have an oar in everyone's boat.