Men never do evil so fully and so happily as when they do it for conscience's sake.

Men never do evil so fully and so happily as when they do it for conscience's sake.

There is no great concurrence between learning and wisdom.

There is no great concurrence between learning and wisdom.

...the conviction persists - though history has shown it to be a hallucination - that all the questions that the read more

...the conviction persists - though history has shown it to be a hallucination - that all the questions that the human mind has asked are questions that can be answered in terms of the alternatives that the questions themselves present. But in fact intellectual progress usually occurs through sheer abandonment of questions together with both of the alternatives they assume - an abandonment that results from their decreasing vitality and change of urgent interest. We do not solve them: we get over them. Old questions are solved by disappearing, evaporating, while new questions corresponding to the changed attitude of endeavor and preference take their place.

Anybody who is 25 or 30 years old has physical scars from all sorts of things, from tuberculosis to polio. read more

Anybody who is 25 or 30 years old has physical scars from all sorts of things, from tuberculosis to polio. It's the same with the mind.

Love and envy make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual.

Love and envy make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual.

Persons of high self-esteem are not driven to make themselves superior to others; they do not seek to prove their read more

Persons of high self-esteem are not driven to make themselves superior to others; they do not seek to prove their value by measuring themselves against a comparative standard. Their joy is being who they are, not in being better than someone else.

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.

When you want to organize knowledge. you will be careful to base the classification upon essential qualities. You will thus read more

When you want to organize knowledge. you will be careful to base the classification upon essential qualities. You will thus derive classes in which the members have the greatest amount of resemblance to one another and the greatest amount of difference from the members of other classes. But suppose that, instead of organizing knowledge, you set out to organize ignorance and prejudice. You will then do precisely the opposite...You will keep the classification vague and flexible, so that it can be made to include just whatever individuals you choose.

What are we when we are alone? Some, when they are alone, cease to exist.

What are we when we are alone? Some, when they are alone, cease to exist.