Society cannot contribute anything to the breeding and growing of ingenious men. A creative genius cannot be trained. There are no schools for creativeness. A genius is precisely a man who defies all schools and rules, who deviates from the traditional roads of routine and opens up new paths through land inaccessible before. A genius is always a teacher, never a pupil; he is always self-made.
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The honest man must be a perpetual renegade, the life of an honest man a perpetual infidelity. For the man read more
The honest man must be a perpetual renegade, the life of an honest man a perpetual infidelity. For the man who wishes to remain faithful to truth must make himself perpetually unfaithful to all the continual, successive, indefatigable renascent errors.
Opposition to the truth is inevitable, especially if it takes the form of a new idea, but the degree of read more
Opposition to the truth is inevitable, especially if it takes the form of a new idea, but the degree of resistance can be diminished- by giving thought not only to the aim but to the method of approach. Avoid a frontal attack on a long established position; instead, seek to turn it by flank movement, so that a more penetrable side is exposed to the thrust of truth. But, in any such indirect approach, take care not to diverge from the truth- for nothing is more fatal to its real advancement than to lapse into untruth.
To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.
To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
The revolutions of thought which shape the basic outlook of an age are not disseminated through text-books- they spread like read more
The revolutions of thought which shape the basic outlook of an age are not disseminated through text-books- they spread like epidemics, through contamination by invisible agents and innocent germ carriers, by the most varied forms of contact, or simply by breathing the common air.
Ideals are very often formed in the effort to escape from the hard task of dealing with facts, which is read more
Ideals are very often formed in the effort to escape from the hard task of dealing with facts, which is the function of science and art. There is no process by which to reach an ideal. There are no tests by which to verify it. It is therefore impossible to frame a proposition about an ideal which can be proved or disproved. It follows that the use of ideals is to be strictly limited to proper cases, and that the attempt to use ideals in social discussion does not deserve serious consideration.
Commitment becomes hysterical when those who have nothing to give advocate generosity, and those who have nothing to give up read more
Commitment becomes hysterical when those who have nothing to give advocate generosity, and those who have nothing to give up preach renunciation.
Irony is the hygiene of the mind.
Irony is the hygiene of the mind.
Every fairly intelligent person is aware that the price of respectability is a muffled soul bent on the trivial and read more
Every fairly intelligent person is aware that the price of respectability is a muffled soul bent on the trivial and the mediocre.
