However human, envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is probably one of the essential conditions for the preservation of such a society that we do not countenance envy, not sanction its demands by camouflaging it as social justice, but treat it, in the words of John Stuart Mill, as "the most anti-social and evil of all passions.
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Knowledge can be enormously costly, and is often scattered in widely uneven fragments, too small to be individually usable in read more
Knowledge can be enormously costly, and is often scattered in widely uneven fragments, too small to be individually usable in decision making. The communication and coordination of these scattered fragments of knowledge is one of the basic problems- perhaps the basic problem- of any society.
Most people would find it bizarre to speak of tolerating blonds. For whatever reason, hair color has not been a read more
Most people would find it bizarre to speak of tolerating blonds. For whatever reason, hair color has not been a basis of tribal identity or group politics in our culture; the concept of tolerance is never invoked in this context because there is too obviously nothing to tolerate. In a rational culture, the same would be true of race, ethnicity, and the like.
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.
An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn't take his education too seriously.
An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn't take his education too seriously.
It is the fate of every great achievement to be pounced upon by pedants and imitators who drain it of read more
It is the fate of every great achievement to be pounced upon by pedants and imitators who drain it of life and turn it into an orthodoxy which stifles all stirrings of originality.
The easier it is to do, the harder it is to change.
The easier it is to do, the harder it is to change.
The most basic question is not what is best but who shall decide what is best.
The most basic question is not what is best but who shall decide what is best.
To be aware how fruitful the playful mood can be is to be immune to the propaganda of the alienated, read more
To be aware how fruitful the playful mood can be is to be immune to the propaganda of the alienated, which extols resentment as a fuel of achievement.
