Reason's biological function is to preserve and promote life and to postpone its extinction as long as possible. Thinking and acting are not contrary to nature; they are, rather, the foremost features of man's nature. The most appropriate description of man as differentiated from nonhuman beings is: a being purposively struggling against the forces adverse to his life.
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Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.
Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of read more
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.
In matters of intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard for any other consideration.
In matters of intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard for any other consideration.
Human reason can neither predict nor deliberately shape its own future. Its advances consist in finding out where it has read more
Human reason can neither predict nor deliberately shape its own future. Its advances consist in finding out where it has been wrong.
Animals can learn, but it is not by learning that they become dogs, cats, or horses. Only man has to read more
Animals can learn, but it is not by learning that they become dogs, cats, or horses. Only man has to learn to become what he is supposed to be.
Innovators and creators are persons who can to a higher degree than average accept the condition of aloneness. They are read more
Innovators and creators are persons who can to a higher degree than average accept the condition of aloneness. They are more willing to follow their own vision, even when it takes them far from the mainland of the human community. Unexplored places do not frighten them- or not, at any rate, as much as they frighten those around them. This is one of the secrets of their power. That which we call "genius" has a great deal to do with courage and daring, a great deal to do with nerve.
The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to read more
The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off the unwanted self and begin a new life. They try to realize this desire either by finding a new identity or by blurring and camouflaging their individual distinctness; and both these ends are reached by imitation.
Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.
Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.
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.
