...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.

You accept certain unlovely things about yourself and manage to live with them. The atonement for such an acceptance is read more

You accept certain unlovely things about yourself and manage to live with them. The atonement for such an acceptance is that you make allowances for others - that you cleanse yourself of the sin of self-righteousness.

Beauty is not diminished by being shared.

Beauty is not diminished by being shared.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Our knowledge and our ability to handle our problems progress through the open conflict of ideas, through the tests of read more

Our knowledge and our ability to handle our problems progress through the open conflict of ideas, through the tests of phenomenological adequacy, inner consistency, and practical-moral consequences. Reason may err, but it can be moral. If we must err, let it be on the side of our creativity, our freedom, our betterment.

Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.

Whatsoever is contrary to nature is contrary to reason, and whatsoever is contrary to reason is absurd.

A kiss to or from a woman we love is a far too delicate pledge of affection to bear the read more

A kiss to or from a woman we love is a far too delicate pledge of affection to bear the gaze of strangers.

The less satisfaction we derive from being ourselves, the greater is our desire to be like others.

The less satisfaction we derive from being ourselves, the greater is our desire to be like others.

Considering the enormous range of human knowledge, from intimate personal knowledge of specific individuals to the complexities of organizations and read more

Considering the enormous range of human knowledge, from intimate personal knowledge of specific individuals to the complexities of organizations and the subtleties of feelings, it is remarkable that one speck in this firmament should be the sole determinant of whether someone is considered knowledgeable or ignorant in general. Yet it is a fact of life that an unlettered person is considered ignorant, however much he may know about nature and man, and a Ph.D. is never considered ignorant, however barren his mind might be outside his narrow specialty and however little he grasps about human feeling or social complexities.