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.
You May Also Like / View all maxioms
If you hate something thoroughly without knowing why, you can be sure there is something of it in your own read more
If you hate something thoroughly without knowing why, you can be sure there is something of it in your own nature.
The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When the creative flow dries up, read more
The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When the creative flow dries up, all we have left is our importance.
...definitions are temporary verbalizations of concepts, and concepts- particularly difficult concepts- are usually revised repeatedly as our knowledge and understanding read more
...definitions are temporary verbalizations of concepts, and concepts- particularly difficult concepts- are usually revised repeatedly as our knowledge and understanding grows.
We keep, in science, getting a more and more sophisticated view of our essential ignorance.
We keep, in science, getting a more and more sophisticated view of our essential ignorance.
Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of read more
Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of progress and improvement, but conservatories of tradition and unvarying modes of thought.
Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.
Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.
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 fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.
To be fully alive is to feel that everything is possible.
The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.
The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.
