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.
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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.
When the Greeks said, "Whom the gods love die young," they probably meant, as Lord Sankey suggested, that those favored read more
When the Greeks said, "Whom the gods love die young," they probably meant, as Lord Sankey suggested, that those favored by the gods stay young till the day they die; young and playful.
It is highly significant, and indeed almost a rule, that moral courage has its source in identification through one's own read more
It is highly significant, and indeed almost a rule, that moral courage has its source in identification through one's own sensitivity with the suffering of one's fellow human beings.
The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be...The nation and the read more
The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be...The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
In that the wisdom of the few becomes available to the many, there is progress in human affairs; without it, read more
In that the wisdom of the few becomes available to the many, there is progress in human affairs; without it, the static routine of tradition continues.
Because they know not the forces of nature, and in order that they may have comrades in their ignorance, they read more
Because they know not the forces of nature, and in order that they may have comrades in their ignorance, they suffer not that others should search out anything, and would have us believe like rustics and ask no reason...But we ask in all things a reason must be sought.
Dreaming permits each and everyone of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.
Dreaming permits each and everyone of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.
The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its antihumanity.
The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its antihumanity.
We are unified both by hating in common and by being hated in common.
We are unified both by hating in common and by being hated in common.
