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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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.
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.
The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with read more
The capacity for getting along with our neighbor depends to a large extent on the capacity for getting along with ourselves. The self-respecting individual will try to be as tolerant of his neighbor's shortcomings as he is of his own.
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.
When you want to organize knowledge. you will be careful to base the classification upon essential qualities. You will thus read more
When you want to organize knowledge. you will be careful to base the classification upon essential qualities. You will thus derive classes in which the members have the greatest amount of resemblance to one another and the greatest amount of difference from the members of other classes. But suppose that, instead of organizing knowledge, you set out to organize ignorance and prejudice. You will then do precisely the opposite...You will keep the classification vague and flexible, so that it can be made to include just whatever individuals you choose.
Since the social victim has been oppressed by society, he comes to feel that his individual life will be improved read more
Since the social victim has been oppressed by society, he comes to feel that his individual life will be improved more by changes in society than by his own initiative. Without realizing it, he makes society rather than himself the agent of change. The power he finds in his victimization may lead him to collective action against society, but it also encourages passivity within the sphere of his personal life.
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while read more
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
If you cannot be the master of your language, you must be its slave. If you cannot examine your thoughts, read more
If you cannot be the master of your language, you must be its slave. If you cannot examine your thoughts, you have no choice but to think them, however silly they may be.
Any man who inflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.
Any man who inflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.
