Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. The difference lies not in the respective natures of savagery and civilization, but in their attendant circumstances, institutions, and so forth. The difference, therefore, does not operate in every sense, but it does in most of them. Even the most civilized peoples, in short, can be fired with passionate hatred for each other.
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Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power, and is often, in point of fact, useless.
Intelligence is not all that important in the exercise of power, and is often, in point of fact, useless.
Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character, and one of the best instruments of success. read more
Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character, and one of the best instruments of success. Without it genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies.
The more adaptability exists for a given kind of decision, the less risky it is to make plans for the read more
The more adaptability exists for a given kind of decision, the less risky it is to make plans for the future, and therefore the more likely it is that more people will make more plans in such areas.
Benevolence is a commitment to achieving the values derivable from life with other people in society, by treating them as read more
Benevolence is a commitment to achieving the values derivable from life with other people in society, by treating them as potential trading partners, recognizing their humanity, independence, and individuality, and the harmony between their interests and ours.
When I dream, I am ageless.
When I dream, I am ageless.
Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with a great many particulars.
Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with a great many particulars.
The history of science knows scores of instances where an investigator was in the possession of all the important facts read more
The history of science knows scores of instances where an investigator was in the possession of all the important facts for a new theory but simply failed to ask the right questions.
Quite often in history action has been the echo of words. An era of talk was followed by an era read more
Quite often in history action has been the echo of words. An era of talk was followed by an era of events. The new barbarism of the twentieth century is the echo of words bandied about by brilliant speakers and writers in the second half of the nineteenth.
Thus we find that people who fail in everyday affairs show a tendency to reach out for the impossible. They read more
Thus we find that people who fail in everyday affairs show a tendency to reach out for the impossible. They become responsive to grandiose schemes, and will display unequaled steadfastness, formidable energies and a special fitness in the performance of tasks which would stump superior people. It seems paradoxical that defeat in dealing with the possible should embolden people to attempt the impossible, but a familiarity with the mentality of the weak reveals that what seems a path of daring is actually an easy way out: It is to escape the responsibility for failure that the weak so eagerly throw themselves into grandiose undertakings. For when we fail in attaining the impossible we are justified in attributing it to the magnitude of the task.
