There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle read more

There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing a book, painting a picture, and so on, we have an alibi for not writing the greatest book and not painting the greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the attainment of a most marked achievement.

Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.

Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.

The three-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics. Equipped with these three you can learn read more

The three-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics. Equipped with these three you can learn anything you want to learn. But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots.

Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.

Every intense desire is perhaps a desire to be different from what we are.

Every fairly intelligent person is aware that the price of respectability is a muffled soul bent on the trivial and read more

Every fairly intelligent person is aware that the price of respectability is a muffled soul bent on the trivial and the mediocre.

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.

Evil witnesses are eyes and ears of men, if they have souls that do not understand their language.

Evil witnesses are eyes and ears of men, if they have souls that do not understand their language.

No one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart.

No one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart.

Human reason can neither predict nor deliberately shape its own future. Its advances consist in finding out where it has read more

Human reason can neither predict nor deliberately shape its own future. Its advances consist in finding out where it has been wrong.