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.

Implicit in the activist conception of government is the assumption that you can take the good things in a complex read more

Implicit in the activist conception of government is the assumption that you can take the good things in a complex system for granted, and just improve the things that are not so good. What is lacking in this conception is any sense that a society, an institution, or even a single human being, is an intricate system of fragile inter-relationships, whose complexities are little understood and easily destabilized.

The psychologists and the metaphysicians wrangle endlessly over the nature of the thinking process in man, but no matter how read more

The psychologists and the metaphysicians wrangle endlessly over the nature of the thinking process in man, but no matter how violently they differ otherwise they all agree that it has little to do with logic and is not much conditioned by overt facts.

Social values in general are incrementally variable: neither safety, diversity, rational articulation, nor morality is categorically a "good thing" to read more

Social values in general are incrementally variable: neither safety, diversity, rational articulation, nor morality is categorically a "good thing" to have more of, without limits. All are subject to diminishing returns, and ultimately negative returns.

Propaganda...serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more read more

Propaganda...serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda.

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

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.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

It is important that man dreams, but it is perhaps equally important that he can laugh at his own dreams.

It is important that man dreams, but it is perhaps equally important that he can laugh at his own dreams.