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.
You May Also Like / View all maxioms
The burning conviction that we have a holy duty towards others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves read more
The burning conviction that we have a holy duty towards others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a passing raft. What looks like a giving hand is often a holding on for dear life. Take away our holy duties and you leave our lives puny and meaningless. There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.
The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to read more
The chief burden of the frustrated is the consciousness of a blemished, ineffectual self, and their chief desire is to slough off the unwanted self and begin a new life. They try to realize this desire either by finding a new identity or by blurring and camouflaging their individual distinctness; and both these ends are reached by imitation.
The main fuel to speed the world's progress is our stock of knowledge, and the brake is our lack of read more
The main fuel to speed the world's progress is our stock of knowledge, and the brake is our lack of imagination.
The largely objective character of beauty is further indicated by the fact that to a considerable extent beauty is the read more
The largely objective character of beauty is further indicated by the fact that to a considerable extent beauty is the expression of health. A well and harmoniously developed body, tense muscles, an elastic and finely toned skin, bright eyes, grace and animation of carriage- all these things which are essential to beauty are the conditions of health.
Self-righteousness is a manifestation of self-contempt.
Self-righteousness is a manifestation of self-contempt.
Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.
Yield to temptation; it may not pass your way again.
Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of read more
Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.
Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is more important than the judgment we pass on ourselves.
Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is more important than the judgment we pass on ourselves.
Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, but the end of thought.
Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, but the end of thought.
