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.
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Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.
Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.
It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since read more
It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills, the survival of the species has depended on the ability to acquire and perfect skills. Hence the mastery of skills is a uniquely human activity and yields deep satisfaction.
If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.
If you want to test your memory, try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.
The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.
The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.
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.
To illustrate the difference between the innovator and the dull crowd of routinists who cannot even imagine that any improvement read more
To illustrate the difference between the innovator and the dull crowd of routinists who cannot even imagine that any improvement is possible, we need only refer to a passage in Engel's most famous book. Here, in 1878, Engels apodictically announced that military weapons are "now so perfected that no further progress of any revolutionizing influence is any longer possible." Henceforth "all further [technological] progress is by and large indifferent for land warfare. The age of evolution is in this regard essentially closed." This complacent conclusion shows in what the achievement of the innovator consists: he accomplishes what other people believe to be unthinkable and unfeasible.
The awareness of their individual blemishes and shortcomings inclines the frustrated to detect ill will and meanness in their fellow read more
The awareness of their individual blemishes and shortcomings inclines the frustrated to detect ill will and meanness in their fellow men. Self-contempt, however vague, sharpens our eyes for the imperfections of others. We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves.
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.
First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they'll eventually conquer you.
First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they'll eventually conquer you.
