The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that read more

The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering and humbling of the self breeds pride and arrogance.

A man without force, is without the essential dignity of humanity. Human nature is so constituted, that it cannot honor read more

A man without force, is without the essential dignity of humanity. Human nature is so constituted, that it cannot honor a helpless man, although it can pity him.

There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet.

There are no chaste minds. Minds copulate wherever they meet.

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials for knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials for knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

It is perhaps not entirely so, though it has often been said, that man makes his God in his own read more

It is perhaps not entirely so, though it has often been said, that man makes his God in his own image. Rather does he create Him in the image of his cravings and dreams- in the image of what man wants to be. God making could be part of the process by which a society realizes its aspirations: it first embodies them in the conception of a particular God, and then proceeds to imitate that God. The confidence requisite for attempting the unprecedented is most effectively generated by the fiction that in realizing the new we are imitating rather than originating. Our preoccupation with heaven can be part of an effort to find precedents for the unprecedented.

It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.

It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.

It is the worst of all superstitions to assume that the epistemological characteristics of one branch of knowledge must necessarily read more

It is the worst of all superstitions to assume that the epistemological characteristics of one branch of knowledge must necessarily be applicable to any other branch.

Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.

Being intelligent is not a felony. But most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor.

When we leave people on their own, we are delivering them into the hands of a ruthless taskmaster from whose read more

When we leave people on their own, we are delivering them into the hands of a ruthless taskmaster from whose bondage there is no escape. The individual who has to justify his existence by his own efforts is in eternal bondage to himself.