The true function of art is to...edit nature and so make it coherent and lovely. The artist is a sort read more

The true function of art is to...edit nature and so make it coherent and lovely. The artist is a sort of impassioned proofreader, blue-penciling the bad spelling of God.

The Americans are poor haters in international affairs because of their innate feeling of superiority over all foreigners. An American's read more

The Americans are poor haters in international affairs because of their innate feeling of superiority over all foreigners. An American's hatred for a fellow American...is far more virulent than any antipathy he can work up against foreigners...Should Americans begin to hate foreigners wholeheartedly, it will be an indication that they have lost confidence in their own way of life.

To be truly selfish one needs a degree of self-esteem. The self-despisers are less intent on their own increase than read more

To be truly selfish one needs a degree of self-esteem. The self-despisers are less intent on their own increase than on the diminution of others. Where self-esteem is unattainable, envy takes the place of greed.

Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. One read more

Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know. One often obtains a clue to a person's nature by discovering the reasons for his or her imperviousness to certain impressions.

My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.

My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.

There is an accumulative cruelty in a number of men, though none in particular are ill-natured.

There is an accumulative cruelty in a number of men, though none in particular are ill-natured.

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.

...the conviction persists - though history has shown it to be a hallucination - that all the questions that the read more

...the conviction persists - though history has shown it to be a hallucination - that all the questions that the human mind has asked are questions that can be answered in terms of the alternatives that the questions themselves present. But in fact intellectual progress usually occurs through sheer abandonment of questions together with both of the alternatives they assume - an abandonment that results from their decreasing vitality and change of urgent interest. We do not solve them: we get over them. Old questions are solved by disappearing, evaporating, while new questions corresponding to the changed attitude of endeavor and preference take their place.

There is only one step from fanaticism to barbarism.

There is only one step from fanaticism to barbarism.