It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from their sense of inadequacy and impotence. We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression.
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No child is born with a really cold heart, and it is only in proportion as we lose that youthful read more
No child is born with a really cold heart, and it is only in proportion as we lose that youthful heart that we lose the inner warmth in ourselves.
Considering the enormous range of human knowledge, from intimate personal knowledge of specific individuals to the complexities of organizations and read more
Considering the enormous range of human knowledge, from intimate personal knowledge of specific individuals to the complexities of organizations and the subtleties of feelings, it is remarkable that one speck in this firmament should be the sole determinant of whether someone is considered knowledgeable or ignorant in general. Yet it is a fact of life that an unlettered person is considered ignorant, however much he may know about nature and man, and a Ph.D. is never considered ignorant, however barren his mind might be outside his narrow specialty and however little he grasps about human feeling or social complexities.
Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of read more
Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of progress and improvement, but conservatories of tradition and unvarying modes of thought.
Insanity -- a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.
Insanity -- a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world.
Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.
Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.
The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.
The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.
The greatest people will be those who possess the best capacities, cultivated with the best habits.
The greatest people will be those who possess the best capacities, cultivated with the best habits.
It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
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.
