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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...aesthetic values are changed under the influence of sexual emotion; from the lover's point of view many things are beautiful read more
...aesthetic values are changed under the influence of sexual emotion; from the lover's point of view many things are beautiful which are unbeautiful from the point of view of him who is not a lover, and the greater the degree to which the lover is swayed by his passion the greater the extent to which his normal aesthetic standard is liable to be modified.
Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with a great many particulars.
Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with a great many particulars.
Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare.
Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare.
The primary sign of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his read more
The primary sign of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.
Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world.
Only the individual who has come to terms with his self can have a dispassionate attitude toward the world.
Thought control, like birth control, is best undertaken as long as possible before the fact. Many grown-ups will obstinately persist, read more
Thought control, like birth control, is best undertaken as long as possible before the fact. Many grown-ups will obstinately persist, if only now and then, in composing small strings of sentences in their heads and achieving at least momentary logic. This probably cannot be prevented, but we have learned how to minimize the consequences by arranging that such grown-ups will be unable to pursue that logic very far. If they were at home in the technology of writing, there's no telling how much social disorder they would cause by thinking things out at length.Our schools have chosen to cut this danger off as close to the root as possible, thus taking measures to preclude not only the birth of thought but its conception. They give the pill to even the youngest children, but just to be on the safe side, they give it to everybody else, too, especially all would-be schoolteachers.
If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you'll read more
If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you'll abort it if you do. Be patient and you'll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait.
Our originality shows itself most strikingly not in what we wholly originate but in what we do with that which read more
Our originality shows itself most strikingly not in what we wholly originate but in what we do with that which we borrow from others.
We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.
We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.
