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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Dare to be wrong and to dream.
Dare to be wrong and to dream.
Idealism without realism is impotent. Realism without idealism is immoral.
Idealism without realism is impotent. Realism without idealism is immoral.
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.
It is by becoming increasingly complex that the self might be said to grow.
It is by becoming increasingly complex that the self might be said to grow.
The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.
The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.
All cruelty springs from weakness.
All cruelty springs from weakness.
Avoid making irrevocable decisions when tired or hungry.
Avoid making irrevocable decisions when tired or hungry.
Collective judgement of new ideas is so often wrong that it is arguable that progress depends on individuals being free read more
Collective judgement of new ideas is so often wrong that it is arguable that progress depends on individuals being free to back their own judgement despite collective disapproval.
Implicit in the activist conception of government is the assumption that you can take the good things in a complex read more
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.
