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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All weakness tends to corrupt, and impotence corrupts absolutely.
All weakness tends to corrupt, and impotence corrupts absolutely.
Only a mediocre person is always at his best.
Only a mediocre person is always at his best.
The more adaptability exists for a given kind of decision, the less risky it is to make plans for the read more
The more adaptability exists for a given kind of decision, the less risky it is to make plans for the future, and therefore the more likely it is that more people will make more plans in such areas.
The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more read more
The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than a deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without.
Most people would find it bizarre to speak of tolerating blonds. For whatever reason, hair color has not been a read more
Most people would find it bizarre to speak of tolerating blonds. For whatever reason, hair color has not been a basis of tribal identity or group politics in our culture; the concept of tolerance is never invoked in this context because there is too obviously nothing to tolerate. In a rational culture, the same would be true of race, ethnicity, and the like.
However human, envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is read more
However human, envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is probably one of the essential conditions for the preservation of such a society that we do not countenance envy, not sanction its demands by camouflaging it as social justice, but treat it, in the words of John Stuart Mill, as "the most anti-social and evil of all passions.
To the fool, he who speaks wisdom will sound foolish.
To the fool, he who speaks wisdom will sound foolish.
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.
Human reason can neither predict nor deliberately shape its own future. Its advances consist in finding out where it has read more
Human reason can neither predict nor deliberately shape its own future. Its advances consist in finding out where it has been wrong.
