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.

When you say that you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention read more

When you say that you agree to a thing in principle you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.

It is the fate of every great achievement to be pounced upon by pedants and imitators who drain it of read more

It is the fate of every great achievement to be pounced upon by pedants and imitators who drain it of life and turn it into an orthodoxy which stifles all stirrings of originality.

The unphilosophical majority among men are the ones most helplessly dependent on their era's dominant ideas. In times of crises read more

The unphilosophical majority among men are the ones most helplessly dependent on their era's dominant ideas. In times of crises these men need the guidance of some kind of theory; but, being unfamiliar with the field of ideas, they do not know that alternatives to the popular theories are possible. They know only what they have always been taught.

Our quarrel with the world is an echo of the endless quarrel proceeding within us.

Our quarrel with the world is an echo of the endless quarrel proceeding within us.

The power of habit and the charm of novelty are the two adverse forces which explain the follies of mankind.

The power of habit and the charm of novelty are the two adverse forces which explain the follies of mankind.

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.

Psychoanalysis is the mental illness it purports to cure.

Psychoanalysis is the mental illness it purports to cure.

A wonderful discovery--psychoanalysis. Makes quite simple people feel they're complex.

A wonderful discovery--psychoanalysis. Makes quite simple people feel they're complex.