We shall assume that what each man does is based not on direct and certain knowledge, but by pictures made read more

We shall assume that what each man does is based not on direct and certain knowledge, but by pictures made by himself or given to him. If his atlas tells him the world is flat he will not sail near what he believes to be the edge of our planet for fear of falling off. If his maps include a fountain of eternal youth, a Ponce de Leon will go off in quest of it. If someone digs up yellow dirt that looks like gold, he will for a time act exactly as if he has found gold. The way in which the world is imagined determines at any particular moment what men will do. It does not determine what they will achieve. It determines their effort, their feelings, their hopes, not their accomplishments and results.

Since the social victim has been oppressed by society, he comes to feel that his individual life will be improved read more

Since the social victim has been oppressed by society, he comes to feel that his individual life will be improved more by changes in society than by his own initiative. Without realizing it, he makes society rather than himself the agent of change. The power he finds in his victimization may lead him to collective action against society, but it also encourages passivity within the sphere of his personal life.

Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.

Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.

All prayers and hopes are a reaching-out for coincidences.

All prayers and hopes are a reaching-out for coincidences.

It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.

It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.

Because they know not the forces of nature, and in order that they may have comrades in their ignorance, they read more

Because they know not the forces of nature, and in order that they may have comrades in their ignorance, they suffer not that others should search out anything, and would have us believe like rustics and ask no reason...But we ask in all things a reason must be sought.

Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.

Every extreme attitude is a flight from the self.

Psychoanalysis is the mental illness it purports to cure.

Psychoanalysis is the mental illness it purports to cure.

Evil witnesses are eyes and ears of men, if they have souls that do not understand their language.

Evil witnesses are eyes and ears of men, if they have souls that do not understand their language.