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.

Nature attains perfection, but man never does. There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished. read more

Nature attains perfection, but man never does. There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished. He is both an unfinished animal and an unfinished man. It is this incurable unfinishedness which sets man apart from other living things. For, in the attempt to finish himself, man becomes a creator. Moreover, the incurable unfinishedness keeps man perpetually immature, perpetually capable of learning and growing.

Science does not give us absolute and final certainty. It only gives us assurance within the limits of our mental read more

Science does not give us absolute and final certainty. It only gives us assurance within the limits of our mental abilities and the prevailing state of scientific thought.

The first step in freeing yourself from social restrictions is the realization that there is no such thing as a read more

The first step in freeing yourself from social restrictions is the realization that there is no such thing as a "safe" code of conduct - one that would earn everyone's approval. Your actions can always be condemned by someone - for being too bold or too apathetic, for being too conformist or too nonconformist, for being too liberal or too conservative. So it's necessary to decide whose approval is important to you.

Habits are to the soul what the veins and arteries are to the blood, the courses in which it moves.

Habits are to the soul what the veins and arteries are to the blood, the courses in which it moves.

We cannot hate those who we despise.

We cannot hate those who we despise.

Opposition to the truth is inevitable, especially if it takes the form of a new idea, but the degree of read more

Opposition to the truth is inevitable, especially if it takes the form of a new idea, but the degree of resistance can be diminished- by giving thought not only to the aim but to the method of approach. Avoid a frontal attack on a long established position; instead, seek to turn it by flank movement, so that a more penetrable side is exposed to the thrust of truth. But, in any such indirect approach, take care not to diverge from the truth- for nothing is more fatal to its real advancement than to lapse into untruth.

We keep, in science, getting a more and more sophisticated view of our essential ignorance.

We keep, in science, getting a more and more sophisticated view of our essential ignorance.

We should listen first and foremost to our own experience...We should stop looking for saviors... Society has not existed for read more

We should listen first and foremost to our own experience...We should stop looking for saviors... Society has not existed for thousands of years because it had a succession of saviors. It's existed because it has institutions and processes through which people can realize their own goals.