It is generally recognized that creativity requires leisure, an absence of rush, time for the mind and imagination to float read more

It is generally recognized that creativity requires leisure, an absence of rush, time for the mind and imagination to float and wander and roam, time for the individual to descend into the depths of his or her psyche, to be available to barely audible signals rustling for attention. Long periods of time may pass in which nothing seems to be happening. But we know that kind of space must be created if the mind is to leap out of its accustomed ruts, to part from the mechanical, the known, the familiar, the standard, and generate a leap into the new.

Laugh and the world laughs with you; snore and you sleep alone.

Laugh and the world laughs with you; snore and you sleep alone.

There are in fact four very different stumbling blocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man read more

There are in fact four very different stumbling blocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent knowledge.

When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.

When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.

The well-adjusted make poor prophets.

The well-adjusted make poor prophets.

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.

No child is born with a really cold heart, and it is only in proportion as we lose that youthful read more

No child is born with a really cold heart, and it is only in proportion as we lose that youthful heart that we lose the inner warmth in ourselves.

Responsibility and danger do not tend to free or stimulate the average person's mind- rather the contrary; but wherever they read more

Responsibility and danger do not tend to free or stimulate the average person's mind- rather the contrary; but wherever they do liberate an individual's judgement and confidence we can be sure that we are in the presence of exceptional ability.

Unity and self-sacrifice, of themselves, even when fostered by the most noble means, produce a facility for hating. Even when read more

Unity and self-sacrifice, of themselves, even when fostered by the most noble means, produce a facility for hating. Even when men league themselves mightily together to promote tolerance and peace on earth, they are likely to be violently intolerant toward those not of a like mind.