New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

There is apparently some connection between dissatisfaction with oneself and proneness to credulity. The urge to escape our real self read more

There is apparently some connection between dissatisfaction with oneself and proneness to credulity. The urge to escape our real self is also an urge to escape the rational and the obvious. The refusal to see ourselves as we are develops a distaste for facts and cold logic. There is no hope for the frustrated in the actual and the possible. Salvation can come to them only from the miraculous, which seeps through a crack in the iron wall of inexorable reality. They asked to be deceived.

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue.

The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its antihumanity.

The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its antihumanity.

...we are entitled to make almost any reasonable assumption, but should resist making conclusions until evidence requires that we do read more

...we are entitled to make almost any reasonable assumption, but should resist making conclusions until evidence requires that we do so.

Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.

Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.

There are many who know many things, yet are lacking in wisdom.

There are many who know many things, yet are lacking in wisdom.

The envious only hate the excellence they cannot reach.

The envious only hate the excellence they cannot reach.

The untalented are more at ease in a society that gives them valid alibis for not achieving than in one read more

The untalented are more at ease in a society that gives them valid alibis for not achieving than in one where opportunities are abundant. In an affluent society, the alienated who clamor for power are largely untalented people who cannot make use of the unprecedented opportunities for self-realization, and cannot escape the confrontation with an ineffectual self.