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.

Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.

Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.

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.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.

Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.

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.

Because we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a read more

Because we do not understand the brain very well we are constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a model for trying to understand it. In my childhood we were always assured that the brain was a telephone switchboard. ('What else could it be?') I was amused to see that Sherrington, the great British neuroscientist, thought that the brain worked like a telegraph system. Freud often compared the brain to hydraulic and electro-magnetic systems. Leibniz compared it to a mill, and I am told some of the ancient Greeks thought the brain functions like a catapult. At present, obviously, the metaphor is the digital computer.

It seems that when we are oppressed by the knowledge of our worthlessness we do not see ourselves as lower read more

It seems that when we are oppressed by the knowledge of our worthlessness we do not see ourselves as lower than some and higher than others, but as lower than the lowest of mankind. We hate then the whole world, and we would pour our wrath upon the whole of creation.