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.

However human, envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is read more

However human, envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is probably one of the essential conditions for the preservation of such a society that we do not countenance envy, not sanction its demands by camouflaging it as social justice, but treat it, in the words of John Stuart Mill, as "the most anti-social and evil of all passions.

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.

To the fool, he who speaks wisdom will sound foolish.

To the fool, he who speaks wisdom will sound foolish.

The burning of an author's books, imprisonment for opinion's sake, has always been the tribute that an ignorant age pays read more

The burning of an author's books, imprisonment for opinion's sake, has always been the tribute that an ignorant age pays to the genius of its time.

...passionate intensity may serve as a substitute for confidence.

...passionate intensity may serve as a substitute for confidence.

In that the wisdom of the few becomes available to the many, there is progress in human affairs; without it, read more

In that the wisdom of the few becomes available to the many, there is progress in human affairs; without it, the static routine of tradition continues.

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.

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

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