The presence of a body of well-instructed men, who have not to labor for their daily bread, is important to read more

The presence of a body of well-instructed men, who have not to labor for their daily bread, is important to a degree which cannot be overestimated; as all high intellectual work is carried on by them, and on such work material progress of all kinds mainly depends, not to mention other and higher advantages.

For every social wrong there must be a remedy. But the remedy
can be nothing less than the abolition read more

For every social wrong there must be a remedy. But the remedy
can be nothing less than the abolition of the wrong.

Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling read more

Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling to what they have in beliefs, ideas and possessions. The sterile radical, too, is basically conservative. He is afraid to let go of the ideas and beliefs he picked up in his youth lest his life be seen as empty and wasted.

Man is a luxury loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, read more

Man is a luxury loving animal. Take away play, fancies, and luxuries, and you will turn man into a dull, sluggish creature, barely energetic enough to obtain a bare subsistence. A society becomes stagnant when its people are too rational or too serious to be tempted by baubles.

Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best read more

Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done.

We often despise what is most useful to us.

We often despise what is most useful to us.

I have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a thick forest. Up comes a read more

I have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a thick forest. Up comes a theologian and blows it out.

Every man...should periodically be compelled to listen to opinions which are infuriating to him. To hear nothing but what is read more

Every man...should periodically be compelled to listen to opinions which are infuriating to him. To hear nothing but what is pleasing to one is to make a pillow of the mind.

The affairs of life embrace a multitude of interests, and he who reasons in any one of them, without consulting read more

The affairs of life embrace a multitude of interests, and he who reasons in any one of them, without consulting the rest, is a visionary unsuited to control the business of the world.