Curiosity killed the cat, but for awhile I was a suspect.

Curiosity killed the cat, but for awhile I was a suspect.

The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a read more

The technique of a mass movement aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure.

We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which read more

We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.

It is a governing principle of nature, that the agency which can produce most good, when perverted from its proper read more

It is a governing principle of nature, that the agency which can produce most good, when perverted from its proper aim, is most productive of evil. It behooves the well-intentioned, therefore, vigorously to watch the tendency of even their most highly prized institutions, since that which was established in the interests of the right, may so easily become the agent of the wrong.

If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting
values, we must recognize the whole gamut of read more

If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting
values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human
potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one
in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.

One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word.

One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. "Supernatural" is a null word.

The tapestry of history has no point at which you can cut it and leave the design intelligible.

The tapestry of history has no point at which you can cut it and leave the design intelligible.

Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.

Civilization is unbearable, but it is less unbearable at the top.

Some tribes [of monkeys] have taken to washing potatoes in the river before eating them, others have not. Sometimes migrating read more

Some tribes [of monkeys] have taken to washing potatoes in the river before eating them, others have not. Sometimes migrating groups of potato-washers meet non-washers, and the two groups watch each other's strange behavior with apparent bewilderment. But unlike the inhabitants of Lilliput, who fought holy crusades over the question at which end to break the egg, the potato-washing monkeys do not go to war with the non-washers, because the poor creatures have no language which would enable them to declare washing a diving commandment and eating unwashed potatoes a deadly heresy.