The noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and
dissipation without pleasure.

The noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and
dissipation without pleasure.

The meaning of life is that it stops.

The meaning of life is that it stops.

If the gods do evil then they are not gods.

If the gods do evil then they are not gods.

To our real, naked selves there is not a thing on earth or in heaven worth dying for. It is read more

To our real, naked selves there is not a thing on earth or in heaven worth dying for. It is only when we see ourselves as actors in a staged (and therefore unreal) performance that death loses its frightfulness and finality and becomes an act of make-believe and a theatrical gesture. It is one of the main tasks of a real leader to mask the grim reality of dying and killing by evoking in his followers the illusion that they are participating in a grandiose spectacle, a solemn or lighthearted dramatic performance.

We must think of human progress, not as of something going on in the race in general, but as something read more

We must think of human progress, not as of something going on in the race in general, but as something going on in a small minority, perpetually beleaguered in a few walled towns. Now and then the horde of barbarians outside breaks through, and we have an armed effort to halt the process. That is, we have a Reformation, a French Revolution, a war for democracy, a Great Awakening. The minority is decimated and driven to cover. But a few survive- and a few are enough to carry on.

Trivial facts are often the best hints to what is going on.

Trivial facts are often the best hints to what is going on.

...man has an irrepressible tendency to read meaning into the buzzing confusion of sights and sounds impinging on his senses; read more

...man has an irrepressible tendency to read meaning into the buzzing confusion of sights and sounds impinging on his senses; and where no agreed meaning can be found, he will provide it out of his own imagination.

Jefferson thought schools would produce free men: we prove him right by putting dropouts in jail.

Jefferson thought schools would produce free men: we prove him right by putting dropouts in jail.

We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.

We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.