A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaningless of an individual existence. It cures the poignantly frustrated not by conferring upon them an absolute truth or by remedying the difficulties and abuses which made their lives miserable, but by freeing them from their ineffectual selves- and it does this by enfolding and absorbing them into a closely knit and exultant corporate whole.
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Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.
Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.
Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation read more
Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation is in the self, or rather the rejection of the self. Dedication is the obverse side of self-rejection. Man alone is a religious animal because, as Montaigne points out, "it is a malady confined to man, and not seen in any other creature, to hate and despise ourselves.".
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only read more
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
The best way I know to win an argument is to start by being in the right.
The best way I know to win an argument is to start by being in the right.
The desire to be different from the people we live with is sometimes the result of our rejection- real or read more
The desire to be different from the people we live with is sometimes the result of our rejection- real or imagined- by them.
Most of the change we think we see in life Is due to truths being in and out of favor.
Most of the change we think we see in life Is due to truths being in and out of favor.
Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.
Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.
The vigor of a mass movement stems from the propensity of its followers for united action and self-sacrifice. When we read more
The vigor of a mass movement stems from the propensity of its followers for united action and self-sacrifice. When we ascribe the success of a movement to its faith, doctrine, propaganda, leadership, ruthlessness and so on, we are but referring to instruments of unification and to means used to inculcate a readiness for self-sacrifice. It is perhaps impossible to understand the nature of a mass movement unless it is recognized that their chief preoccupation is to foster, perfect and perpetuate a facility for united action and self-sacrifice.
We are but a drop of water in a pool filled with diversity.
We are but a drop of water in a pool filled with diversity.
