It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress. In read more

It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress. In the process by which opinion is formed, it is very probable that, by the time any view becomes a majority view, it is no longer the best view: somebody will already have advanced beyond the point which the majority have reached. It is because we do not yet which of the many competing new opinions will prove itself the best that we wait until it has gained sufficient support.

The anointed don't like to talk about painful trade-offs. They like to talk about happy "solutions" that get rid of read more

The anointed don't like to talk about painful trade-offs. They like to talk about happy "solutions" that get rid of the whole problem- at least in their imagination.

Avoid self-righteousness like the devil- nothing is so self-blinding.

Avoid self-righteousness like the devil- nothing is so self-blinding.

People do not cooperate under the division of labor because they love or should love one another. They cooperate because read more

People do not cooperate under the division of labor because they love or should love one another. They cooperate because this best serves their own interests. Neither love nor charity nor any other sympathetic sentiments but rightly understood selfishness is what originally impelled man to adjust himself to the requirements of society, to respect the rights and freedoms of his fellow men and to substitute peaceful collaboration for enmity and conflict.

The demands of unbounded individualism need to be weighed in the light of inherent social constraints which can only change read more

The demands of unbounded individualism need to be weighed in the light of inherent social constraints which can only change their form but cannot be eliminated without eliminating civilization.

Without speculation there is no good and original observation.

Without speculation there is no good and original observation.

The smashing of idols is in itself such a preoccupation that it is almost impossible for the iconoclast to look read more

The smashing of idols is in itself such a preoccupation that it is almost impossible for the iconoclast to look clearly into a future when there will not be many idols left to smash.

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for read more

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same. - The Deer Park.

There is nothing to be found in a beehive that is not submerged in a bee. And yet you can read more

There is nothing to be found in a beehive that is not submerged in a bee. And yet you can search a bee forever with cyclotron and fluoroscope, and you will never find the hive.