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.".
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There may be said to be two classes of people in the world: those who constantly divide the people of read more
There may be said to be two classes of people in the world: those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not.
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.
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.
Human civilization is not something achieved against nature; it is rather the outcome of the working of the innate qualities read more
Human civilization is not something achieved against nature; it is rather the outcome of the working of the innate qualities of man.
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.
Man differs from the animal only by a little; most men throw that little away.
Man differs from the animal only by a little; most men throw that little away.
...mammalian embryos, regardless of their sex chromosome constitutions, have an inherent tendency to develop the female phenotype; the mammalian male read more
...mammalian embryos, regardless of their sex chromosome constitutions, have an inherent tendency to develop the female phenotype; the mammalian male is essentially a female that has been exposed to androgenic steroid hormones.
Credulity is belief in slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence.
Credulity is belief in slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence.
