In strategy the longest way round is often the shortest way there- a direct approach to the object exhausts the read more

In strategy the longest way round is often the shortest way there- a direct approach to the object exhausts the attacker and hardens the resistance by compression, whereas an indirect approach loosens the defender's hold by upsetting his balance.

When reality becomes unbearable, the mind must withdraw from it and create a world of artificial perfection. Plato's world of read more

When reality becomes unbearable, the mind must withdraw from it and create a world of artificial perfection. Plato's world of pure Ideas and Forms, which alone is to be considered as real, whereas the world of nature which we perceive is merely its cheap Woolworth copy, is a flight into delusion.

History is on every occasion the record of that which one age finds worthy of note in another.

History is on every occasion the record of that which one age finds worthy of note in another.

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.

...one of the tests of a theory is that, once grasped, it appears self-evident.

...one of the tests of a theory is that, once grasped, it appears self-evident.

A man that would expect to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic; but a man read more

A man that would expect to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic; but a man that thinks men can be turned into angels by an election is a reformer and remains at large.

Anyone taken as an individual, is tolerably sensible and reasonable- as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes read more

Anyone taken as an individual, is tolerably sensible and reasonable- as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead.

Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns.

Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns.

We often despise what is most useful to us.

We often despise what is most useful to us.