The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often read more

The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite.

Society is like a lawn where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by read more

Society is like a lawn where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface.

Experience proves that those are oftenest abused who can be abused with the greatest impunity. Men are whipped oftenest who read more

Experience proves that those are oftenest abused who can be abused with the greatest impunity. Men are whipped oftenest who are whipped easiest.

That is the whole trouble with being a heretic. One usually must think out everything for oneself.

That is the whole trouble with being a heretic. One usually must think out everything for oneself.

Positive self-esteem operates as, in effect, the immune system of the consciousness, providing resistance, strength, and a capacity for regeneration. read more

Positive self-esteem operates as, in effect, the immune system of the consciousness, providing resistance, strength, and a capacity for regeneration. When self-esteem is low, our resilience in the face of life's adversities is diminished. We crumble before vicissitudes that a healthier sense of self could vanquish. We tend to be more influenced by the desire to avoid pain than to experience joy. Negatives have more power over us than positives.

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

Under normal conditions the research scientist is not an innovator but a solver of puzzles, and the puzzles upon which read more

Under normal conditions the research scientist is not an innovator but a solver of puzzles, and the puzzles upon which he concentrates are just those which he believes can be both stated and solved within the existing scientific tradition.

Scientific research sooner or later, but inevitably, encounters something ultimately given that it cannot trace back to something else of read more

Scientific research sooner or later, but inevitably, encounters something ultimately given that it cannot trace back to something else of which it would appear as the regular or necessary derivative. Scientific progress consists in pushing further back this ultimately given.

When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apart read more

When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apart from us to live for. All forms of dedication, devotion, loyalty and self-surrender are in essence a desperate clinging to something which might give worth and meaning to our futile, spoiled lives.