Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him read more

Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity.

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.

...in the shaping of a life, chance and the ability to respond to chance are everything.

...in the shaping of a life, chance and the ability to respond to chance are everything.

Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.

Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.

We know that words cannot move mountains, but they can move the multitude; and men are more ready to fight read more

We know that words cannot move mountains, but they can move the multitude; and men are more ready to fight and die for a word than for anything else. Words shape thought, stir feeling, and beget action; they kill and revive, corrupt and cure. The "men-of-words"- priests, prophets, intellectuals- have played a more decisive role in history than military leaders, statesmen, and businessmen.

A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it read more

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.

Against stupidity the very gods fight in vain.

Against stupidity the very gods fight in vain.

The criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it.

The criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it.

Evolution as such is no longer a theory for a modern author. It is as much a fact as that read more

Evolution as such is no longer a theory for a modern author. It is as much a fact as that the earth revolves around the sun.