American public education is a remarkable enterprise; it succeeds best where it fails. Imagine an industry that consistently fails to read more

American public education is a remarkable enterprise; it succeeds best where it fails. Imagine an industry that consistently fails to do what it sets out to do. a factory where this year's product is invariably sleazier than last year's but, nevertheless, better than next year's. Imagine a corporation whose executives are always spending vast sums of money on studies designed to discover just what it is they are supposed to do and then vaster sums for further studies on just how to do it. Imagine a plant devoted to the manufacture of factory seconds to be sold at a loss. Imagine a producer of vacuum cleaners that rarely work hiring whole platoons of engineers who will, in time, report that it is, in fact, true that the vacuum cleaners rarely really work, and who will, for a larger fee, be glad to find out why, if that's possible. If you discover some such outfit, don't invest in it. Unfortunately, we are all required to invest in public education.

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.

Any good practical philosophy must start out with the recognition of our having a body.

Any good practical philosophy must start out with the recognition of our having a body.

[They say] "We do not know how this is, but we know that God can do it." You poor fools! read more

[They say] "We do not know how this is, but we know that God can do it." You poor fools! God can make a cow out of a tree, but has He ever done so? Therefore show some reason why a thing is so, or cease to hold that it is so.

K is for KENGHIS KHAN. _He_ was a very _nice_ person. History has no record of him. There is a read more

K is for KENGHIS KHAN. _He_ was a very _nice_ person. History has no record of him. There is a moral in that, somewhere.

The noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and
dissipation without pleasure.

The noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and
dissipation without pleasure.

There arises from a bad and inapt formation of words, a wonderful obstruction to the mind.

There arises from a bad and inapt formation of words, a wonderful obstruction to the mind.

Where intellectuals have played a role in history, it has not been so much by whispering words of advice into read more

Where intellectuals have played a role in history, it has not been so much by whispering words of advice into the ears of political overlords as by contributing to the vast and powerful currents of conceptions and misconceptions that sweep human action along.

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.