Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
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Mathematics is as little a science as grammar is a language.
Mathematics is as little a science as grammar is a language.
The nature of a society is largely determined by the direction in which talent and ambition flow--by the tilt of read more
The nature of a society is largely determined by the direction in which talent and ambition flow--by the tilt of the social landscape.
I have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a thick forest. Up comes a read more
I have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a thick forest. Up comes a theologian and blows it out.
The nineteenth century planted the words which the twentieth century ripened into the atrocities of Stalin and Hitler. There is read more
The nineteenth century planted the words which the twentieth century ripened into the atrocities of Stalin and Hitler. There is hardly an atrocity committed in the twentieth century that was not foreshadowed or even advocated by some noble man of words in the nineteenth.
Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals read more
Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.
Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling read more
Conservatism is sometimes a symptom of sterility. Those who have nothing in them that can grow and develop must cling to what they have in beliefs, ideas and possessions. The sterile radical, too, is basically conservative. He is afraid to let go of the ideas and beliefs he picked up in his youth lest his life be seen as empty and wasted.
Quite often the social doctors become part of the disease.
Quite often the social doctors become part of the disease.
The vigor of a mass movement stems from the propensity of its followers for united action and self-sacrifice. When we read more
The vigor of a mass movement stems from the propensity of its followers for united action and self-sacrifice. When we ascribe the success of a movement to its faith, doctrine, propaganda, leadership, ruthlessness and so on, we are but referring to instruments of unification and to means used to inculcate a readiness for self-sacrifice. It is perhaps impossible to understand the nature of a mass movement unless it is recognized that their chief preoccupation is to foster, perfect and perpetuate a facility for united action and self-sacrifice.
There is no truth sure enough to justify persecution.
There is no truth sure enough to justify persecution.
