It is against the grain of modern education to teach children to program. What fun is there in making plans, read more

It is against the grain of modern education to teach children to program. What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail, and learning to be self-critical?

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.

He who does not bellow out the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and read more

He who does not bellow out the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.

For piety lies not in being often seen turning a veiled head to stones, nor in approaching every altar, nor read more

For piety lies not in being often seen turning a veiled head to stones, nor in approaching every altar, nor in lying prostrate...before the temples of the gods, nor in sprinkling altars with the blood of beasts...but rather in being able to look upon all things with a mind at peace.

Example is the best precept.

Example is the best precept.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him
absolutely no good.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him
absolutely no good.

Cultures contain many cues and inducements to dissuade the individual from approaching ultimate limits, in much the same way that read more

Cultures contain many cues and inducements to dissuade the individual from approaching ultimate limits, in much the same way that a special warning strip of land around the edge of a baseball field lets a player know that he is about to run into a concrete wall when he is preoccupied with catching the ball. The wider that strip of land and the more sensitive the player is to the changing composition of the ground under his feet as he pursues the ball, the more effective the warning. Romanticizing or lionizing as "individualistic" those people who disregard social cues and inducements increases the danger of head-on collisions with inherent social limits. Decrying various forms of social disapproval is in effect narrowing the warning strip.

You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is read more

You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn.

Fundamentalist religion is the most pervasive vision of central planning, though many fundamentalists may oppose human central planning as a read more

Fundamentalist religion is the most pervasive vision of central planning, though many fundamentalists may oppose human central planning as a usurpation or "playing God." This is consistent with the fundamentalist vision of an unconstrained God and a highly constrained man.