It's amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites.

It's amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites.

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.

...everything is too important ever to be entrusted to professional experts, because every organization of such professionals and every established read more

...everything is too important ever to be entrusted to professional experts, because every organization of such professionals and every established social organization becomes a vested-interest institution more concerned with its efforts to maintain itself or advance its own interests than to achieve the purpose that society expects it to achieve.

Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation read more

Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation is in the self, or rather the rejection of the self. Dedication is the obverse side of self-rejection. Man alone is a religious animal because, as Montaigne points out, "it is a malady confined to man, and not seen in any other creature, to hate and despise ourselves.".

General jackdaw culture, very little more than a collection of charming miscomprehensions, untargeted enthusiasms, and a general habit of skimming.

General jackdaw culture, very little more than a collection of charming miscomprehensions, untargeted enthusiasms, and a general habit of skimming.

Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the read more

Though they seem at opposite poles, fanatics of all kinds are actually crowded together at one end. It is the fanatic and the moderate who are poles apart and never meet.

In most instances, all an argument proves is that two people are present.

In most instances, all an argument proves is that two people are present.

Disapproval is a very important factor in all progress. There has really never been any progress without it.

Disapproval is a very important factor in all progress. There has really never been any progress without it.

Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction read more

Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to publick opinion. This is the weak point of our defenses, and the part to which the enemies of the system will direct all their attacks. Opinion can be so perverted as to cause the false to seem the true; the enemy, a friend, and the friend, an enemy; the best interests of the nation to appear insignificant, and trifles of moment; in a word, the right the wrong, and the wrong the right.