The biggest mischief in the past century has been perpetrated by Rousseau with his doctrine of the goodness of human read more

The biggest mischief in the past century has been perpetrated by Rousseau with his doctrine of the goodness of human nature. The mob and the intellectuals derived from it the vision of a Golden Age which would arrive without fail once the noble human race could act according to its whims.

Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts...

Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts...

The pillars of truth and the pillars of freedom--they are the pillars of society.

The pillars of truth and the pillars of freedom--they are the pillars of society.

Every failure teaches a man something, to wit, that he will probably fail again.

Every failure teaches a man something, to wit, that he will probably fail again.

Facts do not "speak for themselves." They speak for or against competing theories. Facts divorced from theories or visions are read more

Facts do not "speak for themselves." They speak for or against competing theories. Facts divorced from theories or visions are mere isolated curiosities.

Trivial facts are often the best hints to what is going on.

Trivial facts are often the best hints to what is going on.

If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.

If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides.

Modern man lives isolated in his artificial environment, not because the artificial is evil as such, but because of his read more

Modern man lives isolated in his artificial environment, not because the artificial is evil as such, but because of his lack of comprehension of the forces which make it work- of the principles which relate his gadgets to the forces of nature, to the universal order. It is not central heating which makes his existence 'unnatural,' but his refusal to take an interest in the principles behind it. By being entirely dependent on science, yet closing his mind to it, he leads the life of an urban barbarian.

All of us necessarily hold many casual opinions that are ludicrously wrong simply because life is far too short for read more

All of us necessarily hold many casual opinions that are ludicrously wrong simply because life is far too short for us to think through even a small fraction of the topics that we come across.