There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it.

There is apparently no surer way of turning a thing into its opposite than by exaggerating it.

Jefferson thought schools would produce free men: we prove him right by putting dropouts in jail.

Jefferson thought schools would produce free men: we prove him right by putting dropouts in jail.

There are plenty of people to whom the crucial problem of their lives never get presented in terms that they read more

There are plenty of people to whom the crucial problem of their lives never get presented in terms that they can understand.

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.

I'd rather be dead than cool.

I'd rather be dead than cool.

There is no truth sure enough to justify persecution.

There is no truth sure enough to justify persecution.

Today the world changes so quickly that in growing up we take leave not just of youth but of the read more

Today the world changes so quickly that in growing up we take leave not just of youth but of the world we were young in.

All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not read more

All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them.

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.