It is the acquisition of skills in particular, irrespective of their utility, that is potent in making life meaningful. Since man has no inborn skills, the survival of the species has depended on the ability to acquire and perfect skills. Hence the mastery of skills is a uniquely human activity and yields deep satisfaction.
One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action – the ability to pass directly from thought to action.
There is no reason why the profoundest thoughts should not make easy and exciting reading. A profound thought is an exciting thing as exciting as a detective’s deductions or hunches. The simpler the words in which a thought is expressed the more stimulating its effect.
The future belongs to the learners-not the knowers.
Some people have no original ideas because they do not think well enough of themselves to consider their ideas worth noticing and developing.
It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor.
The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.
The real Antichrist is he who turns the wine of an original idea into the water of mediocrity.
We clamor for equality chiefly in matters in which we ourselves cannot hope to obtain excellence.
We are more prone to generalize the bad than the good. We assume that the bad is more potent and contagious.
There is a tendency to judge a race, a nation or any distinct group by its leastworthy members.
people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to conserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change.
