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Edited on Mon Feb-23-04 08:43 PM by JaySherman
My friend just e-mailed me these. Some words of wisdom to brighten your day:
Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong
The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.
The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one, particularly if he plays golf.
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.
What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer.
A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not be endured with patient resignation.
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important
One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways.
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
It is obvious that 'obscenity' is not a term capable of exact legal definition; in the practice of the Courts, it means 'anything that shocks the magistrate.'
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