Art has a double face, of expression and illusion, just like science has a double face: the reality of error and the phantom of truth.
René Daumal, The Lie of the Truth (1938), Vol. 2, Essais et Notes.
In an age in which the media broadcast countless pieces of foolishness, the educated man is defined not by what he knows, but by what he doesn’t know.
Life is too short, and the time we waste in yawning never can be regained.
Stupid ideas are immortal. Each new generation invents them anew.
Never, ever go near power. Don’t become friends with anyone who has real power. It’s dangerous.
Quoted by Christiane Kubrick, in “After Kubrick,” The Guardian (August 18, 2010). See also “The Shining — Kubrick’s Gold Story,” Part Two, by Rob Ager.
Francis Hutcheson, The Dublin Weekly Journal, No. 12 (June 19, 1725).
Men have been Laughed out of Faults which a Sermon could not reform.
Francis Hutcheson, A System of Moral Philosophy (1755), Book II, Ch. III, No. 12.
The ultimate notion of right is that which tends to the universal good; and when one’s acting in a certain manner has this tendency, he has a right thus to act.
Wisdom denotes the pursuing of the best ends by the best means.
Socialism has its black sheep. What cause has not? But that which fills me with grief is that it has so many white ones. The most miserable circumstance of our time is that much of its devotion and self-denial is running into Socialistic channels. It is this misdirected self-abnegation, characteristic of the Dark Ages, which is carrying us back to them.
Joseph Hiam Levy, The Outcome of Individualism (Third Edition, 1892).
Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death; — the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Book III – “The Track of a Storm: Chapter V – The Wood-Sawyer.”