“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.”
Technology“One of the great attractions of patriotism - it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.”
Great“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.”
Technology“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.”
Great“People intoxicate themselves with work so they won't see how they really are.”
Work“From their experience or from the recorded experience of others (history), men learn only what their passions and their metaphysical prejudices allow them to learn.”
Experience“The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy their second worst enemy is total efficiency.”
Freedom“Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.”
Intelligence“There's only one effectively redemptive sacrifice, the sacrifice of self-will to make room for the knowledge of God.”
God“That all men are equal is a proposition to which, at ordinary times, no sane human being has ever given his assent.”
Men“What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood.”
Men“So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.”
Men“It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than 'try to be a little kinder.'”
Life“Dream in a pragmatic way.”
Dreams“Sons have always a rebellious wish to be disillusioned by that which charmed their fathers.”
Dad“It's with bad sentiments that one makes good novels.”
Good“God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness.”
God“The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.”
Education“Perhaps it's good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he's happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?”
Art“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”
Travel“Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder.”
Beauty“Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.”
Power