This ongoing collection of
aphorisms was last updated on 3/3/2009. Please check back
for more wisdom to come.
Pessimists are merely people who lack the imagination to
see the answer to their problem.
The cynic may see the answer, but lacks the courage to act
on it.
Children demand their rights; adults accept their
responsibilities.
Just as a child needs its parents, so does an immature
society need its gods. Freedom is always hard to bear, and
the weight of self-responsibility can only be carried after
a certain level of sophistication has been attained.
You can measure the immaturity of a people by the
thickness of their law books.
The best morality boils down to a simple respect for
others.
Ride with the moment. Even if it's unpleasant, there'll
always be another along shortly.
Where is security to be found? In a universe of constant
surprises and disappointments, it's foolish to look for
external sources. The sane person is, first and foremost,
secure within himself.
By the eighteenth century, scientists knew that every
action has an equal and opposite reaction. Awareness of
that fact has put the physical sciences centuries ahead of
the social sciences.
If you can't achieve perfection in yourself, how can you
expect it in others?
A person can only feel alone if he's never gotten
to know himself.
Society is willing to exploit the responsible individual,
but it rarely rewards him.
There's nothing common about common sense.
Guilt is a tempting trap for the unwary. It lets you feign
responsibility while wallowing in ego.
To fail to accept the unalterable is insane; to fail to
change the intolerable is criminal. You must train yourself
to distinguish between them.
The sane person knows how much responsibility he can
handle and refuses to accept more.
Monogamy, like all perversions, should be practiced only
between consenting adults.
Sure, question authority. But don't forget to question the
other people who question authority. The mere fact that they
questioned authority doesn't mean they got the right answer.
Curiosity has fed more cats than it's killed.
The absence of evil is not goodness, merely another and
subtler form of evil.
Practicality is the horse you must ride; idealism is the
road you must travel.
Dedication to the Truth sometimes obscures the facts.
All problems are solvable, but not all solutions are
acceptable.
Dogma is the weak mind's shield against reality.
Sanity is the heaviest burden. Ethics is the narrowest
cage. Together they are Mankind's noblest aspirations.
The sane person expects scorn, and should never even hope
for gratitude.
The sane person leads by example.
Trying to force sanity on an unready mind is a fool's
mission.
The universe is an asylum for the unsane, and the sane
person is both its keeper and its hostage.
The sane person has the right to do anything he wants, but
the cost of that right is high: responsibility.
In troubled times, a society will cling to its
irrationalities the way a drowning man clings to a log.
Sanity is seldom contagious.
Don't worry that no one else can live up to your
standards. That should be hard enough even for you.
Societies based on the fairness of the universe are doomed
from the outset.
War is the ultimate expression of unsanity.
Equality is a painful concept, because people differ in
intelligence, beauty, wealth and skills. The one equality
that links them all is their basic dignity.
Since all people are different, it's natural to
distinguish between them. But demeaning them because of
their differences is unsane.
Morals are rules imposed by society. Ethics are promises
you make to yourself, and if you violate them you violate
yourself.
Society defines you by your morals. You define yourself by
your ethics.
Those who whine the most about regulations are the ones
who prefer to do things in ways that are shoddy, unsafe,
illegal or just plain wrong. Those who care about the
quality of their efforts find that regulations are seldom
exacting enough.
There's always a test. Pay attention.
Nothing's ever hopeless until you lose all hope.
Think outside the box if you want, but remember--as in the
case of housecats, the box serves a function.
Everything is improbable until it happens.
Believe in yourself first, and you may be less
disappointed in life.
