Figuring Out How To Think

You Can't Resolve A Dilemma With All The Very Same Mind That Made It

I Know That It Is A Hopeless Undertaking To Debate About Fundamental Value Judgements. For Instance, If Someone Approves, As A Goal, The Extirpation Of The Human Race From The Earth, One Cannot Refute Such A Viewpoint On Rational Grounds. But If There Is Agreement On Certain Goals And Values, One Can Argue Rationally About The Means By Which These Objectives May Be Obtained.

... Knowledge Must Continually Be Renewed By Ceaseless Effort, If It Is Not To Be Lost. It Resembles A Statue Of Marble Which Stands In The Desert And Is Continually Threatened With Burial By The Shifting Sand. The Hands Of Service Must Ever Be At Work, In Order That The Marble Continue To Lastingly Shine In The Sun. To These Serving Hands Mine Shall Also Belong.

The Truth Of A Theory Is In Your Mind, Not In Your Eyes.

This Subject Brings Me To That Vilest Offspring Of The Herd Mind -- The Odious Militia. The Man Who Enjoys Marching In Line And File To The Strains Of Music Falls Below My Contempt; He Received His Great Brain By Mistake -- The Spinal Cord Would Have Been Amply Sufficient. This Heroism At Command, This Senseless Violence, This Accursed Bombast Of Patriotism -- How Intensely I Despise Them! War Is Low And Despicable, And I Had Rather Be Smitten To Shreds Than Participate In Such Doings.