It is easy to believe that life is long and one’s gifts are vast – easy at the beginning, that is. But the limits of life grow more evident; it becomes clear that great work can be done rarely, if at all.
The widespread belief that Yuppies as a class would perish from Brie-cheese poisoning turned out to be over-optimistic.
If I didn’t have this affliction, I would be the first. As a rule the if-clause contains an unfulfillable condition, or the patient’s own arrangement, which only he can change.
Tears and complaints – the means which I have called water power – can be an extremely useful weapon for disturbing cooperation and reducing other to a condition of slavery.
In the company of friends, writers can discuss their books, economists the state of the economy, lawyers their latest cases, and businessmen their latest acquisitions, but mathematicians cannot discuss their mathematics at all. And the more profound their work, the less understandable it is.
Each generation has its few great mathematicians, and mathematics would not even notice the absence of the others. They are useful as teachers, and their research harms no one, but it is of no importance at all. A mathematician is great or he is nothing.
War is not the continuation of politics with different means, it is the greatest mass-crime perpetrated on the community of man.
It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring.
We learn in friendship to look with the eyes of another person, to listen with her ears, and to feel with her heart.
A private meaning is in fact no meaning at all. Meaning is only possible in communication: a word which meant something to one person only would really be meaningless. It is the same with our aims and actions; their only meaning is their meaning for others. Every human being strives for significance; but people always make mistakes if they do not see that their whole significance must consist in their contribution to the lives of others. An.
A fight with a child is always a losing fight: he can never be beaten or won to cooperation by fighting. In these struggles the weakest always carries the day. Something is demanded of him which he refuses to give; something which can never be gained by such means. An incalculable amount of tension and useless effort would be spared in this world if we realized that cooperation and love can never be won by force.
These three ties, therefore, set three problems: how to find an. occupation which will enable us to survive under the limitations set by the nature of the earth; how to find a position among our fellows, so that we may cooperate and share the benefits of cooperation; how to accommodate ourselves to the fact that we live in two sexes and that the continuance and furtherance of mankind depends upon our love-life. Individual.
We are self-determined by the meaning we give to our experiences; and there is probably something of a mistake always involved when we take particular experiences as the basis for our future life. Meanings are not determined by situations, but we determine ourselves by the meanings we give to situations. There.
No man can think, feel, will, nor even dream, without everything being defined, conditioned, limited, directed by a goal which floats before him.
Courage is not an ability one either possesses or lacks. Courage is the willingness to engage in a risk-taking behavior regardless of whether the consequences are unknown or possibly adverse. We are capable of courageous behavior provided we are willing to engage in it.
As a matter of fact, in our personal lives, as in the lives of all peoples, inferiorities are not to be considered as the source of all evil. Only the situation can determine whether they are assets or liabilities.
Our whole way of living inhibits that necessary intimate contact with our fellow men, which is essential for the development of the science and art of knowing human nature. Since we do not find sufficient contact with our fellow men, we become their enemies. Our behavior towards them is often mistaken, and our judgments frequently false, simply because we do not adequately understand human nature.
Do not forget the most important fact that not heredity and not environment are determining factors. – Both are giving only the frame and the influences which are answered by the individual in regard to his styled creative power.
Life in general has no meaning. Whatever meaning life has must be assigned to it by the individual.
Any man’s value, therefore, is determined by his attitude toward his fellow men, and by the degrees in which he partakes of the division of labor which communal life demands.
It is not uncommon for the youngest child to outstrip every other member of the family and become its most capable member.