Nature's law says that the strong must prevent the weak from living, but only in a newspaper article or textbook can this be packa...ged into a comprehensible thought. In the soup of everyday life, in the mixture of minutia from which human relations are woven, it is not a law. It is a logical incongruity when both strong and weak fall victim to their mutual relations, unconsciously subservient to some unknown guiding power that stands outside of life, irrelevant to man.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Even though the realms of religion and science in themselves are clearly marked off from each other, nevertheless there exist betw...een the two strong reciprocal relationships and dependencies. Though religion may be that which determines the goal, it has, nevertheless, learned from science, in the broadest sense, what means will contribute to the attainment of the goals it has set up. But science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration towards truth and understanding. The source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion. To this there also belongs the faith in the possibility that the regulations valid for the world of existence are rational, that is, comprehensible to reason. I cannot conceive of a genuine scientist without that profound faith. The situation may be expressed by an image: Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
And what was the theory at the bottom of all these astounding proceedings? So far as it can be reduced to comprehensible terms it ...was much less a theory than a fear--a shivering, idiotic, discreditable fear of a mere banshee--an overpowering, paralyzing dread that some extra-eloquent Red, permitted to emit his balderdash unwhipped, might eventually convert a couple of courageous men, and that the courageous men, filled with indignation against the plutocracy, might take to the highroad, burn down a nail-factory or two, and slit the throat of some virtuous profiteer. In order to lay his fear, in order to ease the jangled nerves of the American successors to the Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns, all the constitutional guarantees of the citizen were suspended, the statute-books were burdened with laws that surpass anything heard of in the Austria of Maria Theresa, the country was handed over to a frenzied mob of detectives, informers and agents provocateursand the Reds departed laughing loudly, and were hailed by the Bolsheviki as innocents escaped from an asylum for the criminally insane.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Tomorrow I will discover Sunset Boulevard. Eurhythmic dancing, ball-room dancing, tap dancing, artistic photography, ordinary phot...ography, lousy photography, electro-fever treatment, internal douche treatment, ultra- violet treatment, elocution lessons, psychic readings, institutes of religion, astrological demonstrations, hands read, feet manicured, elbows massaged, faces lifted, warts removed, fat reduced, insteps raised, corsets fitted, busts vibrated, corns removed, hair dyed, glasses fitted, soda jerked, hangovers cured, headaches driven away, flatulence dissipated, limousines rented, the future made clear, the war made comprehensible, octane made higher and butane lower, drive in and get indigestion, flush the kidneys, get a cheap car-wash, stay-awake pills and go-to-sleep pills, Chinese herbs are very good for you and without a Coca-Cola life is unthinkable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One of the great privileges of being a parent is witnessing, close up, the flourishing of a young mind. But that's not the only be...nefit. In trying to make the world a more interesting and comprehensible place for their child, parents often find their own intellectual interests rekindled.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Art is a private thing, the artist makes it for himself; a comprehensible work is the product of a journalist.... We need works th...at are strong, straight, precise, and forever beyond understanding.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
For a man to strike any women is most brutal, and I, as well as everyone else, think this far worse than any attempt to shoot, whi...ch, wicked as it is, is at least more comprehensible and more courageous.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »