In 1600 the specialization of games and pastimes did not extend beyond infancy; after the age of three or four it decreased and di...sappeared. From then on the child played the same games as the adult, either with other children or with adults. . . . Conversely, adults used to play games which today only children play.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is known that Whistler when asked how long it took him to paint one of his "nocturnes" answered: "All of my life." With the sam...e rigor he could have said that all of the centuries that preceded the moment when he painted were necessary. From that correct application of the law of causality it follows that the slightest event presupposes the inconceivable universe and, conversely, that the universe needs even the slightest of events.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Hebrew culture is based on a single book, the Word of God. Greek culture, by contrast, is based on a thousand books, all of them b...y human authors. The god of the Hebrews sternly rejected graven idols. Consequently, the Hebrew tradition is iconoclastic--it scorns all attempts to materialize the divine. The Greek gods, conversely, admired the material world. Their admiration, as a matter of fact, often seems to be tinged with envy, as though they considered the material world better than the celestial. They wanted to be materialized. They approved of statues, and the statues they inspired were so beautiful that they eventually set standards for human beauty.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The ordinary man is as courageous and invulnerable as a hero when he does not recognize any danger, when he has no eyes to see it.... Conversely, the hero's only vulnerable spot is on his back, and so exactly where he has no eyes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Science is intimately integrated with the whole social structure and cultural tradition. They mutually support one other--only in ...certain types of society can science flourish, and conversely without a continuous and healthy development and application of science such a society cannot function properly.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Furthermore it becomes folly to seek a boundary between synthetic statements, which hold contingently on experience, and analytic ...statements, which hold come what may. Any statement can be held true come what may, if we make drastic enough adjustments elsewhere in the system. Even a statement very close to the periphery can be held true in the face of recalcitrant experience by pleading hallucination or by amending certain statements of the kind called logical laws. Conversely, by the same token, no statement is immune to revision. Revision even of the logical law of the excluded middle has been proposed as a means of simplifying quantum mechanics.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In looking back over the college careers of those who for various reasons have been prominent in undergraduate life ... one cannot... help noticing that these men have nearly always shown from the start an interest in the lives of their fellow students. A large acquaintance means that many persons are dependent on a man and conversely that he himself is dependent on many. Success necessarily means larger responsibilities, and responsibilities mean many friends.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Hatred is a thing of the heart, contempt a thing of the head. Hatred and contempt are decidedly antagonistic towards one another a...nd mutually exclusive. A great deal of hatred, indeed, has no other source than a compelled respect for the superior qualities of some other person; conversely, if you were to consider hating every miserable wretch you met you would have your work cut out: it is much easier to despise them one and all. True, genuine contempt, which is the obverse of true, genuine pride, stays hidden away in secret and lets no one suspect its existence: for if you let a person you despise notice the fact, you thereby reveal a certain respect for him, inasmuch as you want him to know how low you rate him--which betrays not contempt but hatred, which excludes contempt and only affects it. Genuine contempt, on the other hand, is the unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If it could be proved today that not one of the miracles of Jesus actually occurred, that proof would not invalidate a single one ...of his didactic utterances; and conversely, if it could be proved that not only did the miracles actually occur, but that he had wrought a thousand other miracles a thousand times more wonderful, not a jot of weight would be added to his doctrine.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Many people will say to working mothers, in effect, "I don't think you can have it all." The phrase for "have it all" is code for ..."have your cake and eat it too." What these people really mean is that achievement in the workplace has always come at a price--usually a significant personal price; conversely, women who stayed home with their children were seen as having sacrificed a great deal of their own ambition for their families.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »