I regard the effort to introduce women into colleges for young men as very undesirable, and for many reasons. That the two sexes s...hould be united, both as teachers and pupils, in the same institution seems very desirable, but rarely in early life by a method that removes them from parental watch and care, and the protecting influences of a home.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The function of the hero in art is to inspire the reader or spectator to continue in the same spirit from where he, the hero, leav...es off. He must release the spectator's potentiality, for potentiality is the historic force behind nobility. And to do this the hero must be typical of the characters and class who at that time only need to be made aware of their heroic potentiality in order to be able to make their society juster and nobler. Bourgeois culture is no longer capable of producing heroes. On the highbrow level it only produces characters who are embodied consolations for defeat, and on the lowbrow level it produces idols--stars, TV "personalities," pin-ups. The function of the idol is the exact opposite to that of the hero. The idol is self-sufficient; the hero never is. The idol is so superficially desirable, spectacular, witty, happy that he or she merely supplies a context for fantasy and therefore, instead of inspiring, lulls. The idol is based on the appearance of perfection; but never on the striving towards it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The goal in raising one's child is to enable him, first, to discover who he wants to be, and then to become a person who can be sa...tisfied with himself and his way of life. Eventually he ought to be able to do in his life whatever seems important, desirable, and worthwhile to him to do; to develop relations with other people that are constructive, satisfying, mutually enriching; and to bear up well under the stresses and hardships he will unavoidably encounter during his life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A child... who has learned from fairy stories to believe that what at first seemed a repulsive, threatening figure can magically c...hange into a most helpful friend is ready to believe that a strange child whom he meets and fears may also be changed from a menace into a desirable companion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We tried pathetic appeals to the wandering waiters, who told us "they are coming, Sir" in a soothing tone--and we tried stern remo...nstrance, & they then said "they are coming, Sir" in a more injured tone; & after all such appeals they retired into their dens, and hid themselves behind sideboards and dish-covers, still the chops came not. We agreed that of all virtues a waiter can display, that of a retiring disposition is quite the least desirable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The idealist's programme of political or economic reform may be impracticable, absurd, demonstrably ridiculous; but it can never b...e successfully opposed merely by pointing out that this is the case. A negative opposition cannot be wholly effectual: there must be a competing idealism; something must be offered that is not only less objectionable but more desirable.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »