"When the crowd acclaims its favorites it applauds itself."

John Lancaster Spalding Literature See all quotes by John Lancaster Spalding →

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“Work, mental or manual, is the means whereby attention is compelled, it is the instrument of all knowledge and virtue, the root whence all excellence springs.”

“If thou canst not hold the golden mean, say and do too little rather than too much.”

“The best money can procure for thee is freedom to live in thy true self. It is more apt however to enslave than to liberate. It is good also when thou makest it a means to help thy fellow men; but here too it is easier to harm than to benefit: for the money thou givest another is useful to him only when it stimulates him to self-activity.”

“When one sense has been bribed the others readily bear false witness.”

“Thy money, thy office, thy reputation are nothing; put away these phantom clothings, and stand like an athlete stripped for the battle.”

“It is a large part of learning to know what one wants, and where it may be found in its most authentic form.”

Resonant Thoughts

"He who has iron, has bread. People bow down before bayonets; a disarmed crowd is swept aside. But a France bristling with workers in arms means the advent of socialism. In the presence of armed prolet…"

— Louis Auguste Blanqui

Philosophy1805–1881

#books

"It is a peculiarity of thought that it never stays with itself, but always digresses to other things."

— Joseph Dietzgen

Philosophy1828–1888

#mind

"The historical approach, with its aim of detecting how things began and arriving from these origins at a knowledge of their nature, is certainly perfectly legitimate; but it also has its limitations. …"

— Gottlob Frege

Mathematics1858–1932

#knowledge

"What is false creates taste, and reinforces itself by knowingly eliminating any possible reference to the authentic. And what is genuine is reconstructed as quickly as possible, to resemble the false."

— Guy Debord

Philosophy1931–1994

#truth