The Great Mistake Of The Reformers Is

Successful Socialism Depends On The Perfectibility Of Man. Unless All, Or Nearly All, Men Are High-minded And Clear-sighted, It Isbound To Be A Rotten Failure In Any But A Physical Sense. Even Through It Is Altruism, Socialism Means Materialism. You Can Guarantee The Things Of The Body To Every One, But You Cannot Guarantee The Things Of The Spirit To Every One; You Can Guarantee Only That The Opportunity To Seek Them Shall Not Be Denied To Any One Who Chooses To Seek Them.

Each Man's Private Conscience Ought To Be A Nice Little Self-registering Thermometer: He Ought To Carry His Moral Code Incorruptibly And Explicitly Within Himself, And Not Care What The World Thinks. The Mass Of Human Beings, However, Are Not Made That Way; And Many People Have Been Saved From Crime Or Sin By The Simple Dislike Of Doing Things They Would Not Like To Confess.

The Past Is Discredited Because It Is Not Modern. Not To Be Modern Is The Great Sin. So, Perhaps, It Is. But Every One Has, In His Day, Been Modern. And Surely Even Modernity Is A Poor Thing Beside Immortality. Since We Must All Die, Is It Not Perhaps Better To Be A Dead Lion Than A Living Dog?

Simplicity Is An Acquired Taste. Mankind, Left Free, Instinctively Complicates Life.

Many Of Us Do Not Believe In Capital Punishment, Because Thus Society Takes From A Man What Society Cannot Give.