To Retire To The Monastery, Or The

The Imaginations Which People Have Of One Another Are The Solid Facts Of Society.

A Strange And Somewhat Impassive Physiognomy Is Often, Perhaps, An Advantage To An Orator, Or Leader Of Any Sort, Because It Helps To Fix The Eye And Fascinate The Mind.

It Happens From Time To Time In Every Complex And Active Society, That Certain Persons Feel The Complexity And Insistence As A Tangle, And Seek Freedom In Retirement, As Thoreau Sought At Walden Pond. They Do Not, However, In This Manner Escape From The Social Institutions Of Their Time, Nor Do They Really Mean To Do So; What They Gain, If They Are Successful, Is A Saner Relation To Them.

Every General Increase Of Freedom Is Accompanied By Some Degeneracy, Attributable To The Same Causes As The Freedom.

The Idealist's Program Of Political Or Economic Reform May Be Impracticable, Absurd, Demonstrably Ridiculous; But It Can Never Be 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.