A Man Of Clear Ideas Errs Grievously

In This Age, The Mere Example Of Non-conformity, The Mere Refusal To Bend The Knee To Custom, Is Itself A Service. Precisely Because The Tyranny Of Opinion Is Such As To Make Eccentricity A Reproach, It Is Desirable, In Order To Break Through That Tyranny, That People Should Be Eccentric. Eccentricity Has Always Abounded When And Where Strength Of Character Has Abounded; And The Amount Of Eccentricity In A Society Has Generally Been Proportional To The Amount Of Genius, Mental Vigor, And Moral Courage Which It Contained. That So Few Now Dare To Be Eccentric, Marks The Chief Danger Of The Time.

No Longer Enslaved Or Made Dependent By Force Of Law, The Great Majority Are So By Force Of Property; They Are Still Chained To A Place, To An Occupation, And To Conformity With The Will Of An Employer, And Debarred By The Accident Of Birth To Both The Enjoyments, And From The Mental And Moral Advantages, Which Others Inherit Without Exertion And Independently Of Desert. That This Is An Evil Equal To Almost Any Of Those Against Which Mankind Have Hitherto Struggles, The Poor Are Not Wrong In Believing.

Stupidity Is Much The Same All The World Over

How Can Great Minds Be Produced In A Country Where The Test Of Great Minds Is Agreeing In The Opinion Of Small Minds?

... The Besetting Danger Is Not So Much Of Embracing Falsehood For Truth, As Of Mistaking A Part Of The Truth For The Whole.