Out Of The Crooked Timber Of Humanity,

Few Things Have Done More Harm Than The Belief On The Part Of Individuals Or Groups (or Tribes Or States Or Nations Or Churches) That He Or She Or They Are In Sole Possession Of The Truth: Especially About How To Live, What To Be And Do - And That Those Who Differ From Them Are Not Merely Mistaken, But Wicked Or Mad: And Need Restraining Or Suppressing.

One Belief, More Than Any Other, Is Responsible For The Slaughter Of Individuals On The Alter Of The Great Historical Ideas - Justice Or Progress Or Happiness Of Future Generations... Or Emancipation Of A Nation Or Race Or Class... This Is The Belief That Somewhere... There Is A Final Solution.

The Intellectual Power, Honesty, Lucidity, Courage, And Disinterested Love Of The Truth Of The Most Gifted Thinkers Of The Eighteenth Century Remain To This Day Without Parallel. Their Age Is One Of The Best And Most Hopeful Episodes In The Life Of Mankind.

The Trouble With Academics And Commentators Is That They Care More About Whether Ideas Are Interesting Than Whether They Are True.

The Notion Of The Perfect Whole, The Ultimate Solution In Which All Good Things Coexist, Seems To Me Not Merely Unobtainable--that Is A Truism--but Conceptually Incoherent. ......some Among The Great Goods Cannot Live Together. That Is A Conceptual Truth. We Are Doomed To Choose, And Every Choice May Entail An Irreparable Loss.