The Attempt To Make Heaven On Earth

Those Who Promise Us Paradise On Earth Never Produced Anything But A Hell.

The Conspiracy Theory Of Society... [is] A Typical Result Of The Secularization Of A Religious Superstition. The Belief In The Homeric Gods Whose Conspiracies Explain The History Of The Trojan War Is Gone. The Gods Are Abandoned. But Their Place Is Filled By Powerful Men Or Groups - Sinister Pressure Groups Whose Wickedness Is Responsible For All The Evils We Suffer From - Such As The Learned Elders Of Zion, Or The Monopolists, Or The Capitalists, Or The Imperialists.

Bold Ideas, Unjustified Anticipations, And Speculative Thought, Are Our Only Means For Interpreting Nature: Our Only Organon, Our Only Instrument, For Grasping Her. And We Must Hazard Them To Win Our Prize. Those Among Us Who Are Unwilling To Expose Their Ideas To The Hazard Of Refutation Do Not Take Part In The Scientific Game.

We Do Not Choose Political Freedom Because It Promises Us This Or That. We Choose It Because It Makes Possible The Only Dignified Form Of Human Coexistence, The Only Form In Which We Can Be Fully Responsible For Ourselves. Whether We Realize Its Possibilities Depends On All Kinds Of Things — And Above All On Ourselves.

There Is No Pure, Disinterested, Theory-free Observation.