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If we only obey those rules that we think are just and reasonable, then no rule will stand, for there is no rule that some will not think is unjust and unreasonable. And if we wish to push our own individual advantage, as we see it, then we will always find reason to believe that some hampering rule is unjust and unreasonable.
Rules, established with reason and justice, can easily outlive their usefulness as circumstances change,
Superstition always directs action in the absence of knowledge.
Common belief, even universal belief, is not, in itself, evidence.”
“if you wish to call the truth impossible, that is your privilege, but it will get you nowhere.”
the prospects of intellectual suicide might not stop them from indulging their hatred,
If we look for them, we look for sparrow-milk and rabbit-feathers.”
“I do not wish to dive until I am sure there is water in the swimming pool,
A planet might deteriorate even if human beings existed upon it, if the society were itself abnormal and did not understand the importance of preserving the environment.” “Surely,” said Pelorat, “such a society would quickly be destroyed. I don’t think it would be possible for human beings to fail to understand the importance of retaining the very factors that are keeping them alive.”
If you start dismissing anyone or anything you want to do away with as just a this or just a that, you can destroy anything you wish. There are always categories you can find for them.”
“People have been known to give their lives for others.” “A rare phenomenon. Many more people have been known to sacrifice the dearest needs of others to some foolish whim of their own.”
myths and legends contain borrowings, moral lessons, nature cycles, and a hundred other distorting influences, and we labor to cut them away and get to what might be a kernel of truth. In fact, these same techniques must be applied to the most sober histories, for no one writes the clear and apparent truth—if such a thing can even be said to exist.
