13 results across authors, quotes, works, categories, subcategories & tags
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”
“Devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality; there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.”
“We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.”
“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”
“But genius always looks forward. The eyes of man are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead. Man hopes. Genius creates. To create—to create—is the proof of a divine presence.”
“You will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.”
“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness.”
“With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.”
“What is the hardest task in the world? To think.”
“In comparing the number of good books with the shortness of life, many might well be read by proxy, if we had good proxies.”
An argument for intellectual independence, urging American scholars to learn from nature, books and experience while developing their own judgement.
Helen Keller recounts her childhood, education and development as a deafblind person, focusing on communication, learning and intellectual independence.