There will be some fundamental assumptions which adherents of all the variant systems within the epoch unconsciously presuppose. Such assumptions appear so obvious that people do not know what they are assuming because no other way of putting things has ever occurred to them. With these assumptions a certain limited number of types of philosophic systems are possible, and this group of systems constitutes the philosophy of the epoch.

It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.

The great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past.

Each human being is a more complex structure than any social system to which he belongs.

The defense of morals is the battle-cry which best rallies stupidity against change.

Our reasonings grasp at straws for premises and float on gossamers for deductions.

Value is coextensive with reality.