The modern man thinks that everything ought to be done for the sake of something else, and never for its own sake.

It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go.

Unless a man has been taught what to do with success after getting it, the achievement of it must inevitably leave him a prey to boredom.

We are ... led to a somewhat vague distinction between what we may call "hard" data and "soft" data. This distinction is a matter of degree, and must not be pressed; but if not taken too seriously it may help to make the situation clear. I mean by "hard" data those which resist the solvent influence of critical reflection, and by "soft" data those which, under the operation of this process, become to our minds more or less doubtful.

Our beliefs are, however, often contrary to fact.

My own belief is that in most ages and in most places obscure psychological forces led men to adopt systems involving quite unnecessary cruelty, and that this is still the case among the most civilized races at the present day.

People are zealous for a cause when they are not quite positive that it is true.