The idealist's program of political or economic reform may be impracticable, absurd, demonstrably ridiculous; but it can never be successfully opposed merely by pointing out that this is the case. A negative opposition cannot be wholly effectual: there must be a competing idealism; something must be offered that is not only less objectionable but more desirable.

Prudence and compromise are necessary means, but every man should have an impudent end which he will not compromise.

The need to exert power, when thwarted in the open fields of life, is the more likely to assert itself in trifles.

One should never criticize his own work except in a fresh and hopeful mood. The self-criticism of a tired mind is suicide.

Institutions - government, churches, industries, and the like - have properly no other function than to contribute to human freedom; and in so far as they fail, on the whole, to perform this function, they are wrong and need reconstruction.

The literature of the inner life is very largely a record of struggle with the inordinate passions of the social self.

A talent somewhat above mediocrity, shrewd and not too sensitive, is more likely to rise in the world than genius.