To delve into history entails, besides the grievance of hard work, the danger that in the depths one may lose oneโs scapegoats.
Jacques BarzunYou never step in the same river of thought twice, because neither you nor it are the same.
Jacques BarzunTake a portion of wit, And fashion it fit, Like a needle, with point and with eye: A point that can wound, An eye to look round, And at folly or vice let it fly
Jacques BarzunThe world has long observed that small acts of immorality, if repeated, will destroy character. It is equally manifest, though never said, that uttering nonsense and half-truth without cease ends by destroying Intellect
Jacques BarzunExcept among those whose education has been in the minimalist style, it is understood that hasty moral judgments about the past are a form of injustice.
Jacques BarzunMachines are admirable and tyrannize only with the user's consent. Where, then, is the enemy? Not where the machine gives relief from drudgery but where human judgment abdicates. The smoothest machine-made product of the age is the organization man, for even the best organizing principle tends to corrupt, and the mechanical principle corrupts absolutely.
Jacques Barzun