Curiosity is idle only to those who fail to realize that it may be a very rare and indispensable thing.

We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship. It is obviously not the ideas themselves that are dear to us, but our self-esteem, which is threatened.

Few of us take the pains to study the origin of our cherished convictions.

Man has long found solace in good talk to offset bad conduct.

Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.

To become historically-minded is to be grown-up.

We find it hard to believe that other people's thoughts are as silly as our own, but they probably are.