“We must strive for freedom if we strive for self-knowledge. The task of self-knowledge and of further self-development is of such importance and seriousness, it demands such intensity of effort, that to attempt it any old way and amongst other things is impossible. The person who undertakes this task must put it first in his life, which is not so long that he can afford to squander it on trifles.” IfsWayFirstsPersonsLongSelfEffortImpossibleDevelopmentDemandTasksImportanceStriveIntensitySelf KnowledgeSelf DevelopmentSeriousnessTriflesOld Ways Author:G. I. Gurdjieff
“We Social-Democrats always stand for democracy, not "in the name of capitalism," but in the name of clearing the path for our movement, which clearing is impossible without the development of capitalism.” NamesSocialDemocracyPathImpossibleMovementDevelopmentCapitalismDemocratClearing Author:Vladimir Lenin
“It is impossible to understand the economic system in which we are living if we try to interpret it as a rational scheme.It has to be understood as an awkward phase in a continuing process of historical development.” IfsTryingProcessImpossibleEconomicDevelopmentUnderstoodHistoricalRationalAwkwardPhasesSchemesContinuingEconomic Systems Author:Edwin Arlington Robinson
“The cure-alls of the present day are infinitely various and infinitely obliging. Applied psychology, autosuggestion, and royal roads to learning or to wealth are urged upon us by kindly, if not altogether disinterested, reformers. Simple and easy systems for the dissolution of discord and strife; simple and easy systems for the development of personality and power. Booklets of counsel on 'How to Get What We Want,' which is impossible; booklets on 'Visualization,' warranted to make us want what we get, which is ignoble.” IfsThinkingWantEasyWealthSimplePsychologyImpossiblePersonalityDevelopmentVariousCuresStrifeRoyalVisualizationPresent DayWishful ThinkingDiscordReformersDissolutionDisinterestedIgnobleGullibility Author:Agnes Repplier
“We live today in a world where most of the really important developments in everything from math and physics and astronomy to public policy and psychology and classical music are so extremely abstract and technically complex and context-dependent that it's next to impossible for the ordinary citizen to feel that they (the developments) have much relevance to her actual life.” WorldFeelsImportantTodayNextPsychologyImpossiblePolicyDevelopmentCitizensOrdinaryComplexesMathPhysicsAstronomyAbstractDependentRelevanceClassical MusicLive For TodayPublic PolicyOrdinary CitizensActual Life Author:David Foster Wallace
“Nothing is unthinkable, nothing impossible to the balanced person, provided it comes out of the needs of life and is dedicated to life's further development.” NeedsPersonsImpossibleDevelopmentDedicatedBalancedUnthinkable Author:Lewis Mumford
“Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, "Lighthouses" as the poet said "erected in the sea of time." They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind, Books are humanity in print.” WorldMindHas BeensSaidBookHumanityChangeTeacherImpossibleMagicSeaPoetDevelopmentCivilizationWindowTreasureCompanionPrintEnginesMagicianBankersLighthouseStandstill Book:101 Facts of life Source: 101 Facts of life
“Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected; Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; Neglecting development and refinement of the mind; Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.” MindBelieveMadeMistakeWorryImpossibleMankindCenturyChangedDevelopmentSixGainsAccomplishImprovementCrushNeglectPreferenceAttemptingRefinementInsistingBelivePersonal GainRoman Philosophers Author:Marcus Tullius Cicero