“Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts.” ThinkingSelfPlayFactsGovernmentWishTermActingSituationRolesSourceNotionOneselfContraryFactorsDeceptionFixedAllowingSelf DeceptionWishful ThinkingRejectingAssessing Book:The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam Source: The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
“... in nine out of ten cases the original wish to write is the wish to make oneself felt[ellipsis in source] the non-essential writer never gets past that wish.” WritingPastWishFeltCasesSourceTenEssentialsOriginalsOneselfNine Author:Elizabeth Bowen
“... the sciences are like a beautiful river, of which the course is easy to follow, when it has acquired a certain regularity; but if one wants to go back to the source, one will find it nowhere, because it is everywhere; it is spread so much [as to be] over all the surface of the earth; it is the same if one wants to go back to the origin of the sciences, one will find only obscurity, vague ideas, vicious circles; and one loses oneself in the primitive ideas.” IfsWantIdeasEarthBeautifulCertainCoursesEasyLosesSourceRiversOneselfSpreadSurfaceCirclesPrimitiveVagueViciousObscurityRegularityVicious CirclesVague IdeasBeautiful River Author:Lazare Carnot
“Journalism has not only its social stimulations but its aesthetic virtues. An invitation into print, from however suspect a source, is an opportunity to make something beautiful, to discover within oneself a treasure that would otherwise have remained buried.” BeautifulOpportunitySocialVirtueSourceOneselfTreasureJournalismSuspectsPrintBuriedAestheticInvitationsSomething BeautifulStimulation Author:John Updike