Apothegms and Observations XXI

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  1. To call a view dangerous is not to call it false.
  2. I am less inclined to follow a book if it is blind to psychology.
  3. It is a strange thing to assume that the winner of the debate holds the truth.
  4. The modern person suffers from a profound problem: boredom.
  5. To believe boredom is trivial is to forget the experience of boredom.
  6. Teenagers are more knowledgeable than adults in this: they understand the difficulties of boredom.
  7. Boredom is certainly a spiritual problem, but perhaps it is not only a spiritual problem.
  8. To live a perpetually bored life: surely that is agony.
  9. To tell someone, “It was nothing,” when they sincerely apologize for a wrong they have committed: this is to deny them forgiveness.
  10. It is a strange thing to assume that technological progress necessarily makes life better.
  11. Boredom is unredeemed leisure.
  12. The best leaders can follow, and the best followers can lead.
  13. Does wisdom avoid pain?
  14. The true man of honor bestows honor upon others.
  15. The sensitive artist can become the greatest tyrant of them all, and quite unknowingly.
  16. The data suggests an inverse relationship between the accuracy of my words and the size of my ego while saying them.
  17. Nietzsche and Rand say that pity elevates the inferior, and thus reverses all natural values. This is refuted by pity recognizing that another’s position is, in fact, inferior. This is refuted by pity understanding that an inferior position is not how things ought to be, because Man holds dignity. This is refuted by pity desiring to change the inferior position into a noble position.
  18. A leader who causes others to depend upon himself is probably an egotist. The good leader desires others to be leaders, independent of him. But this is a hard saying.
  19. I am fairly sure that I have not come across any man who is able to virtuously wield much power over people, and I am certain that I am not able. But luckily, I do know one Man who is able…
  20. It is a true pleasure to possess skill in a task, and to see the skills of others.
  21. An individualist political system is a contradiction in terms.
  22. Ip Man is nobler than Howard Roark.
  23. Charity that destroys the self-respect of the recipient is either tragically ignorant or cruelly possessive.
  24. “Post-Christian society” implies that Christianity’s influence is now wholly in the past, therefore the term is imprecise.
  25. Self-control is not easy.
  26. The eternal Truth is not a sad, but a happy thing.
  27. The mature man respects the concept of fragility, but is not paralyzed by it.
  28. It is a burden to have an incompetent leader. Therefore, the loving leader desires to be competent.
  29. The virtuous man has boldness.
  30. In my eyes, a good government is one I can mostly ignore. But this is perhaps a dream.

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