Pascal’s Law
Blaise Pascal
The greater the intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no differences between men.
Rosten’s Other Laws
Leo Rosten
1. Thinking is harder work than hard work.
2. The love of money is the source of an enormous amount of good; the fact that the good is a by-product of the selfish pursuit of riches has nothing to do with its indisputable value.
3. Most people confuse complexity with profundity; an opaque prose with deep meaning. But the greatest ideas have been expressed clearly.
4. Most men never mature; they simply grow taller (quoted in Saturday Review April 4th 1970).
Schiller’s Dictum
Friedrich von Schiller
Anyone taken as an individual is tolerably sensible and reasonable - as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead.
Swift’s First Law
Jonathan Swift
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.
Ulmann’s Razor
Mitchell Ulmann
When stupidity is a sufficient explanation, there is no need to have recourse to any other.
Xenophanes’s Law
Xenophanes
It takes a wise man to recognise a wise man.
Burns’s Balance
Anon
If the assumptions are wrong, the conclusions aren’t likely to be very good.
Donsen’s Law
Anon
The specialist learns more and more about less and less, until finally he knows everything about nothing; whereas the generalist learns less and less about more and more, until finally he knows nothing about everything.
Lynn’s Observation on Religious Belief
Richard Lynn
Clever people are atheists. Cleverer people aren’t.
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