“When plugged in, the least elaborate computer can be relied on to work to the fullest extent of its capacity. The greatest mind cannot be relied on for the simplest thing; its variability is its superiority.”
"The Masterpiece," in A Stroll with William James (1983)
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Jacques Barzun 46
Historian 1907–2012Related quotes

The Ocean of Theosophy by William Q. Judge (1893), Chapter 1, Theosophy and the Masters

A. Kozinski & J.D. Williams, It Is a Constitution We Are Expounding: A Debate, 1989 Utah L. Rev. 978, at 980. http://notabug.com/kozinski/immortalphrase.
“Long before the empire had reached its greatest extent, the Romans were bored by it.”
The Roman Triumph, p. 121
The Corrupt Society - From Ancient Greece To Present-Day America (1975)
“A nation shows that it is dying when it ceases to believe in its Mission and its superiority.”
The Enemy of Europe (1953)

Source: 2010s, Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction (2012), Chapter One