“There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.”
Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman
Sir Joshua Reynolds. Edison liked the quote and posted it around his factory.
Misattributed
“The most fatal trap into which thinking may fall is the equation of existence and expediency.”
Source: Who Is Man? (1965), Ch. 5<!-- Existence and expediency, p. 85 -->
Context: Man is naturally self-centered and he is inclined to regard expediency as the supreme standard for what is right and wrong. However, we must not convert an inclination into an axiom that just as man's perceptions cannot operate outside time and space, so his motivations cannot operate outside expediency; that man can never transcend his own self. The most fatal trap into which thinking may fall is the equation of existence and expediency.
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Abraham Joshua Heschel130
Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi 1907–1972Related quotes
“There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.”
Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) English painter, specialising in portraits
Quoted in Time magazine December 8, 1930
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Leonid Kantorovich (1912–1986) Russian mathematician
"On one class of functional equations" (1936), as cited in: O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., " Leonid Kantorovich http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Kantorovich.html", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews
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" Lyman King http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lyman-king/"
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
Letter to Catherine Macaulay Graham (9 January 1790)
1790s
“Don't fall into the trap of imagining that the West can remake societies”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
Thatcher, Margaret (2002). Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-095912-6.
“They get entangled in non-essentials and fall into the trap set by cleverer people.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi
Source: Letters and Papers from Prison (1967; 1997), Who Stands Fast?, p. 4.
Context: The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil. The "reasonable" people's failure is obvious. With the best intentions and a naive lack of realism, they think that with a little reason they can bend back into position the framework that has got out of joint. In their lack of vision they want to do justice to all sides, and so the conflicting forces wear them down with nothing achieved. Disappointed by the world's unreasonableness, they see themselves condemned to ineffectiveness; they step aside in resignation or collapse before the stronger party.
Still more pathetic is the total collapse of moral fanaticism. Fanatics think that their single-minded principles qualify them to do battle with the powers of evil; but like a bull they rush at the red cloak instead of the person who is holding it; they exhaust themselves and are beaten. They get entangled in non-essentials and fall into the trap set by cleverer people.