“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)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Jacques Barzun46
Historian 1907–2012Related quotes
William Quan Judge (1851–1896) American occult writer
The Ocean of Theosophy by William Q. Judge (1893), Chapter 1, Theosophy and the Masters
Alex Kozinski (1950) American judge
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.
Fred Conlon (1943–2005) Irish sculptor
citation needed
Attributed
“Long before the empire had reached its greatest extent, the Romans were bored by it.”
Pierre Stephen Robert Payne (1911–1983) British lecturer, novelist, historian, poet and biographer
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.”
Francis Parker Yockey (1917–1960) American writer
The Enemy of Europe (1953)
Allen C. Guelzo (1953) American historian
Source: 2010s, Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction (2012), Chapter One