“Could technology, understood as the disposition and activity of mastery, turn out to be a stumbling block in the path of the master himself?”

“Women have ever been the stumbling block and betrayers of ambition.”

Arthur Desmond (1859–1929) New Zealnd writer

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“The long history of mankind is studded with convergences, perhaps most notably in social systems and the use of artefacts and technology. But for human history, set in the arrow of time, there appears to be one intolerable stumbling-block. This is the catastrophic failure in human values and decency.”

Simon Conway Morris (1951) British palaeontologist

“The bible and the church have been the greatest stumbling block in the way of women's emancipation.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) Suffragist and Women's Rights activist

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”

Julia Child (1921–2004) American chef

“The art of growing old is the art of being regarded by the oncoming generations as a support and not as a stumbling-block, as a confidant and not as a rival.”

André Maurois (1885–1967) French writer

“There will always be rocks in the road ahead of us. They will be stumbling blocks or stepping stones; it all depends on how you use them.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

“Instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.”

Pericles (-494–-429 BC) Greek statesman, orator, and general of Athens

“The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and intelligent. The machine easily masters the grim and the dumb.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …