Source: Generation of Vipers (1942), p. 20
Context: The blame for Armageddon lies on man. And the millennium will come only when the average man exhibits a scientific integrity about all he is and does — instead of half of it. Many a psychological Archimedes has put signposts on the hard road man must follow if he is to avoid self-destruction and come into his own. A few very great modern scientists have added to the lore. Indications of what man may expect of himself are everywhere at hand. But most men must first be persuaded that the task lies ahead and not behind — that we are infants still, with loaded guns for toys.
“the average man does not want to be free. he simply wants to be safe.”
Source: Startide Rising (1983), Chapter 81 (p. 364)
Song lyrics, American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002), The Man Comes Around
Universities, Actual and Ideal (1874)
1870s
“I am only an average man, but by George, I work harder at it than the average man.”
Song lyrics, Desire (1976), Hurricane
Context: Here comes the story of The Hurricane, the man the authorities came to blame for something that he never done. Put in a prison cell, but one time he coulda been the champion of the world.
Rome, or Reason? A Reply to Cardinal Manning. Part I. The North American Review (1888)
Context: It is probably safe to say that at one time, or during one phase of the development of man, everything was miraculous. After a time, the mind slowly developing, certain phenomena, always happening under like conditions, were called “natural,” and none suspected any special interference. The domain of the miraculous grew less and less—the domain of the natural larger; that is to say, the common became the natural, but the uncommon was still regarded as the miraculous. The rising and setting of the sun ceased to excite the wonder of mankind—there was no miracle about that; but an eclipse of the sun was miraculous. Men did not then know that eclipses are periodical, that they happen with the same certainty that the sun rises. It took many observations through many generations to arrive at this conclusion. Ordinary rains became “natural,” floods remained “miraculous.” But it can all be summed up in this: The average man regards the common as natural, the uncommon as supernatural. The educated man—and by that I mean the developed man—is satisfied that all phenomena are natural, and that the supernatural does not and can not exist.
The Analects, Chapter I, Other chapters
Context: The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved.
[God and the Universe: Eddington, Jeans, Huxley, & Einstein, 128, 1931, Pioneer Press, https://books.google.com/books?id=QmBHAAAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=happier]
“A married man is only half a man.”
Les silences du colonel Bramble (The Silence of Colonel Bramble)
