The only chance for victory over the brainwash is the right of every man to have his ideas judged one at a time. You never get clarity as long as you have these packaged words, as long as a word is used by twenty-five people in twenty-five different ways. That seems to me to be the first fight, if there is going to be any intellect left.
It's not a question of learning much. On the contrary. It's a question of unlearning much.
Confidence: thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.
Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.
You're also finding out something as you read vitally important for making your way in the world. And it's this: The world doesn't have to be like this. Things can be different.
If you can handle three elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, then handle only five. In that way the ones you do handle, you handle with more ease, more mastery, and you create a feeling of strength in reserve.
History is moving in zig-zags and by roundabout ways.
Wisdom sets bounds even to knowledge.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight; build it anyway.
There shall be no slavery of the mind.