It will probably be conceded that it is desirable people should exercise their understandings, and that an intelligent following of custom, or even occasionally an intelligent deviation from custom, is better than a blind and simply mechanical adhesion to it. (pp. 73-74)

It really is of importance, not only what men do, but also what manner of men they are that do it. Among the works of man, which human life is rightly employed…

In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is …

All languages and literatures are full of general observations on life, both as to what it is, and how to conduct oneself in it; observations which everybody k…

The law, being an inherited accumulation, imposes itself on each generation willy-nilly. Any society whose members enter and leave it severally must for very c…

It may indeed prove to be far the most difficult and not the least important task for human reason rationally to comprehend its own limitations. It is essentia…

The open society is one in which men have learned to be to some extent critical of taboos, and to base decisions on the authority of their own intelligence.