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For the educated, the authority of science rested on the strictness of its methods for the mass, it rested on the powers of explanation.

Jacques Barzun

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Jacques Barzun
Age: 104 †
Born: 1907
Born: November 30
Died: 2012
Died: October 25
Critic
Cultural Historian
Historian
Philosopher
University Teacher
Writer
Methods
Explanation
Powers
Educated
Method
Mass
Authority
Strictness
Science
Rested

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The philosophical implication of race-thinking is that by offering us the mystery of heredity as an explanation, it diverts our attention from the social and intellectual factors that make up personality.
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[T]hat is the triumph of history - truth absolute is not at hand the original with which to match the copy does not exist.
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To denounce does not free the self from what it hates, any more than ignoring the past shuts off its influence.
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Life is given us as a passion.
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Out of man's mind in free play comes the creation Science. It renews itself, like the generations, thanks to an activity which is the best game of homo ludens: science is in the strictest and best sense a glorious entertainment.
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Highly-adaptive, informal networks move diagonally and eliptically, skipping entire functions to get things done.
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Above all, do not talk yourself out of good ideas by trying to expound them at haphazard meetings.
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Except among those whose education has been in the minimalist style, it is understood that hasty moral judgments about the past are a form of injustice.
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Strangers who have seen Shaw face to face are wont to report their surprise at his gentleness and consideration, his willingness to listen and his complete lack of pose.
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Science is an all-pervasive energy, for it is at once a mode of thought, a source of strong emotion, and a faith as fanatical as any in history.
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Education in the United States is a passion and a paradox. Millions want it, and commend it, and are busy about it. At the same time they degrade it by trying to get it free of charge and free of work.
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Above all, the ability to feel the force of an argument apart from the substance it deals with is the strongest weapon against prejudice.
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To delve into history entails, besides the grievance of hard work, the danger that in the depths one may lose one’s scapegoats.
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You never step in the same river of thought twice, because neither you nor it are the same.
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Science is, in the best and strictest sense, glorious entertainment
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The greatest artists have never been men of taste. By never sophisticating their instincts they have never lost the awareness of the great simplicities, which they relish both from appetite and from the challenge these offer to skill in competition with popular art.
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Finding oneself was a misnomer a self is not found but made.
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Simple English is no one’s mother tongue. It has to be worked for.
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Old age is like learning a new profession. And not one of your own choosing.
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Speech, after all, is in some measure an expression of character, and flexibility in its use is a good way to tell your friends from the robots.
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