The truth which we can see more and more clearly is that man has infinite potentiality, which, properly used, could make his life very much like his fantasies of heaven. In potentiality, he is the most awe-inspiring phenomenon in the universe, the most creative, the most ingenious. Throughout the ages, philosophers have sought to understand the true, the good, and the beautiful, and to speak for its forces. Now we know that the best place to look for them is in man himself.

— Right to be Human, Edward Hoffman

It is a great mortification to the vanity of man, that his utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature’s productions, either for beauty or value. Art is only the under-workman, and is employed to give a few strokes of embellishment to those pieces, which come from the hand of the master

— David Hume, Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary

This is not nihilistic moral relativism, according to which all arguments are valid (and therefore none of them are), but rather, recognition of the fact that arguments are often a matter of perspective. They can be seen as valid or invalid, weak or strong, only within specific contexts.

— Nana Ariel, Back to the Sophists

In a broken world, we must also realize that power is often unearned, and it doesn’t just come to those who would use it well.

— Francis Su, Mathematics for Human Flourishing

Increasingly, people don’t become academics because of intelligence, but rather because of a lower grasp of disorder.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes