Ralph Barton Perry Quotes

A man can do his best only by confidently seeking (and perpetually missing) an unattainable perfection.

Ignorance deprives people of freedom because they do not know what alternatives there are. It is impossible to choose to do what one has never "heard of."

I prefer credulity to skepticism and cynicism for there is more promise in almost anything than in nothing at all.

The fundamental idea of modern capitalism is not the right of the individual to possess and enjoy what he has earned, but the ;thesis that the exercise of this right redounds to the general good.

Voting is the least arduous of a citizen's duties. He has the prior and harder duty of making up his mind.

Indeed I am inclined to go so far as to say that the one cause for which one may properly make war is the cause of peace.

What is needed in the present plight of mankind is not more science but a change of heart that shall move mankind to devote to constructive and peaceful purposes.

The English mind is intelligent rather than intellectual. The French are intellectual in the sense that the intellect is emancipated and left free to run its own course.

This insistence on "having his say upon the universe" is the profoundest motive of William James thinking as well as of his filial gratitude.