xiv
There are two great rules of life, the one general and the other
particular. The first is that every one can, in the end, get what he
wants if he only tries. This is the general rule. The particular
rule is that every individual is, more or less, an exception to the
general rule.
xv
Nature is essentially mean, mediocre. You can have schemes for
raising the level of this mean, but not for making every one two
inches taller than his neighbour, and this is what people really care
about.
xvi
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of
every organism to live beyond its income.
The World
i
The world is a gambling-table so arranged that all who enter the
casino must play and all must lose more or less heavily in the long
run, though they win occasionally by the way.
ii
We play out our days as we play out cards, taking them as they come,
not knowing what they will be, hoping for a lucky card and sometimes
getting one, often getting just the wrong one.
iii
The world may not be particularly wise--still, we know of nothing
wiser.
iv
The world will always be governed by self-interest. We should not
try to stop this, we should try to make the self-interest of cads a
little more coincident with that of decent people.
The Individual and the World
There is an eternal antagonism of interest between the individual and
the world at large.
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