We have unprecedented conditions to deal with and novel adjustments to make—there can be no doubt of that. We also have a great stock of scientific knowledge unknown to our grandfathers with which to operate. So novel are the conditions, so copious the knowledge, that we must undertake the arduous task of reconsidering a great part of the opinions about man and his relations to his fellow men which have been handed down to us by previous generations who lived in far other conditions and possessed far less information about the world and themselves. We have, however, first to create an unprecedented attitude of mind to cope with unprecedented conditions, and to utilize unprecedented knowledge.
—James Harvey Robinson
Topics: Attitude
Greatness, in the last analysis, is largely bravery—courage in escaping from old ideas and old standards.
—James Harvey Robinson
Topics: Courage
Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.
—James Harvey Robinson
Topics: Reason
Each of us is great insofar as we perceive and act on the infinite possibilities which lie undiscovered and unrecognized about us.
—James Harvey Robinson
One cannot but wonder at this constantly recurring phrase getting something for nothing, as if it were the peculiar and perverse ambition of disturbers of society. Except for our animal outfit, practically all we have is handed us gratis. Can the most complacent reactionary flatter himself that he invented the art of writing or the printing press, or discovered his religious, economic, and moral convictions, or any of the devices which supply him with meat and raiment or any of the sources of such pleasure as he may derive from literature or the fine arts? In short, civilization is little else than getting something for nothing.
—James Harvey Robinson
Topics: Value
Our goal, simply stated, is to be the best.
—James Harvey Robinson
Topics: Excellence
In its amplest meaning History includes every trace and vestige of everything that man has done or thought since first he appeared on the earth.
—James Harvey Robinson
Topics: History
We find it hard to believe that other people’s thoughts are as silly as our own, but they probably are.
—James Harvey Robinson
Topics: Thinking, Thought, Thoughts
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Henry Adams American Historian
- Daniel J. Boorstin American Historian
- Jacques Barzun American Cultural Historian
- Theodore H. White American Journalist
- James Truslow Adams American Historian
- Will Durant American Historian
- David McCullough American Historian
- Christopher Lasch American Historian
- Russell Lynes American Art Historian
- Theodore Roosevelt American Head of State
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