Albert J. Nock Quotes

The question of who is right and who is wrong has seemed to me always too small to be worth a moment's thought, while the question of what is right and what is wrong has seemed all-important.
Albert J. Nock

Thought, Small, Moment

The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State known to history originated in any other manner.
Albert J. Nock

Positive, History, State

Assuming that man has a distinct spiritual nature, a soul, why should it be thought unnatural that under appropriate conditions of maladjustment, his soul might die before his body does; or that his soul might die without his knowing it?
Albert J. Nock

Nature, Spiritual, Thought

The mind is like the stomach. It is not how much you put into it that counts, but how much it digests.
Albert J. Nock

Mind, Put, Stomach

As might be supposed, my parents were quite poor, but we somehow never seemed to lack anything we needed, and I never saw a trace of discontent or a failure in cheerfulness over their lot in life, as indeed over anything.
Albert J. Nock

Life, Failure, Parents

I am said to be difficult of acquaintance, unwilling to meet any one half way, and showing a social manner which is easy, not diffident, but formal and unresponsive, tending constantly to hold people off.
Albert J. Nock

Said, Difficult, Easy

As far as I know, I have no pride of opinion.
Albert J. Nock

Opinion, Pride, Far

Concerning culture as a process, one would say that it means learning a great many things and then forgetting them; and the forgetting is as necessary as the learning.
Albert J. Nock

Great, Learning, Means

Considered now as a possession, one may define culture as the residuum of a large body of useless knowledge that has been well and truly forgotten.
Albert J. Nock

Knowledge, May, Body

Diligent as one must be in learning, one must be as diligent in forgetting; otherwise the process is one of pedantry, not culture.
Albert J. Nock

Learning, Forgetting, Culture

It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own.
Albert J. Nock

Money, Power, State

Learning has always been made much of, but forgetting has always been deprecated; therefore pedantry has pretty well established itself throughout the modern world at the expense of culture.
Albert J. Nock

Learning, Made, Pretty

Life has obliged him to remember so much useful knowledge that he has lost not only his history, but his whole original cargo of useless knowledge; history, languages, literatures, the higher mathematics, or what you will - are all gone.
Albert J. Nock

Life, History, Knowledge

Like Prince von Bismarck in diplomacy, I have no secrets.
Albert J. Nock

Secrets, Diplomacy, Prince

Organized Christianity has always represented immortality as a sort of common heritage; but I never could see why spiritual life should not be conditioned on the same terms as all life, i. e., correspondence with environment.
Albert J. Nock

Life, Spiritual, Why

Perhaps one reason for the falling-off of belief in a continuance of conscious existence is to be found in the quality of life that most of us lead. There is not much in it with which, in any kind of reason, one can associate the idea of immortality.
Albert J. Nock

Life, Reason, Idea

Perhaps the prevalence of pedantry may be largely accounted for by the common error of thinking that, because useful knowledge should be remembered, any kind of knowledge that is at all worth learning should be remembered too.
Albert J. Nock

Knowledge, Learning, Thinking

Someone asked me years ago if it were true that I disliked Jews, and I replied that it was certainly true, not at all because they are Jews but because they are folks, and I don't like folks.
Albert J. Nock

True, Someone, Asked

The business of a scientific school is the dissemination of useful knowledge, and this is a noble enterprise and indispensable withal; society can not exist unless it goes on.
Albert J. Nock

Business, Society, Knowledge

The position of modern science, as far as an ignorant man of letters can understand it, seems not a step in advance of that held by Huxley and Romanes in the last century.
Albert J. Nock

Science, Understand, Far

The university's business is the conservation of useless knowledge; and what the university itself apparently fails to see is that this enterprise is not only noble but indispensable as well, that society can not exist unless it goes on.
Albert J. Nock

Business, Society, Knowledge

Useless knowledge can be made directly contributory to a force of sound and disinterested public opinion.
Albert J. Nock

Knowledge, Made, Opinion

Share with your Friends

Everyone likes a good quote - don't forget to share.

Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Philosopher

Born: October 13, 1870

Died: August 19, 1945

Links

Find on Amazon: Albert J. Nock

Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics

Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

Related Authors

William James
John Dewey
Deepak Chopra
Mortimer Adler
Lysander Spooner
Robert M. Pirsig
Allan Bloom
John Bradshaw
More

Get Social with BrainyQuote

BrainyQuote Desktop

BrainyQuote Mobile

Site

Quote of the Day

Social

BQ on Pinterest

Syndication

Funny Quote Feed

Love Quote Feed

Nature Quote Feed

About Us