them, a man must become uncharitable, but not more so than is necessary
for the purpose.

40

The greatest piece of good fortune is that which corrects our
deficiencies and redeems our mistakes.

41

Reading ought to mean understanding; writing ought to mean knowing
something; believing ought to mean comprehending; when you desire a
thing, you will have to take it; when you demand it, you will not get
it; and when you are experienced, you ought to be useful to others.

42

The stream is friendly to the miller whom it serves; it likes to pour
over the mill wheels; what is the good of it stealing through the valley
in apathy?

43

Whoso is content with pure experience and acts upon it has enough of
truth. The growing child is wise in this sense.

44

Theory is in itself of no use, except in so far as it makes us believe
in the connection of phenomena.

45

When a man asks too much and delights in complication, he is exposed to
perplexity.

46

Thinking by means of analogies is not to be condemned. Analogy has this
advantage, that it comes to no conclusion, and does not, in truth, aim
at finality at all. Induction, on the contrary, is fatal, for it sets up
an object and keeps it in view, and, working on towards it, drags false
and true with it in its train.

47

The absent works upon us by tradition. The usual form of it may be
called historical; a higher form, akin to the imaginative faculty, is
the mythical. If some third form of it is to be sought behind this last,
and it has any meaning, it is transformed into the mystical. It also
easily becomes sentimental, so that we appropriate to our use only what
suits us.

48

In contemplation as in action, we must distinguish between what may be
attained and what is unattainable. Without this, little can be achieved,
either in life or in knowledge.

49

_'Le sense commun est le genie de l'humanite.'_

Common-sense, which is here put forward as the genius of humanity, must
be examined first of all in the way it shows itself. If we inquire the
purpose to which humanity puts it, we find as follows: Humanity is
conditioned by needs. If they are not satisfied, men become impatient;
and if they are, it seems not to affect them. The normal man moves
between these two states, and he applies his understanding--his
so-called common-sense--to the satisfaction of his needs. When his needs
are satisfied, his task is to fill up the waste spaces of indifferen