"Technology creates more problems than it solves, and may threaten or damage the quality of life."

"The material progress and well-being of one country are necessarily connected to the material progress and well-being of all other countries."

"Instead of encouraging conformity, society should show greater appreciation of individual differences."

"Truly innovative ideas do not arise from groups of people, but from individuals. When groups try to be creative, the members force each other to compromise and, as a result, creative ideas tend to be weakened and made more conventional. Most original ideas arise from individuals working alone."

"The most elusive knowledge is self-knowledge, and it is usually acquired through solitude, rather than through interaction with others."

"The purpose of education should be to provide students with a value system, a standard, a set of ideas-not to prepare them for a specific job."

"Unlike great thinkers and great artists, the most effective political leaders must often yield to public opinion and abandon principle for the sake of compromise."

"The best way to understand the character of a society is to examine the character of the men and women that the society chooses as its heroes or its heroines."

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"We learn through direct experience; to accept a theory without experiencing it is to learn nothing at all."

"As societies all over the world have more and more access to new information, the effects on life-long learning can only be positive."

"People are too quick to take action; instead they should stop to think of the possible consequences of what they might do."

"Rituals and ceremonies help define a culture. Without them, societies or groups of people have a diminished sense of who they are."

"The way people look, dress, and act reveals their attitudes and interests. You can tell much about a society's ideas and values by observing the appearance and behavior of its people."

"Progress is best made through discussion among people who have contrasting points of view."

"Most people choose a career on the basis of such pragmatic considerations as the needs of the economy, the relative ease of finding a job, and the salary they can expect to make. Hardly anyone is free to choose a career based on his or her natural talents or interest in a particular kind of work."

"Any decision-whether made by government, by a corporation, or by an individual person-must take into account future conditions more than present conditions."

"If a goal is worthy, then any means taken to attain it is justifiable."

"Too much emphasis has been placed on the need for students to challenge the assertions of others. In fact, the ability to compromise and work with others-that is, the ability to achieve social harmony-should be a major goal in every school."

"Society should identify those children who have special talents and abilities and begin training them at an early age so that they can eventually excel in their areas of ability. Otherwise, these talents are likely to remain undeveloped."

"The bombardment of visual images in contemporary society has the effect of making people less able to focus clearly and extensively on a single issue over a long period of time."

"Most important discoveries or creations are accidental: it is usually while seeking the answer to one question that we come across the answer to another."

"In order to produce successful original work, scholars and scientists must first study the successful work of others to learn what contributions remain to be made."

"In order for any work of art-whether film, literature, sculpture, or a song-to have merit, it must be understandable to most people."

"Now that computer technology has made possible the rapid accessing of large amounts of factual information, people are less likely than ever to think deeply or originally. They feel unable to compete with-much less contribute to-the quantity of information that is now available electronically."

"The increase in knowledge is forcing people to specialize. As a result, the distance between fields of specialization has become so vast that specialists in different areas are rarely able to influence each other."

"The chief benefit of the study of history is to break down the illusion that people in one period of time are significantly different from people who lived at any other time in history."

"Learning for learning's sake is an outdated concept. Today, education must serve an ulterior purpose and be directed toward clear goals."

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"Education is primarily a personal matter; it has little to do with school or college."

"Censorship is rarely, if ever, justified."

"People often look for similarities, even between very different things, and even when it is unhelpful or harmful to do so. Instead, a thing should be considered on its own terms; we should avoid the tendency to compare it to something else."

"People are mistaken when they assume that the problems they confront are more complex and challenging than the problems faced by their predecessors. This illusion is eventually dispelled with increased knowledge and experience."

"To remain vigorous, any academic field needs to be led by truly independent thinkers who are willing to ignore established boundaries and challenge long-standing assumptions."

"The best way to teach-whether as an educator, employer, or parent-is to praise positive actions and ignorenegative ones."

"The best way to learn a new subject or skill is to study small segments or details in great depth rather than to start by trying to develop a sense of the whole."

"College students-and people in general-prefer to follow directions rather than make their own decisions. Therefore, colleges should eliminate as many choices as possible in order to offer students clear direction."

" 'Moderation in all things' is ill-considered advice. Rather, one should say, 'Moderation in most things,' since many areas of human concern require or at least profit from intense focus."

"The purpose of education should be to create an academicenvironment that is separate from the outside world. This kind of environment is ideal because it allows students to focus on important ideas without being held back by practical concerns."

"Although innovations such as video, computers, and the Internet seem to offer schools improved methods for instructing students, these technologies all too often distract from real learning."

"Most people prefer restrictions and regulations to absolute freedom of choice, although they would probably deny such a preference."

"Most people are taught that loyalty is a virtue. But loyalty-whether to one's friends, to one's school or place of employment, or to any institution-is all too often a destructive rather than a positive force."

"Encouraging young people to believe that they can accomplish great things if they try hard enough is both misleading and potentially harmful."

"Computers and video technology can make facsimiles of original works such as paintings and historical" title="a.历史(上)的">historical documents available to everyone. The great advantage of this new technology is that it will enable anyone-not just scholars-to conduct in-depth research without having access to the original works."

"Conformity almost always leads to a deadening of individual creativity and energy."

"Much of the information that people assume is 'factual' actually turns out to be inaccurate. Thus, any piece of information referred to as a 'fact' should be mistrusted since it may well be proven false in the future."



"Although it is easy to respond positively to the work of another person or group, it is far more worthwhile to give negative feedback."

"An individual's greatness cannot be judged objectively by his or her contemporaries; the most objective evaluators of a person's greatness are people who belong to a later time."

"Societies should try to save every plant and animal species, regardless of the expense to humans in effort, time, and financial well-being."

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"The true value of a civilization is reflected in its artistic creations rather than in its scientific accomplishments."

"Most societies do not take their greatest thinkers seriously, even when they claim to admire them."

"We can usually learn much more from people whose views we share than from people whose views contradict our own; disagreement can cause stress and inhibit learning."

"Competition is ultimately more beneficial than detrimental to society."

"It is more important to allocate money for immediate, existing social problems than to spend it on long-term research that might help future generations."

"No field of study can advance significantly unless outsiders bring their knowledge and experience to that field of study."

"A nation should require all its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college rather than allow schools in different parts of the nation to determine which academic courses to offer."

"The most effective way to understand contemporary culture is to analyze the trends of its youth."

"The video camera provides such an accurate and convincing record of contemporary life that it has become a more important form of documentation than written records.

"It is often necessary, even desirable, for political leaders to withhold information from the public."

"Academic disciplines have become so specialized in recent years that scholars' ideas reach only a narrow audience. Until scholars can reach a wider audience, their ideas will have little use."-

"Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive, because it is primarily in cities that a nation's cultural traditions are preserved and generated."

"All nations should help support the development of a global university designed to engage students in the process of solving the world's most persistent social problems."

"People's attitudes are determined more by their immediate situation or surroundings than by any internal characteristic."

"Many of the world's lesser-known languages are being lost as fewer and fewer people speak them. The governments of countries in which these languages are spoken should act to prevent such languages from becoming extinct."

"It is necessary for everyone to read poetry, novels, mythology and other types of imaginative literature."

"The stability of a society depends on how it responds to the extremes of human behavior."

"Although many people think that the luxuries and conveniences of contemporary life are entirely harmless, in fact, they actually prevent people from developing into truly strong and independent individuals."



"There are two types of laws: just and unjust. Every individual in a society has a responsibility to obey just laws and, even more importantly, to disobey and resist unjust laws."

"Only by being forced to defend an idea against the doubts and contrasting views of others does one really discover the value of that idea."

"If a society is to thrive, it must put its own overall success before the well-being of its individual citizens."

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"National governments should devote more of their social programs and services to children than to adults."

"Reform is seldom brought about by people who are concerned with their own reputation and social standing. Those who are really in earnest about reforming a government, an educational system, or any other institution must be willing to be viewed with disdain by the rest of the world."

"Many people believe that a few individuals or small groups (family, friends, teachers, celebrities, for example) have caused them to think and behave in the way they do. Yet it is always society as a whole that defines us and our attitudes, not a few individuals."

"Contemporary technology makes available many small pieces of factual information. As a result, people have become so preoccupied with bits of fragmented information that they pay too little attention to the larger issues and overall perspectives."

"People in positions of power are most effective when they exercise caution and restraint in the use of that power."

"Anyone can make things bigger and more complex. What requires real effort and courage is to move in the opposite direction-in other words, to make things as simple as possible."

"Most people would agree that buildings represent a valuable record of any society's past, but controversy arises when old buildings stand on ground that modern planners feel could be better used for modern purposes. In such situations, modern development should be given precedence over the preservation of historic buildings so that contemporary needs can be served."

"No one can possibly achieve success in the world by conforming to conventional practices and conventional ways of thinking."

"Students should memorize facts only after they have studied the ideas, trends, and concepts that help explain those facts. Students who have learned only facts have learned very little."

"Public figures such as actors, politicians, and athletes should expect people to be interested in their private lives. When they seek a public role, they should expect that they will lose at least some of their privacy."

"The primary goal of technologicaladvancement should be to increase people's efficiency so that everyone has more leisure time."

"Money spent on research is almost always a good investment, even when the results of that research are controversial."

"A school or college should pay its teachers at the same rate in all disciplines, regardless of differences in salaries for related fields in the world outside of school. For example, entry-level teachers in mathematics and in the arts should receive the same pay, even if outside of school, math specialists earn a much higher salary on average than do specialists in the arts."

"Creating an appealing image has become more important in contemporary society than is the reality or truth behind that image."

"Instead of requiring students to take courses in a variety of disciplines-that is, courses ranging from the arts and the humanities to the physical and biological sciences-colleges and universities should allow students to enroll only in those courses that will help prepare them for jobs in their chosen fields. Such concentration is necessary in today's increasingly work-oriented society."

"No matter what the situation, it is more harmful to compromise one's beliefs than to adhere to them."

"The greatness of individuals can be decided only by those who live after them, not by their contemporaries."

"In most societies, competition generally has more of a negative than a positive effect."

"In the age of television, reading books is not as important as it once was. People can learn as much by watching television as they can by reading books."

"The intellectual benefits of attending a university or college are vastly overrated: most people could learn more by studying and reading on their own for four years than by pursuing a university or college degree."

"Scholars and researchers should not be concerned with whether their work makes a contribution to the larger society. It is more important that they pursue their individual interests, however unusual or idiosyncratic those interests may seem."

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