三 行为类
1. Although many people think that the luxuries and conveniences of
contemporary life are entirely¹ harmless, they in fact, prevent people from
developing into truly strong and independent individuals.

2. 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.

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

4. The concept of ‘individual responsibility’ is a necessary fiction.
Although societies must hold individuals accountable for their own actions,
people’s behavior is largely determined² by forces not of their own making.

5. People work more productively in teams than individually. Teamwork
requires cooperation, which motivates people much more than individual
competition does.

6. In any realm of life-whether academic, social, business, or political—
the only way to succeed is to take a practical, rather than an idealistic,
point of vies. Pragmatic behavior guarantees survival, whereas idealistic
views tend to be superceded by simpler, more immediate³ options.

7. It is primarily through our identification with social groups that we
define ourselves.

8. Only through mistakes can there be discovery or progress.

9. Most people recognize the benefits of individuality, but the fact is
that personal economic success requires conformity⁴.

10. People who are the most deeply committed to an idea or policy are the
most critical of it.

11. No amount of information can eliminate prejudice because prejudice is
rooted in emotion, not reason.

12. The most essential quality of an effective leader is the ability to
remain consistently committed in particular principles and objectives. Any
leader who is quickly and easily influenced by shifts in popular opinion
will accomplish little.

13. Sometimes imagination is a more valuable asset than experience. People
who lack experience are free to imagine what is possible and thus can
approach a task without constraints⁵ of established habits and attitudes.

14. In any given field, the leading voices come from people who are
motivated not by conviction but by the desire to present opinions and ideas
that differ from those held by the majority.

15. It is always an individual who is the impetus⁶ for innovation; the
details may be worked out by a team, but true innovation results from the
enterprise and unique perception of an individual.

16. Success, whether academic or professional, involves an ability to
survive in a new environment and--, eventually, --to change it.

17. 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.

18. If a goal is worthy⁷, then any means taken to attain⁸ it is justifiable⁹.

19. 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.

20. People are mistaken when they assume that the problems they confront
are more complex and challenging than the problems, faced by their
predecessors¹⁰. Thus illusion is eventually dispelled¹¹ with increased
knowledge and experience.

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

22. Most people are taught that loyalty¹² is a virtue¹³. 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.

四 政治类
1. It is often necessary, even desirable, for political leaders to withhold¹⁴
information from the public.

2. 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.

3. To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest
ethical¹⁵ and moral standards.

4. It is impossible for an effective political leader to tell the truth all
the time. Complete honesty is not a useful virtue for a politician.
5. Those who treat politics and morality as though they were separate
realms fail to understand either the one or the other.

6. Laws should not be stationary¹⁶ and fixed¹⁷. Instead, they should be
flexible enough to take account of various circumstances, times, and places.

7. The goal of politics should not be the pursuit of an ideal, but rather
the search for common ground and reasonable consensus¹⁸.