"It is common to assume that human progress affects everyone - that even the dullest man, in these bright days, knows more than any man of, say, the Eighteenth Century, and is far more civilized. This assumption is quite erroneous. The great masses of men, even in this inspired republic, are precisely where the mob was at the dawn of history. They are ignorant, they are dishonest, they are cowardly, they are ignoble. They know little if anything that is worth knowing, and there is not the slightest sign of a natural desire among them to increase their knowledge."
- H. L. Mencken, 1929
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"It is extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut,
with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it's just as well;
and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes
life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome. "
-Joseph Conrad, "Lord Jim"
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