51 Quotes by Manly P. Hall

Man's status in the natural world is determined, therefore, by the quality of his thinking.

Two unusual examples of the Gemini type in the field of letters are Dante and Bernard Shaw. Dante wrote his Inferno so that he could show in luminous verbiage all his enemies roasting in the pits of perdition. The Shavian humor has about it the bite of shallowness. It is not the deep laughter of the gods who understand all, but the shallow titillating laughter of mortals who understand not even themselves.

Unless subjected to constant discipline the mental processes of the common sign types are apt to be scattered or non-eventuating. There is a distinct tendency to carry along unfinished business and to procrastinate in decision. If left to its own disorder, the mind may deteriorate into a tumbling ground for whimsies.

Common sign rulerships bestow difficult and arduous lives and success gained against great odds, attended with heavy responsibilities. Men born under common signs usually start out early in life on courses of independent action.

The common signs do not bestow the driving power of the cardinal types or the inflexibility of the fixed signs. There is likely to be less high ambition or intensive continuity.

We can see that, taken collectively, common signs are intellectual rather than emotional, but the intellectuality is apt to be shallow or devoted to superficial subjects

The common signs are collectively generous, unselfish, and self-sacrificing, often with the worst implication of the self-sacrifice quality. The generosity of the common sign people is not always wisely administered, but the hardships of their own lives make them peculiarly sympathetic to the misfortunes of others.

The common signs do not bestow either a hardy constitution or any unusual measure of will power. The vitality not being great, there is insufficient energy to sustain ambition or the urge to power.

It is from the ranks of the neo-intellectuals that we develop our parlor socialists, our “modernists” in poetry and letters, and those arm-chair anarchists who have theoretical explanations for every circumstance of living. The Mercurial person must take careful stock of himself and make sure that he contributes nothing to the inanities of the day.