The work of securing reforms in the social economic and political spheres may seem desirable, but the philosopher feels (and knows) that he must leave all such activities to the men who can perceive nothing higher, nothing more important, than that. He is ironically aware that never before in human history were so many reformers at work as in the past hundred years, so many improvers of other men or of the environmental conditions around them, yet never before were so many menacing situations of appalling possibility the end result of all this work as is the case today. For himself, he thinks he can better use his limited time in seeking to learn and stating for others those higher laws of being which govern men. Without this knowledge they are merely blundering about in the dark and hurting themselves continually.
-- Notebooks Category 12: Reflections > Chapter 2 : Philosophy and Contemporary Culture > # 118
