A Quote by Thomas Jefferson
Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.
Related Quotes
Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.
Dogmatism is by far the best fall-back defense, the most impregnable castle, that ignorance can find. It's also a dead give-away that the person doesn't know why he believes what he believes.
Two visions of the world remain locked in dispute. The first believes all men are created equal by a loving God who has blessed us with freedom. The second vision believes that religion is opium for the masses. It believes that eternal principles like truth, liberty, and democracy have no meaning beyond the whim of the state. And [Vladimir] Lenin spoke for them.
The truth is perilous never to the true, Nor knowledge to the wise; and to the fool, And to the false, error and truth alike, Error is worse than ignorance.
There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.
You know what truth is? [...] It's some crazy thing my neighbor believes. If I want to make friends with him, I ask him what he believes. He tells me, and I say, "Yeah, yeah - ain't it the truth?
He that believes all misseth; he that believes nothing, hits not.
Donald Trump believes in America, he believes in its people. He believes in its promise, is very liberating and you see that when you're with him privately, you see it publicly.
The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth - that error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it has been cured of one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.
The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.
So how do we solve this ancient problem? How can we not just tolerate someone who believes differently than we do, but actually respect them for those beliefs? Because nothing less than that will do. It can?t. Simply tolerating someone who believes differently than we do isn?t enough. ?Accepting? them isn?t enough. Having true and abiding peace with them means loving them. And that means respecting them. Because love without respect isn?t real love at all. It?s at best condescending patronization.
Let the answers be wrong, let the philosophy be mistaken - errors are more valuable than truths: truth is of the machine, error is alive; truth reassures, error disturbs.
Suppose a student of mine writes in her exam that "morality is completely relative to culture, so nothing is absolutely right or wrong. Because of that, it is absolutely wrong to be culturally intolerant". This student, if she believes what she writes, believes a contradiction. She ought not to believe the contradiction - it's a basic epistemic norm. This is true even if she can't avoid believing it - no amount of studying will show her the light.
One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended.
Trump believes we lead nations. Trump believes we set the example. Trump believes that American exceptionalism means just that, and anybody that wants to come along with us is more than welcome to. But they got to understand who we are. We're not gonna define ourselves by telling ourselves we're no good or we don't rate, we're gonna be more like you.
A supremely religious man or woman is one who believes deeply and consistently in the veracity of his highest experiences. He has his hours in the cellar ... but he believes in the truth of the hours he spends upstairs.
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