The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.
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I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're read more
I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're good or there because they're lucky.
It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also read more
It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.
The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
We probably wouldn't worry about what people think of us if we could know how seldom they do.
We probably wouldn't worry about what people think of us if we could know how seldom they do.
For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change read more
For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.
One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.
One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions.
If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's read more
If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said read more
We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be.
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, read more
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a wide-spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible
