QuoteProject
The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth.
Pierre Bayle
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Just because an idea is old and widely believed does not mean it is true.

This quote emphasizes the importance of skepticism and critical thinking. It suggests that the age and popularity of an opinion do not validate its truthfulness, encouraging individuals to seek evidence and reasoning rather than accept ideas solely based on tradition or majority belief.

Themes

TruthOpinionBeliefSkepticismCritical Thinking

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a debate about popular myths in society.

More from Pierre Bayle

In matters of religion, it is very easy to deceive a man and very hard to undeceive him.
Pierre BayleRead

Similar quotes

Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of devotions starves the soul, it grows lean and faint. I have been keeping too late hours.
William WilberforceRead
You're captives of a civilizational system that more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live. … You are captives—and you have made a captive of the world itself. That's what's at stake, isn't it?—your captivity and the captivity of the world.
Daniel QuinnRead
Before me, even as behind, God is, and all is well.
John Greenleaf WhittierRead
I did not do it. Yet now I wish I had.’ He turned to face the hall, that sea of pale faces. ‘I wish I had enough poison for you all. You make me sorry that I am not the monster you would have me be, yet there it is. I am innocent, but I will get no justice here.
George R. R. MartinRead
God's ways do not change... Still he shows his freedom and lordship by discriminating between sinners, causing some to hear the gospel while others do not hear it, and moving some of those who hear it to repentance while leaving others in their unbelief, thus teaching his saints that hew owes mercy to none and that it is entirely of his grace, not at all through their own effort, that they themselves have found life.
J. I. PackerRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.