Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
Interpretation
Value active, intelligent discussions over passive agreement.
This quote by Bertrand Russell emphasizes the importance of engaging in thoughtful disagreement rather than simply conforming to consensus. By choosing to participate in intelligent dissent, individuals can reach a more profound understanding of ideas, leading to growth and a more robust consensus that values intelligence over mere compliance.
In practice
During a panel discussion on ethics, I referenced this quote to encourage more critical thinking.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
If we wish to follow Christ closely, we cannot choose an easy, quiet life. It will be a demanding life, but full of joy.
Much reading has brought upon us a learned barbarism.
There is nothing like first-hand evidence.
As long as one is following the right way, one should never be concerned about the reproaches of those who like to find faults.
If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance.
Examine your own hearts. Do you see there any habit or custom which you know is wrong in the sight of God? If you do, don't delay for a moment in attacking it. Resolve at once to lay it aside. Nothing darkens the eyes of the mind so much, and deadens the conscience so surely, as an allowed sin. It may be a little one, but it is not any less dangerous.
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