It is one thing to wish to have truth on our side, and another to wish sincerely to be on the side of truth.
Richard WhatelyRead
To follow imperfect, uncertain, or corrupted traditions, in order to avoid erring in our own judgment, is but to exchange one danger for another.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Blindly adhering to flawed traditions to avoid personal judgment can lead to worse consequences.
This quote by Richard Whately emphasizes the dangers of relying on imperfect or corrupted traditions in decision-making. Instead of trusting oneβs own judgment, individuals may choose to follow these traditions to avoid the risk of making mistakes, but this can actually lead to substituting one risk for another, potentially worse one, suggesting that critical thinking is essential when navigating beliefs and practices.
Themes
TraditionJudgmentDecision-MakingRiskCritical Thinking
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on the importance of innovation over tradition in business.
More from Richard Whately
All quotes βA man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them better than by giving them fortune.
Richard WhatelyRead
He who is not aware of his ignorance will be only misled by his knowledge.
Richard WhatelyRead
Similar quotes
The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
If someone tells you he is going to make a 'realistic decision', you immediately understand that he has resolved to do something bad.
Mary MccarthyRead
It's important to debunk the myths of Africa being this benighted continent civilized only when white people arrived. In fact, Africans had been creators of culture for thousands of years before. These were very intelligent, subtle and sophisticated people, with organized societies and great art.
Henry Louis GatesRead
The erection of a monument is superfluous, our memory will endure if our lives have deserved it.
Pliny The YoungerRead
The Contessa was surely way ahead of her time, too, in believing that men were not only usless and idiotic, but downright dangerous. That idea wouldn't catch on big in her native country until the last three years of the Vietnam War.
Kurt VonnegutRead
By our uncritical pursuit of relevance we have actually courted irrelevance; by our breathless chase after relevance without a matching committment to faithfulness, we have become not only unfaithful, but irrelevant; by our determined efforts to redefine outselves in ways that are more compelling to the modern world than are faithful to Christ, we have lost not only our identity but our authority and our relevance. Our crying need is to be faithful as well as relevant
Os GuinnessRead