Man associates ideas not according to logic or verifiable exactitude, but according to his pleasure and interests. It is for this reason that most truths are nothing but prejudices.
Interpretation
Human perception of truth is influenced by personal biases rather than objective reasoning.
This quote by Remy De Gourmont highlights the idea that individuals often form associations between ideas based on their subjective preferences and interests, rather than through logical reasoning or factual accuracy. As a result, many beliefs we hold to be true may merely reflect our biases or societal prejudices, rather than an objective understanding of reality.
In practice
In a discussion about societal norms, one might use this quote to illustrate how personal biases shape collective beliefs.
Science is the only truth and it is the great lie. It knows nothing, and people think it knows everything. It is misrepresented. People think that science is electricity, automobilism, and dirigible balloons. It is something very different. It is life devouring itself. It is the sensibility transformed into intelligence. It is the need to know stifling the need to live. It is the genius of knowledge vivisecting the vital genius.
I am speaking of the life of a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children; who has undertaken to cherish it and do it no damage, not because he is duty-bound, but because he loves the world and loves his children...
There is nothing in the dark that isn't there when the lights are on.
The modern pantheist not only sees the god in everything, he takes photographs of it.
What good is all this free-thinking, modernity, and turncoat flexibility if at some gut level you are still a Christian, a Catholic, and even a priest!
I turn to right and left, in all the earth I see no signs of justice, sense or worth: A man does evil deeds, and all his days Are filled with luck and universal praise; Another's good in all he does - he dies A wretched, broken man whom all despise.
Women, like men, ought to have their youth so glutted with freedom they hate the very idea of freedom.
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