New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
Interpretation
New ideas often face skepticism simply because they are different from the norm.
This quote by John Locke highlights the natural inclination of people to be wary of new opinions or ideas. It suggests that often new thoughts are met with resistance not necessarily because they lack merit or validity, but rather because they challenge the established norms and beliefs. This resistance can stifle innovation and progress, emphasizing the importance of being open-minded towards new perspectives.
In practice
In a debate about new educational methods, this quote can highlight the importance of embracing innovative approaches.
For where is the man that has incontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or of the falsehood of all he condemns; or can say that he has examined to the bottom all his own, or other men's opinions? The necessity of believing without knowledge, nay often upon very slight grounds, in this fleeting state of action and blindness we are in, should make us more busy and careful to inform ourselves than constrain others.
There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.
Our deeds disguise us. People need endless time to try on their deeds, until each knows the proper deeds for him to do. But every day, every hour, rushes by. There is no time.
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.
One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant.
All experience and phenomena are understood to be a dream, this should not be just an intellectual understanding, but a vivid and lucid experience...Genuine integration of this point produces a profound change in the individual's response to the world. Grasping and aversion is greatly diminished, and the emotional tangles that once seemed so compelling are experienced as the tug of dream stories, and no more.
The motive power of democracy is love
The world is such-and-such or so-and-so only because we tell ourselves that that is the way it is.
Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.
I love the old way best, the simple way of poison, where we too are strong as men.
Men of patriarchal cultures have been committing heinous acts in the name of their God ever since they created a god for themselves. It seems that the earlier, goddess-oriented, nature-centered religions were far less cruel.
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