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.
Politics and the economy are not things that exist, or illusions, or ideologies. They are things that do not exist and yet which are inscribed in reality and fall under a regime of truth dividing the true and the false.
There have been low moments before, but Christianity is an incredibly adaptable organism, using different parts of its repertoire to mutate into new ecological niches, yet preserving intact its story of grace, of love improbably triumphant.
National events determine our ideals, as much as our ideals determine national events.
There is no true gracefulness which is not epitomized goodness.
In a strange room you must empty yourself for sleep. And before you are emptied for sleep, what are you. And when you are emptied for sleep, what are you. And when you are emptied for sleep you are not. And when you are filled with sleep, you never were. I don't know what I am. I don't know if I am or not.
It is not easy to see how the more extreme forms of nationalism can long survive when men have seen the Earth in its true perspective as a single small globe against the stars.
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