My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything.
If one can only see things according to one's own belief system, one is destined to become virtually deaf, dumb, and blind.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the limitations of a closed mindset, suggesting that rigid beliefs can hinder one's understanding and perception of reality.
Robert Anton Wilson's quote suggests that if individuals only interpret the world through the lens of their own beliefs, they risk missing out on broader perspectives and truths. This closed-mindedness can lead to a lack of understanding, communication, and awareness, effectively rendering them 'deaf, dumb, and blind' to the complexities of life and differing viewpoints. Embracing open-mindedness and being willing to challenge one's beliefs are essential for personal growth and enriched experiences.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about personal growth, one might quote this to encourage others to expand their viewpoint.
More from Robert Anton Wilson
All quotes βThere is no governor anywhere. You are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped. If anybody could go into dhyana at will, nobody could be controlled - by fear of prison, by fear of whips or electroshock, by fear of death, even. All existing society is based on keeping those fears alive, to control the masses. Ten people who know would be more dangerous than a million armed anarchists.
I see anarchism as the theoretical ideal to which we are all gradually evolving to a point where everybody can tell the truth to everybody else and nobody can get punished for it. That can only happen without hierarchy and without people having the authority to punish other people.
To work for libertarianism - to oppose the growth of government and aid the liberation of the individual - used to be an idealistic choice taken for purely idealistic reasons. Now it is an act of intelligent and almost desperate self-defense.
The abandoned infant's cry is rage, not fear.
The only way to stave off boredom, in a complex domesticated primate like humankind, is to increase one's intelligence. This is not appealing to the average primate, who instead invents emotional games (soap opera and grand opera dramatics).
Similar quotes
Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.
Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know more.
Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.
Nobody will laugh long who deals much with opium: its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn complexion.
Much as I have no wish to hurt anyone's feelings, my first obligation has not been to be nice but to be true to my perhaps peculiar memories, experiences and feelings.
As the bee collects nectar and departs without injuring the flower, or its color or fragrance, so let the sage dwell on earth.