Be sceptical, ask questions, demand proof. Demand evidence. Don't take anything for granted. But here's the thing: When you get proof, you need to accept the proof. And we're not that good at doing that.
Interpretation
Be critical and inquisitive, but also open-minded when presented with evidence.
This quote emphasizes the importance of skepticism and critical thinking in our pursuit of knowledge. It encourages individuals to question information and seek proof, while also highlighting the challenge of being open to accepting evidence when it arrives.
In practice
In a science class discussing the importance of evidence in experiments.
If there is anything more frightening than the threat of global nuclear war, it is the certainty that humans not only stand on the verge of producing new life forms but may soon be able to tinker with them as if they were vintage convertibles or bonsai trees.
The Maldives, a string of islands off the coast of India whose highest point above sea level is eight feet, may be the first nation to drown. In Alaska, entire towns have begun to shift in the loosening permafrost.
Humanity has nearly suffocated the globe with carbon dioxide, yet nuclear power plants that produce no such emissions are so mired in objections and obstruction that, despite renewed interest on every continent, it is unlikely another will be built in the United States.
There are people who could watch a hurricane like Sandy blow out of the Atlantic every other day and blame it on anything but human activity. They are like those who, having been diagnosed with diabetes, eat donuts for breakfast. There's not much to do about them.
Why do people refuse to vaccinate their children against measles or whooping cough? In many cases, because they have never seen measles and have no idea what it might do.
All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.
Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance.
In your present-moment awareness, awaken to your innocence, your trust, your love, your eternal being.
The main thing, of course, always, is the fact that there is only one of you in the world, just one, and if that is not fulfilled then something has been lost. Ambition is not enough; necessity is everything.
Truth is the baby of the world. It never gets old.
That which neither weapon nor flame could accomplish will be achieved by a sweet speaking tongue in council.
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