If you can't say it simply and clearly, keep quiet, and keep working on it till you can.
Interpretation
Communicate your thoughts clearly, or refrain from speaking until you can.
This quote emphasizes the importance of clear communication and suggests that if you are unable to express your ideas in a simple and understandable way, you should refrain from speaking until you have refined your thoughts. It encourages continuous improvement in how we articulate our ideas, indicating that clarity is vital for effective communication.
In practice
This quote could inspire speakers at a conference to ensure their messages are clear and accessible.
The growth of our knowledge is the result of a process closely resembling what Darwin called 'natural selection'; that is, the natural selection of hypotheses: our knowledge consists, at every moment, of those hypotheses which have shown their (comparative) fitness by surviving so far in their struggle for existence, a competitive struggle which eliminates those hypotheses which are unfit.
No particular theory may ever be regarded as absolutely certain.... No scientific theory is sacrosanct.
The belief in a political Utopia is especially dangerous. This is possibly connected with the fact that the search for a better world, like the investigation of our environment, is (if I am correct) one of the oldest and most important of all the instincts.
A rationalist is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right; someone who is willing to learn from others - not by simply taking over another's opinions, but by gladly allowing others to criticize his ideas and by gladly criticizing the ideas of others
Thus science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths; neither with the collection of observations, nor with the invention of experiments, but with the critical discussion of myths, and of magical techniques and practices.
I am opposed to looking upon logic as a kind of game. ... One might think that it is a matter of choice or convention which logic one adopts. I disagree with this view.
Those who are without compassion cannot see what is seen with the eyes of compassion.
If you think you can temper yourself into manliness by sitting here over your books, it is the very silliest fancy that ever tempted a young man to his ruin. You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
Her mind lives tidily, apart from cold and noise and pain. And bolts the door against her heart, out wailing in the rain.
Look at the sparrows; they do not know what they will do in the next moment. Let us literally live from moment to moment.
Instead of 'watching the thinker,' you can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. This is a deeply satisfying thing to do. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation.
Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.
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