“Toleration is not the opposite of intolerance, but is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience, the other of granting it.” LibertyConscienceOppositesAssumingIntolerancePatriotDespotismCounterfeitTolerationWithholding Author:James Madison
“Toleration is not the opposite of intoleration, but it is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience, and the other of granting it. The one is the pope, armed with fire and fagot, and the other is the pope selling or granting indulgences.” ReligionLibertyFireConscienceOppositesAssumingSellingPopeIndulgenceDespotismCounterfeitTolerationWithholdingFagots Book:Complete Works Source: Complete Works
“Once you realize how effortless the highest way of life is, it takes tremendous effort to assume the opposite.” WayLife IsRealizingEffortHighestOppositesAssumingEffortless Author:Lester Levenson
“We assume therefore that moral virtue is the quality of acting in the best way in relation to pleasures and pains, and that vice is the opposite.” WayPainPleasureActingQualityMoralVirtueOppositesRelationAssumingVicesBest WayPain And PleasureMoral VirtuesNicomachean Ethics Book:The Nicomachean ethics Source: The Nicomachean ethics
“The prevailing wisdom is that markets are always right. I take the opposite position. I assume that markets are always wrong.” PositionOppositesAssumingPrevailingAlways Wrong Book:Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve Source: Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve
“Education is implication. It is not the things you say which children respect; when you say things, they very commonly laugh and do the opposite. It is the things you assume which really sink into them. It is the things you forget even to teach that they learn.” ChildrenForgetTeachLaughingOppositesAssumingImplications Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
“People will still make great art, but I think it's good to assume you will always be a failure. People were believing the opposite.” PeopleThinkingBelieveArtStillsOppositesAssumingGreat Art Author:Wade Guyton
“There's nothing like a deadline to get the old blood flowing. All the juices, really. It doesn't follow, if you think about it. You'd assume certain things ... certain activities ... would become unimportant. Certain betrayals would become unbearable. But they don't really. In fact, quite the opposite. Everything takes on a new light. The impossible becomes possible, desirable even. It's quite remarkable.” IfsThinkingFactsLightCertainImpossibleBloodActivityOppositesAssumingBetrayalRemarkableDesirableJuiceUnbearableDeadlineUnimportantImpossible Becomes Possible Author:Walter Wykes
“If [Barack] Obama or the boss or the newspapers or anyone else tells you they're doing this, that, or the other thing, dismiss it or assume the opposite is true, which it often is.” IfsOppositesAssumingNewspapersBarackBossOften Is Author:Noam Chomsky
“The wisest rule in investment is: when others are selling, buy. When others are buying, sell. Usually, of course, we do the opposite. When everyone else is buying, we assume they know something we don't, so we buy. Then people start selling, panic sets in, and we sell too.” PeopleKnowsCoursesOppositesSellsAssumingInvestmentSellingBuyingPanicWisest Author:Jonathan Sacks
“There are endless ways to amuse oneself and be idle, and most of them lie outside the woods. I assume that when a man goes to the woods he goes because he needs to. I think he is drawn to the wilderness much as he is drawn to a woman: it is, in its way, his opposite. It is as far as possible unlike his home or his work or anything he will ever manufacture. For that reason he can take from it a solace-an understanding of himself, of what he needs and what he can do without-such as he can find nowhere else.” ThinkingMenWayNeedsReasonHomeLyingUnderstandingCan DoOppositesAssumingOneselfWoodsEndlessWildernessIdleSolace Author:Wendell Berry