“Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhausts some tempting form of error. Not only so; but scarcely any attempt is entirely a failure; scarcely any theory, the result of steady thought, is altogether false; no tempting form of Error is without some latent charm derived from Truth.” FormResultsStepsTheoryFailureErrorsTrialsCharmSteadyTemptingLatentDetectionSteps To Success Book:Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in England Source: Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in England
“The taboos that I have mentioned are extraordinarily harsh and numerous. They stand around nearly every subject that is genuinely important to man: they hedge in free opinion and experimentation on all sides. Consider, for example, the matter of religion. It is debated freely and furiously in almost every country in the world save the United States, but here the critic is silenced. The result is that all religions are equally safeguarded against criticism, and that all of them lose vitality. We protect the status quo, and so make steady war upon revision and improvement.” MenWorldImportantWarCountryMatterStatesSidesLosesUnitedResultsOpinionUnited StatesAtheismSubjectsExampleProtectCriticismCriticsPositive AtheismImprovementSteadyHarshStatus QuoVitalityTabooExperimentationRevisionFree Opinion Author:H. L. Mencken