Questioning
“There is one thing even more vital to science than intelligent methods; and that is, the sincere desire to find out the truth, whatever it may be.”
—Charles Sanders Pierce
If we care about the truth, we should seek truth in everything that we do. Either the truth matters or it doesn't. There's no such thing as half-truth, diet truth, just one fact, not quite true enough. Either we care about the truth or we don't.
Listening
“It’s a difficult thing to truly know your own limits and points of weakness.”
—Hagakure
“Always remember to say ‘I could be wrong’, that way you’ll always be right.”
—?
“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”
—Robert Frost
“Humility leads to strength and not to weakness. It is the highest form of self-respect to admit mistakes and to make amends for them.”
—John Jay Mccloy
“Pride makes people unwilling to change. It makes them rigid like dead trees that break in the wind rather than bending.”
—?
“To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step towards knowledge.”
—Benjamin Disraeli
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Deciding
“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
—Oscar Wilde
Exposing Lies
"It is the responsibility of intellectuals to tell the truth and expose lies."
—Noam Chomsky
Standing For Something
It is a poor truthseeker who seeks the truth but ignores what they find. Many people find a complete understanding discouraging. The complexity of things can make it hard to understand clearly enough to take a considered position.
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.”
—Arthur Schopenhauer
“At a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
—George Orwell
“Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to the truth.”
—Kahlil Gibran
READ BETWEEN THE LIES WITH OPEN EYES
Intelligence is illusory without open-mindedness.
How can you hope to understand the truth if you refuse to hear different points of view?
If your ideas are rigid you cannot learn.
Ideas tempt us to become loyal fanatics because it is in their own self-interest to innoculate us against newer and better ideas.
Let what you read and hear spark your thought processes and provide a starting point for your own individual questioning of reality. Empowerment Can’t ram answers down your throat or force acceptance of any narrow doctrine. Even if it tried, you could resist with a critical mind practiced in detecting propaganda.
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
—Plutarch
“Truth is the basis for all understanding. Without truth, we cannot trust one another. Therefore truth is worth striving for in all endeavors.”
“The best mind-altering drug is truth.”
—Lily Tomlin
Evolving Ideas
“Folks, it’s time to evolve ideas. You know, evolution did not end with us growing thumbs. You do know that, right? it didn’t end there. We’re at the point now where we’re going to have to evolve ideas. The reason the world is so fucked up is because we’re undergoing evolution, and the reason our institutions, our traditional religions are all crumbling is because they’re no longer relevant. So it’s time for us to create a new philosophy and perhaps even a new religion, you see, and that’s okay, because that’s our right, because we are free children of God with minds who can imagine anything and, well, it’s kind of our role.”
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