From The Vanity of Dogmatizing (1661) by the Rev. Joseph Glanvill:
"They that have never peep't beyond the common belief in which their easier understandings were at first indoctrinated, are indubitabely assur'd of the Truth, and comparative excellence of their receptions, while the larger Souls, that have travail'd the divers Climates of Opinions, are more cautious in their resolves, and more sparing to determine."
Lacking your background in 17th-century literature, I'm going back only as far as William Butler Yeats's "The Second Coming." (I was going to drop a few lines here, but the entire poem is entirely appropriate.)
ReplyDeleteBertrand Russel: " . . . the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."
ReplyDeleteI've read the quote three times and found different beauties each time. So now I wonder if it will be an infinite gift... Which is to say, thank you.
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