“A line of reasoning does not lead but follows us to truth.”
Why I Am a Muslim: And a Christian and a Jew (2020)
Statement of 1902 quoted in The William James Reader (2007), Vol I, p. 264
1900s
“A line of reasoning does not lead but follows us to truth.”
Why I Am a Muslim: And a Christian and a Jew (2020)
Propylaea (1798) Introduction
DoD News Briefing May 01, 2002 http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=3424
2000s
"That what Everybody Says must be True".
Sketches from Life (1846)
Context: There is an instinct that leads a listener to be very sparing of credence when a fact is communicated; it doesn't ring well in his ears—it has too much or too little gloss; he receives it with a shrug, and passes it on with a huge notch in it to show how justly it is entitled to suspicion; he is not to be imposed upon by a piece of truth. But give him a fable fresh from the mint of the Mendacity Society—an on dit of the first water—and he will not only make affidavit of its truth, but will call any man out who ventures to dispute its authenticity.
“Follow your instincts. That's where true wisdom manifests itself.”