“Men must always have distinguished (e. g. in judicial matters) between hearsay and seeing with one’s own eyes and have preferred what one has seen to what he has merely heard from others. But the use of this distinction was originally limited to particular or subordinate matters. As regards the most weighty matters—the first things and the right way—the only source of knowledge was hearsay.”

—  Leo Strauss

Source: Natural Right and History (1953), p. 86

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Classical philosophy specialist and father of neoconservati… 1899–1973

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