“The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth.”

—  William O. Douglas

Mike Wallace interview (4 November 1958), quoted in The Great Quotations (1966) by George Seldes
Other speeches and writings

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth." by William O. Douglas?
William O. Douglas photo
William O. Douglas52
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1898–1980

Related quotes

Phyllis Schlafly photo

“Every country that has experimented with women in actual combat has abandoned the idea, and the notion that Israel uses women in combat is a feminist myth.”

Phyllis Schlafly (1924–2016) American activist

Women Don't Belong In Ground Combat, Phyllis Schlafly Columns, 2007-03-30, Schlafly, Phyllis, 2005-06-01 http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/june05/05-06-01.html,

Jordan Peterson photo

“I regard free speech as a prerequisite to a civilized society, because freedom of speech means that you can have combat with words. That's what it means. It doesn't mean that people can happily and gently exchange opinions. It means that we can engage in combat with words, in the battleground of ideas. And the reason that that's acceptable, and why it's acceptable that people's feelings get hurt during that combat, is that the combat of ideas is far preferable to actual combat.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Maps of Meaning

“The men seldom have any real, concrete notions of what combat is like. Their minds are full of romanticized, Hollywood versions of their future activity in combat, colored with vague ideas of being a hero and winning ribbons and decorations.”

Roy R. Grinker, Sr. (1900–1993) American psychiatrist and neurologist

Source: Men Under Stress, 1945, p. 44

“Hayek was in many respects a philosophical idealist, in that he believed that ideas rule the world. It was the idea of constructivism, he thought, that has such destructive consequences. If he could combat this idea, then much good would result.”

Alan O. Ebenstein (1959) American political scientist, educator and author

Hayek's Journey: The Mind of Friedrich Hayek (2003)

Gustav Stresemann photo

“It is the policy of force which finally will always triumph. But when one has not got the force, one can also combat by the idea.”

Gustav Stresemann (1878–1929) German politician, statesman, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Speech in Berlin (29 November 1924), quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 330
1920s

Pierre Corneille photo

“And the combat ceased for want of combatants.”

Pierre Corneille book Le Cid

Et le combat cessa faute de combattants.
Don Rodrigue, act IV, scene iii.
Le Cid (1636)

“Ways to combat stress, such as playing golf before a conference call or taking a break on the beach during inventory, are essential.”

Ricardo Semler book The Seven-Day Weekend

The Seven-Day Weekend (2004)

“There is only one purpose in hand-to-hand combat, and that is to kill. Never face an enemy with the idea of knocking him out. The chances are extremely good that he will kill you.”

William Powell (author) book The Anarchist Cookbook

Source: The Anarchist Cookbook (1971), Chapter Three: "Natural, Nonlethal, and Lethal Weapons", p. 79.

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali photo

“The proximity between the counterfeit and the good coin does not make the good coin counterfeit nor the counterfeit good. In the same way the proximity between truth and falsehood does not make truth falsehood nor falsehood truth.”

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111) Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic

The Deliverance from Error https://www.amazon.com/Al-Ghazalis-Path-Sufism-Deliverance-al-Munqidh/dp/1887752307

Peace Pilgrim photo

“This is the way of peace — overcome evil with good, and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love.”

Peace Pilgrim (1908–1981) American non-denominational spiritual teacher

The one-sentence peace message summarizing her ideas. Ch. 3 : The Pilgrimage
Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words (1982)

Related topics