Source: Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Part III, Ch.23
Context: The words of God are justified, as I will show, by the fact that Job abandoned his first very erroneous opinion, and himself proved that it was an error. It is the opinion which suggests itself as plausible at first thought, especially in the minds of those who meet with mishap, well knowing that they have not merited them through sins. This is admitted by all, and therefore this opinion was assigned to Job. But he is represented to hold this view only so long as he was without wisdom, and knew God only by tradition, in the same manner as religious people generally know Him. As soon as he had acquired a true knowledge of God, he confessed that there is undoubtedly true felicity in the knowledge of God; it is attained by all who acquire that knowledge, and no earthly trouble can disturb it. So long as Job's knowledge of God was based on tradition and communication, and not on research, he believed that such imaginary good as is possessed in health, riches, and children, was the utmost that men can attain; this was the reason why he was in perplexity, and why he uttered the... opinions, and this is also the meaning of his words: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent because of dust and ashes" (xlii. 5, 6); that is to say, he abhorred all that he had desired before, and that he was sorry that he had been in dust and ashes; comp. "and he sat down among the ashes" (ii. 8) On account of this last utterance, which implies true perception, it is said afterwards in reference to him, "for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath."
“Each vulgar opinion, proved to be erroneous, is an approximation to truth.”
Book I, ch. II, The Passage from Madeira to the Cape Verd Islands, and from thence to the Cape of Good Hope.
A Voyage Round the World (1777)
"1896", p. 20
A Writer's Notebook (1946)
Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985) ( dissenting opinion http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0472_0038_ZD2.html).
Judicial opinions
“A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it.”
On the Nature of Acquaintance: Neutral Monism (1914)
1910s
Context: People are said to believe in God, or to disbelieve in Adam and Eve. But in such cases what is believed or disbelieved is that there is an entity answering a certain description. This, which can be believed or disbelieved is quite different from the actual entity (if any) which does answer the description. Thus the matter of belief is, in all cases, different in kind from the matter of sensation or presentation, and error is in no way analogous to hallucination. A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it.
“It was always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals came easily.”
Source: All the Pretty Horses
The Illustrated London News (25 April 1931)
Source: A Tale of Time City (1987), pp. 78-79.
“Steve Jobs doesn't use a Mac, and won't, because it's too crappy in his opinion.”
Commenting on Steve Jobs's stewardship after his return to Apple, before the release of Mac OS X, MacTech Vol. 14 No. 5 (May 1998) http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.14/14.05/May98FactoryFloor/index.html
Characterizations of Existentialism (1944)
