“Temperate, sincere, and intelligent inquiry and discussion are only to be dreaded by the advocates of error. The truth need not fear them…”

— Benjamin Rush

Provisions of the Last Will and Testament of Dr. James Rush http://books.google.com/books?id=lSowTqXCyyUC&pg=PA13&dq=%22dreaded+by+the+advocates+of+error%22&hl=en&ei=NCJGTP-fBJ-QnwfB8K2uBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=13&ved=0CGQQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=%22dreaded%20by%20the%20advocates%20of%20error%22&f=false

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 "Temperate, sincere, and intelligent inquiry and discussion are only to be dreaded by the advocates of error. The truth …" by Benjamin Rush?

Benjamin Rush11

American physician, educator, author 1745–1813

Related quotes

“It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

The complete political works. Rights of man: being an answer to Mr. Burke's attack on the French Revolution, p. 306
1790s

“An unsanctified temper is a fruitful source of error, and a mighty impediment to truth.”

Elias Lyman Magoon (1810–1886) American minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 13.

“Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

“A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

“The mind can only create errors. Truths are not created, they exist; one can only see them, disentangle them, discover them, and expose them.”

Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist

“Martyrdom, as a rule, establishes the sincerity of the martyr, — never the correctness of his thought. Things are true or false in themselves. Truth cannot be affected by opinions; it cannot be changed, established, or affected by martyrdom. An error cannot be believed sincerely enough to make it a truth.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

The Great Infidels (1881)
Context: All the martyrs in the history of the world are not sufficient to establish the correctness of an opinion. Martyrdom, as a rule, establishes the sincerity of the martyr, — never the correctness of his thought. Things are true or false in themselves. Truth cannot be affected by opinions; it cannot be changed, established, or affected by martyrdom. An error cannot be believed sincerely enough to make it a truth.