“To believe all men honest is folly. To believe none is something worse.”
John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States
“To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so, is something worse.”
Letter to William Eustis http://books.google.com/books?id=S088AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA319 (22 June 1809), published in Writings of John Quincy, Adams (1914), The Macmillan company. <br class="br">Variant: All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.
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John Quincy Adams52
American politician, 6th president of the United States (in… 1767–1848Related quotes
“There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men.”
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“I believe that almost all politicians are honest.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author
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Context: I believe that almost all politicians are honest. For every bribed alderman there are hundreds of politicians, low paid or not paid at all, doing their level best without thanks or glory to make our system work. If this were not true, we would never have gotten past the thirteen colonies.
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Justice in War-Time (1916), p. 70
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“Men believe the worst easily, and women believe it hides something still darker.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer
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“None are so likely to believe too little as those who have begun by believing too much.”
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), IV : The Essence of Catholicism
Context: ... as the great Unitarian preacher Channing pointed out, that in France and Spain there are multitudes who have proceeded from rejecting Popery to absolute atheism, because "the fact is, that false and absurd doctrines, when exposed, have a natural tendency to beget skepticism in those who receive them without reflection. None are so likely to believe too little as those who have begun by believing too much." Here is, indeed, the terrible danger of believing too much. But no! the terrible danger comes from another quarter — from seeking to believe with the reason and not with the life.
