"The Importance of Critical Discussion" in On the Barricades: Religion and Free Inquiry in Conflict (1989) by Robert Basil
Context: There is an almost universal tendency, perhaps an inborn tendency, to suspect the good faith of a man who holds opinions that differ from our own opinions. … It obviously endangers the freedom and the objectivity of our discussion if we attack a person instead of attacking an opinion or, more precisely, a theory.
“Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who holds a low opinion of himself.”
Source: Orley Farm
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Anthony Trollope 128
English novelist (1815-1882) 1815–1882Related quotes
“The prejudiced and obstinate man does not so much hold opinions, as his opinions hold him.”
Source: A Dictionary of Thoughts, 1891, p. 438.
“Anyone who holds a true opinion without understanding is like a blind man on the right road.”
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“Sound opinions are valueless. What matters is who holds them.”
Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)
“We are a Teutonic people. We hold steadily to our opinions.”
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1880s
“And it is long since I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.”
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Persecution and Tolerance, Hulsean Lectures, University of Cambridge (Winter 1893–94)