If we were all given by magic the power to read each other’s thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be almost all friendships would be dissolved; the second effect, however, might be excellent, for a world without any friends would be felt to be intolerable, and we should learn to like each other without needing a veil of illusion to conceal from ourselves that we did not think each other absolutely perfect.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that if we could read each other's thoughts, many friendships might crumble, but it could lead to a more genuine understanding and acceptance of one another.
Bertrand Russell reflects on the nature of friendships and the power of illusion in human relationships. He proposes that if people could read each other's thoughts, the underlying flaws of individuals would be revealed, leading to the dissolution of many superficial friendships. However, this transparency could ultimately foster a more authentic connection, as individuals would learn to appreciate one another for who they truly are, without the façade of perfection.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the nature of friendships at a social gathering.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
Now I understood that the same road was to bring us together again. Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past.
A melancholy lesson of advancing years is the realisation that you can't make old friends.
Success is meaningless if you can't sleep at night because of harsh things said, petty secrets sharpened against hard and stony regret, just waiting to be plunged into the soft underbelly of a 'friendship.'
It is important to have friends we can trust. But it is essential to trust the Lord, who never lets us down.
Treat your friend as if he might become an enemy.
ANTIPATHY, n. The sentiment inspired by one's friend's friend.
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