Unless a variety of opinions are laid before us, we have no opportunity of selection, but are bound of necessity to adopt the particular view which may have been brought forward.
Interpretation
We need diverse viewpoints to make informed choices and avoid bias.
This quote by Herodotus emphasizes the importance of considering multiple perspectives before forming an opinion or making decisions. Without exposure to a variety of viewpoints, individuals are likely to default to the dominant opinion, which may not represent the best choice or understanding of a situation.
In practice
During a discussion on community policies, we should consider diverse opinions to make better choices.
The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.
The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless.
Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.
All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.
How to get rid of ego as dictator and turn it into messenger and servant and scout, to be in your service, is the trick.
As solid rock remains unmoved by the wind, so the wise remain unmoved by blame and praise.
Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe comes less from their words than from their deeds.
Resentment is an extremely bitter diet, I have no desire to make my own toxins.
Your voice, amplified to the degree where it reaches from one end of the country to the other, does not confer upon you greater wisdom than when your voice reached only from one end of the bar to the other.
Gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us.
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