As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.
Interpretation
Misinterpretations of truth are detrimental, especially in discussions with manipulative individuals.
William James highlights the dangers of communicating honest truths to those who distort or misunderstand them, suggesting that reasoned arguments and appeals to virtue are futile when faced with individuals who are inherently deceitful and manipulative. The metaphor of 'human crocodiles and boa-constrictors' illustrates the idea that some people are not open to genuine discourse, making rational engagement a wasted effort.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a debate about the nature of truth in politics.
Many persons nowadays seem to think that any conclusion must be very scientific if the arguments in favor of it are derived from twitching of frogs' legs (especially if the frogs are decapitated) and that, on the other hand, any doctrine chiefly vouched for by the feelings of human beings (with heads on their shoulders) must be benighted and superstitious.
The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.
All the higher, more penetrating ideals are revolutionary. They present themselves far less in the guise of effects of past experience than in that of probable causes of future experience, factors to which the environment and the lessons it has so far taught us must learn to bend.
The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact. Our civilization is founded on the shambles, and every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony.
It is astonishing how many mental operations we can explain when we have once grasped the principles of association
It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.
Any faith that admires truth, that strives to know God, must be brave enough to accommodate the universe.
AFFLICTION, n. An acclimatizing process preparing the soul for another and bitter world.
Where else could one find such a perfect combination of American values -- racism, militarism, capitalism -- all packaged in one 'ideal' symbol, a woman.
There is nothing frightening about an eternal dreamless sleep. Surely it is better than eternal torment in Hell and eternal boredom in Heaven.
The Industrial Age is not sustainable. It's not sustainable in ecological terms, and it's not sustainable in human terms.
You are the sum total of your dominating or most prominent thoughts.
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