And if somewhere out there,
Nearby or far away, we're summoned
By war, by country, by life,
Let them summon us in vain, and let
Each, under some friendly shade,
Dream of his opponent.
And the chess game, of its indifference.
Fernando Pessoa (1916)

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”
― Noam Chomsky

If we have the possibility of knowing the truth, why would we choose to be deceived? (Isiah Berlin)

When you want to know the truth, you do not care who is right. (Richard Feynman)

"Is there anything more inconsistent with civil conversation, and the end of all debate, than not to take an answer, though ever so full and satisfactory, but still to go on with the dispute as long as equivocal sounds can furnish a 'medius terminus', a term to wrangle with on the one side or a distinction on the other?......for this in short is the way and perfection of logical disputes, that the opponent never takes any answer, nor the respondent ever yield to any argument." John Locke, Thoughts Concerning Education, 1690

"I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers."
Kahlil Gibran

"Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance."
Bertrand Russell

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