"Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen"
About this Quote
Authority is a sedative, and Maimonides is yanking the cup away. The line hits hardest because it targets a reflex that still runs our information culture: if it’s been written down, it must have passed some threshold of truth. In a medieval world where manuscripts carried the aura of permanence and scholarly pedigree, he refuses the easy shortcut. Ink, he implies, is not a moral upgrade from speech; it’s just a different delivery system for the same human incentives.
The provocation is in the symmetry: tongue and pen are equal instruments, equally vulnerable to vanity, sectarian loyalty, political pressure, financial reward, or simple error. That’s not mere cynicism about authors. It’s an ethic of reading. Maimonides is training his audience to treat texts not as relics but as arguments with provenance. Who benefits? What are the assumptions smuggled in as “common knowledge”? What is being left out because it’s inconvenient or dangerous?
Context matters: Maimonides wrote in an age of intense cross-pollination and conflict among Jewish, Islamic, and Aristotelian traditions, where texts weren’t just informational but identity-forming. Books could sanctify a claim, turn a faction’s position into “tradition,” or freeze a misreading into orthodoxy. His warning is a pressure valve against that petrification.
The subtext is bracingly modern: literacy doesn’t solve epistemology. The medium that preserves wisdom also preserves propaganda, and the cure is not reverence but scrutiny.
The provocation is in the symmetry: tongue and pen are equal instruments, equally vulnerable to vanity, sectarian loyalty, political pressure, financial reward, or simple error. That’s not mere cynicism about authors. It’s an ethic of reading. Maimonides is training his audience to treat texts not as relics but as arguments with provenance. Who benefits? What are the assumptions smuggled in as “common knowledge”? What is being left out because it’s inconvenient or dangerous?
Context matters: Maimonides wrote in an age of intense cross-pollination and conflict among Jewish, Islamic, and Aristotelian traditions, where texts weren’t just informational but identity-forming. Books could sanctify a claim, turn a faction’s position into “tradition,” or freeze a misreading into orthodoxy. His warning is a pressure valve against that petrification.
The subtext is bracingly modern: literacy doesn’t solve epistemology. The medium that preserves wisdom also preserves propaganda, and the cure is not reverence but scrutiny.
Quote Details
| Topic | Honesty & Integrity |
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