Daily Inspiration Quote by Douglas Horton

“Good ideas are a dime a dozen, bad ones are free” lands like a punchline, but it’s really a warning dressed as a bargain. Horton, a clergyman speaking from a world that prizes moral seriousness, borrows the language of commerce to expose how cheaply we treat thought itself. A “good idea” costs a dime: not nothing, but so common it’s hardly prized. A “bad” idea costs even less, because it requires no investment of humility, discipline, or accountability. It’s the spiritual economy of laziness: the less you pay in scrutiny, the more product you get.

The line works because it flips the usual self-flattery. Most of us like to imagine our ideas are rare and precious; Horton suggests the opposite. The scarcity isn’t inspiration. It’s follow-through. He’s quietly shifting the moral spotlight from ideation to discernment: the hard work isn’t generating thoughts, it’s testing them, pruning them, living with their consequences. In a religious context, that’s almost pastoral triage. People come to a minister with “ideas” about justice, sin, family, politics, faith. Horton implies the danger isn’t a lack of answers, but an overabundance of easy ones.

The subtext is sharper: bad ideas propagate because they’re frictionless. They flatter impulses, simplify complexity, and travel fast because no one has to “pay” for them in evidence or self-examination. Horton’s dime isn’t money; it’s moral cost. The free stuff is what you should be most suspicious of.