"It is extremely important to know what you don't want to find"
About this Quote
“It is extremely important to know what you don’t want to find” flips the usual self-help script on its head. We’re trained to chase clarity as a shopping list: goals, dreams, the thing we’re “meant” to do. Uris, a novelist steeped in wars, nations, and moral collision, points to a harsher kind of clarity: the discipline of refusal.
The line works because it treats discovery as dangerous. Finding isn’t neutral; it comes with obligations. If you go looking and you uncover a truth about your family, your country, your cause, or your own motives, you can’t unsee it. Uris is hinting at the psychological trick people use to stay innocent: the strategic vagueness that lets you claim you didn’t know. Knowing what you don’t want to find is essentially admitting, up front, the places your loyalty, ego, or ideology can’t tolerate scrutiny.
There’s also a writerly subtext: research is a minefield. Novelists hunt for details, but some facts collapse the story you hoped to tell. Uris built big, conviction-heavy narratives; he understood that certain discoveries complicate the clean arc of heroes and villains. The warning isn’t “stay comfortable.” It’s “name your taboos before you pretend you’re objective.”
In an age of algorithmic confirmation and curated identity, the quote lands as a blunt ethics test: are you searching for truth, or shopping for reassurance?
The line works because it treats discovery as dangerous. Finding isn’t neutral; it comes with obligations. If you go looking and you uncover a truth about your family, your country, your cause, or your own motives, you can’t unsee it. Uris is hinting at the psychological trick people use to stay innocent: the strategic vagueness that lets you claim you didn’t know. Knowing what you don’t want to find is essentially admitting, up front, the places your loyalty, ego, or ideology can’t tolerate scrutiny.
There’s also a writerly subtext: research is a minefield. Novelists hunt for details, but some facts collapse the story you hoped to tell. Uris built big, conviction-heavy narratives; he understood that certain discoveries complicate the clean arc of heroes and villains. The warning isn’t “stay comfortable.” It’s “name your taboos before you pretend you’re objective.”
In an age of algorithmic confirmation and curated identity, the quote lands as a blunt ethics test: are you searching for truth, or shopping for reassurance?
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|
More Quotes by Leon
Add to List
