Life & Wisdom Quote by Lord Byron

Byron’s line is a dare dressed up as common sense: if you treat opinions as sacred property, you’re not defending truth, you’re just hoarding identity. The syntax does the work. He doesn’t argue that opinions can be changed; he implies they were built for it, like tools designed to be used, worn down, replaced. Then comes the knife twist: “or how is truth to be got at?” Truth isn’t a possession or a creed here, it’s something you have to hunt, pry loose, approach by trial and error. The question lands like a challenge to anyone addicted to certainty.

The intent is both philosophical and social. Byron is writing in a Britain anxious about revolution abroad and reform at home, where “opinions” weren’t harmless hot takes but markers of class, loyalty, and political danger. In that climate, changing your mind could read as betrayal. Byron flips the stigma: rigidity becomes the real moral failure, because it blocks the only method that has a chance of working - revision.

Subtextually, he’s also protecting the artist’s posture. The Romantic poet wants intensity, yes, but not dogma. Byron’s wit is in making humility sound like swagger: the brave person isn’t the one who clings hardest to a position, but the one willing to be corrected in public. It’s an argument for intellectual mobility, and a warning that “strong opinions” are often just fear with better branding.