"There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion"
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Direct assault misfires against ignorance and narrow-mindedness because both are armored by pride, fear, and habit. Argue hard and they do not yield; they harden. Acton suggests a different strategy: cultivate the opposite virtues until they make the old vices untenable. Knowledge, curiosity, and breadth of sympathy do not so much refute ignorance and narrowness as render them obsolete. When people learn to ask better questions and to imagine lives unlike their own, the soil that once nourished error loses its grip.
The line about not bearing discussion has a double edge. On one level, ignorance and narrow-mindedness do not withstand open inquiry; sustained scrutiny exposes their thinness. But those who cling to them often refuse the conditions of honest discussion, retreating into certainties and slogans. The point is not to win a debate with the unpersuadable. It is to change the environment in which such attitudes look plausible, by patiently building habits of evidence, humility, and fair-mindedness.
Acton wrote as a nineteenth-century liberal Catholic and historian of liberty, wary of dogma enforced by power. He had battled ultramontanism and watched ideological certitude distort both politics and history. For him, moral and intellectual progress did not come from clever polemics but from the capacity of free institutions, scholarship, and education to enlarge the mind. He valued conscience disciplined by knowledge, not merely opinion sharpened by conflict.
The counsel is practical as well as lofty. Teachers know that a zealous correction can humiliate a student into silence, while a patient invitation to explore can awaken self-correction. In public life, exposing people to diverse experiences and trustworthy information often works where argument fails. The tactic is slow, but it is the only reliable way to loosen the grip of error. Rather than storm the fortress, make the walls irrelevant by raising a city around them where light, conversation, and the habit of seeing more than one side are normal.
The line about not bearing discussion has a double edge. On one level, ignorance and narrow-mindedness do not withstand open inquiry; sustained scrutiny exposes their thinness. But those who cling to them often refuse the conditions of honest discussion, retreating into certainties and slogans. The point is not to win a debate with the unpersuadable. It is to change the environment in which such attitudes look plausible, by patiently building habits of evidence, humility, and fair-mindedness.
Acton wrote as a nineteenth-century liberal Catholic and historian of liberty, wary of dogma enforced by power. He had battled ultramontanism and watched ideological certitude distort both politics and history. For him, moral and intellectual progress did not come from clever polemics but from the capacity of free institutions, scholarship, and education to enlarge the mind. He valued conscience disciplined by knowledge, not merely opinion sharpened by conflict.
The counsel is practical as well as lofty. Teachers know that a zealous correction can humiliate a student into silence, while a patient invitation to explore can awaken self-correction. In public life, exposing people to diverse experiences and trustworthy information often works where argument fails. The tactic is slow, but it is the only reliable way to loosen the grip of error. Rather than storm the fortress, make the walls irrelevant by raising a city around them where light, conversation, and the habit of seeing more than one side are normal.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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