Daily Inspiration Quote by Quintilian

Quintilian is selling intellectual humility, but he does it with a teacher’s quiet trap: the sentence makes curiosity sound responsible, even civic-minded, while warning against the smug certainty that usually passes for rigor. “Examining into everything” isn’t just broad-mindedness; it’s a disciplined habit of inquiry, the kind Rome’s aspiring advocates were supposed to practice if they wanted to persuade without sliding into mere performance. In a culture where rhetoric could be a ladder to power, the line doubles as an ethical corrective: if you only look where your argument wants you to look, you’re not seeking truth, you’re shopping for it.

The sly power is in the phrase “where we least expected it.” Quintilian nudges the reader to admit how expectation governs perception. We don’t miss truth because it’s hidden; we miss it because we’ve pre-labeled the places it’s “allowed” to appear. The quote flatters the diligent examiner, but it also destabilizes the examiner’s authority: you can do the work, and still be surprised. That surprise is the point. It’s a defense against dogma and against the rhetorical urge to force the world into a prewritten conclusion.

Contextually, Quintilian is writing in an Imperial Rome anxious about education, morals, and the social uses of speech. The line reads like classroom advice, but it’s really a political psychology: the healthiest mind, and the least corruptible citizen, is the one trained to be startled by evidence.