"If a doctrine is not unintelligible, it has to be vague; and if neither unintelligible nor vague, it has to be unverifiable. One has to get to heaven or the distant future to determine the truth of an effective doctrine. When some part of a doctrine is relatively simple, there is a tendency among the faithful to complicate and obscure it. Simple words are made pregnant with meaning and made to look like symbols in a secret message. There is thus an illiterate air about the most literate true believer. He seems to use words as if he were ignorant of their true meaning. Hence, too, his taste for quibbling, hair-splitting and scholastic tortuousness."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Section 13, Chapter 57 (p. 77)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_True_Believer
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
The True Believer
137 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by The True Believer →
Related Quotes
"When people are ripe for a mass movement, they are usually ripe for any effective movement, and not solely for one wi…"
"The religious character of the Bolshevik and Nazi revolutions is generally recognized. The hammer and sickle and the …"
"There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanit…"
"When our individual interests and prospects do not seem worth living for, we are in desperate need for something apar…"
"This receptivity to all movements does not always cease even after the potential true believer has become the ardent …"
"Since all mass movements draw their adherents from the same types of humanity and appeal to the same types of mind, i…"
"The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for…"
"A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own mean…"
"Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves."
"There is a tendency to judge a race, a nation or any distinct group by its least worthy members. Though manifestly un…"