"Consider the very roots of our ability to discern truth. Above all (or perhaps I should say "underneath all"), common sense is what we depend on – that crazily elusive, ubiquitous faculty we all have to some degree or other.... If we apply common sense to itself over and over again, we wind up building a skyscraper. The ground floor of the structure is the ordinary common sense we all have, and the rules for building news floors are implicit in the ground floor itself. However, working it all out is a gigantic task, and the result is a structure that transcends mere common sense."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Douglas Hofstadter, Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern (1985), pp. 93–94
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Common_sense
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Common sense
46 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Common sense →
Related Quotes
"Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to…"
"Common sense is the favorite daughter of Reason, and altho thare are menny other wimmin more attraktive for a time, t…"
"Wit, without sense, iz like a razor without a handle"
"Many quite nefarious ideologies pass for common sense. For decades of American history, it was common sense in some q…"
"Common sense always speaks too late. Common sense is the guy who tells you you ought to have had your brakes relined …"
"Common sense is that which tells us the world is flat."
"A weak mind with no common sense magnifies trifling things and cannot receive great ones."
"Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom."
"Common sense is only the application of theories which have grown and been formulated unconsciously as result of expe…"
"Common sense should be renamed, cos nower days it's rare"