The Art of Worldy Wisdom(43)

Think with the Few and speak with the Many. Swimming against the stream makes it impossible to remove error and easy to fall into danger---only a Socrates can undertake it. To dissent from others' views is regarded as an insult, because it is a condemnation of their judgment. Disgust is doubled on account of the thing blamed and of the person who praised it. Truth is for the few, error is both common and vulgar. The wise person is not known by what he says on the public square, for there he speaks not with his own voice but with that of common folly, however much his inmost thoughts may gainsay it. The prudent avoid being contradicted as much as contradicting---though they have their censure ready they are not ready to publish it. Thought is free, force cannot and should not be used to it. The wise person therefore retires into silence, and if he allows himself to come out of it, he does so in the shade and before few and fit persons.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />