Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Truth emerges best when people debate openly with those they trust.
In plain terms
Friends arguing honestly helps find the truth.
What can you take from it?
Cultivate relationships where honest disagreement is welcome.

Where it applies

  • group discussions
  • peer review
  • team decisions

Putting it to work

  • facilitate open debate
  • build trust first

Questions to consider

  • Who do you trust enough to argue with?
  • Do you feel safe disagreeing?

Another view

Truth can sometimes emerge from solitary reflection too.

More from David Hume

  1. He is happy whom circumstances suit his temper; but he is more excellent who suits his temper to any circumstance.

    Permalink to quote #76
  2. Upon the whole, I have always considered him, both in his lifetime and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous m…

    Permalink to quote #78
  3. Everything in the world is purchased by labor.

    Permalink to quote #75

Related quotes

  1. Amicus Plato - amicus Aristoteles - magis amica veritas

    Isaac NewtonIsaac Newton quote #1
  2. Surely it is more interesting to argue about what the truth is, than about what some particular thinker, however great, did or did not think.

    David DeutschDavid Deutsch quote #1
  3. Much may be said on both sides.

    Henry FieldingHenry Fielding quote #2