We should always be prepared so as never to err to believe that what I see as white is black, if the hierarchic Church defines it thus.
ReligionPhilosophyAuthorityBeliefCritical thinkingEpistemologyPerceptionTruth
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- One should not mistakenly accept the Church’s definition of truth if it contradicts personal observation.
- In plain terms
- Don’t trust authority when it conflicts with what you see.
- What can you take from it?
- Question institutional claims that oppose clear evidence.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do we balance personal experience with institutional knowledge?
- When should we defer to authority?
Another view
The statement assumes personal perception is always reliable, which may not be true.
More from Ignatius of Loyola
The enemy is like a woman, weak in face of opposition, but correspondingly strong when not opposed. In a quarrel with a man, it is natural for a woman to lose …
Permalink to quote #5 Considering that the blessed life we so long for consists in an intimate and true love of God Our Creator and Lord, which binds and obliges us all to a sincere…
Permalink to quote #7 Imagine that leader of all the enemy, in that great plain of Babylon, sitting on a sort of throne of smoking flame, a horrible and terrifying sight. Watch him …
Permalink to quote #4
Related quotes
That faith makes blessed under certain circumstances, that blessedness does not make of a fixed idea a true idea, that faith moves no mountains but puts mounta…
Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche quote #182 Auctoritas siquidem ex vera ratione processit, ratio vero nequaquam ex auctoritate. Omnis enim auctoritas, quae vera ratione non approbatur, infirma videtur es…
Johannes Scotus EriugenaJohannes Scotus Eriugena quote #2 Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to b…
EpictetusEpictetus quote #8