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About this quote

What does it mean?
The most dangerous heresies are those that look like accepted beliefs, making them hard to detect.
In plain terms
Dangerous ideas that look like normal ones are the hardest to spot.
What can you take from it?
Hidden dangers mimic accepted beliefs and are hard to spot.

Where it applies

  • religious study
  • ideological analysis
  • group dynamics

Putting it to work

  • question apparent norms
  • detect subtle deviations
  • scrutinize beliefs

Questions to consider

  • What beliefs look safe but are dangerous?
  • How do you spot hidden errors?

Another view

It implies all orthodoxy might hide dangerous errors.

More from Jorge Luis Borges

  1. Every novel is an ideal plane inserted into the realm of reality.

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  3. Years of solitude had taught him that, in one's memory, all days tend to be the same, but that there is not a day, not even in jail or in the hospital, which d…

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