Heresy is the eternal dawn, the morning star, the glittering herald of the day. Heresy is the last and best thought. It is the perpetual New World, the unknown sea, toward which the brave all sail. It is the eternal horizon of progress. Heresy extends the hospitalities of the brain to a new thought. Heresy is a cradle; orthodoxy, a coffin.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker celebrates heresy as a necessary force for progress and new ideas compared to rigid orthodoxy.
- In plain terms
- Challenging beliefs leads to progress.
- What can you take from it?
- Embrace new ideas over old rules.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What new ideas are you exploring?
- Why is tradition important?
Another view
It romanticizes heresy which can sometimes be harmful.
More from Robert G. Ingersoll
The heretics have not thought and suffered and died in vain. Every heretic has been, and is, a ray of light.
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