Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Arguments oppose belief, yet belief itself supports the thing being argued.
In plain terms
Debate challenges ideas, but belief still backs them.
What can you take from it?
Understand that belief can persist despite criticism.

Where it applies

  • political discourse
  • religious debates
  • personal decisions

Putting it to work

  • recognize underlying beliefs
  • separate argument from belief

Questions to consider

  • Why do people cling to beliefs under attack?
  • Can argument change belief?

Another view

The statement is paradoxical and may oversimplify complex reasoning.

More from Samuel Johnson

  1. It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world.

    Permalink to quote #157
  2. It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age.

    Permalink to quote #159
  3. It must be agreed that in most ages many countries have had part of their inhabitants in a state of slavery; yet it may be doubted whether slavery can ever be …

    Permalink to quote #156

Related quotes

  1. People are said to believe in God, or to disbelieve in Adam and Eve. But in such cases what is believed or disbelieved is that there is an entity answering a c…

    Bertrand RussellBertrand Russell quote #8
  2. Granted, religion is wishful thinking, but there is no other kind of thinking.

    John LeonardJohn Leonard quote #21
  3. My dear Wormwood, I note what you say about guiding your patient's reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not …

    C. S. LewisC. S. Lewis quote #23