The quotation I was planning to use last month, I decided to postpone using. It’s a bit complicated to get into exactly why. I thought it would make for a perfect quotation to follow my August ‘quote of the month.’ But after doing some additional fact checking I decided not to use it. As a simple solution, I switched to the quotation I planned to use the following month. Problem solved. Except now we’re in that “following month” and I had to again decide what to do.
Fortunately, a quotation I planned on using at some point, came to mind as I was reading a blog post last month. So I thought, hmm, why not kill two birds with one stone. I’ll mention both the blog post, and the quotation, together.
Philosopher Colin McGinn has a very active blog that he posts new material to on a very regular basis. To use an analogy, just as a glass-bottomed boat provides the means for peering into the sea below, McGinn’s blog provides the opportunity to peer into the mind of a great philosopher and see what he’s thinking.
Last month, as I was reading McGinn’s September 11th ‘Politics and Mystery’ blog post, the quotation I alluded to earlier came to mind. As did two other quotations. Which were the other two? Well, Socrates’ “The only thing I know is that I know nothing,” came to mind. As did this lesser-known quotation attributed to Bertrand Russell: “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” (What Russell actually wrote: “The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”)
The other quotation which came to mind as I was reading that blog post is the one I’ve chosen for this month’s ‘quote of the month.’ It’s attributable to Marilyn vos Savant. Who is Marilyn vos Savant? Savant, impressively, was once listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest IQ (a category that’s since been discontinued). Savant authored a long-running (1986-2023) question and answer column (‘Ask Marilyn’) which appeared in Parade magazine. One of the questions posed to her in a column that ran on November 11, 2001, was: “Do you ever question yourself?” Her response:
“I question myself more than anyone I know. Some might consider this a weakness, but I believe it is one of my greatest strengths.” — Marilyn vos Savant
That’s a great quotation. Especially considering who it’s coming from. And yet, throughout the years, whenever I’ve googled it, just one page comes up. That’s it. And utilizing the keyboard Find command, I can’t even find it on that page. (There are 1,864 quotes — and it comes up as a document, on a page.)
Circling back to the blog post I referenced above, years ago, I jotted down an idea for a new political party somewhat along these lines. However, the (tentative) name I came up with was: The Gray Party (to drive home the point that not everything is as black and white as people may think — an easy argument to win!). I still like the idea. Though I’ll admit, the name I came up with is a bit lame.