Category: Rhetoric
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“There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.” – Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World Are some questions “dumb”? Maybe in the moment—but even the worst-formed ones come from a mental framework…
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“Insight, untested and unsupported, is an insufficient guarantee of truth.” — Bertrand Russell We love our insights, collecting them like shiny stones, tweeting them, tattooing them, and even weaponizing them in comment sections. But in our highly polarized digital age, Bertrand Russell’s warning rings louder than ever: insight alone—no matter how poetic, how emotionally satisfying—isn’t…
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“Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” —Leonardo da Vinci I’ve always preferred Frankenstein’s Monster to the Mona Lisa. We’re often told to look to Leonardo da Vinci as the “patron saint” of genius, the man who could paint a masterpiece while dissecting a frog. But da Vinci, excellent as he…
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“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” – Stephen King Human beings are blessed with one sort of talent or another. Some are great at public speaking. Others are great at composing music. Still others are very good at writing essays;…