There Is Much Said That Isn't So

We live in a time of much talk, with opinions often expressed, sometimes without much substance, and rumors that swiftly circulate, because someone heard that someone said that something is so⎯and so opinions proliferate, and rumors run rampant, because so many have the means of saying so much to so many⎯and because so much that is unproved is repeated, often without thinking much whether or not it is or isn’t so. “What is the hardest task in the world?” asked Emerson. “To think.”¹ And to this Dr. Frank Crane added some interesting sentences: “Don’t pick up some opinion you hear, and make it your own because it sounds fine, and go to passing it out, without carefully examining it, scrutinizing, cross-questioning and testing it… Don’t be afraid to say, “I Don’t know,”… What you ought to be ashamed of is seeming to understand when you don’t… Ask questions. Define⎯practice defining. Practice telling what a thing is not, as well as what it is. Get a clear idea of what you don’t know. Then you can see better what you do know… Don’t let anybody make you think you owe a certain amount of belief in a thing simply because you can’t disprove it… You don’t have to believe or disbelieve everything that comes along; most things you just hang up and wait.”² Well, it all adds up to a simple conclusion: There is much said that isn’t so. There is much opinion expressed that isn’t proved. There is much rumor running around⎯and if we let ourselves be run by rumor we would find ourselves as James said: “like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”³

“The flying rumors gather’d as they roll’d,
Scare any tale was sooner heard than told;
And all who told it added something new
And all who heard it made enlargements too.”⁴

Everything we think and everything we hear aren’t necessarily so.