Truth always originates in a minority of one, and every custom begins as a broken precedent.
Meaning of the quote
The quote suggests that new ideas and ways of doing things often start with just one person, even if they go against the usual way of doing things. Over time, what was once unusual can become the new normal or custom. So the things we consider normal today may have begun as something different or even unconventional in the past.
About Will Durant
Will Durant was an American historian and philosopher, best known for his 11-volume work The Story of Civilization, which detailed the history of Eastern and Western civilizations. He was also noted for his groundbreaking work The Story of Philosophy, which helped popularize philosophy. Durant and his wife Ariel were awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their collaborative efforts.
More quotes from Will Durant
Man became free when he recognized that he was subject to law.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Civilization is the order and freedom is promoting cultural activity.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
The love we have in our youth is superficial compared to the love that an old man has for his old wife.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
When liberty becomes license, dictatorship is near.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
If man asks for many laws it is only because he is sure that his neighbor needs them; privately he is an unphilosophical anarchist, and thinks laws in his own case superfluous.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
As soon as liberty is complete it dies in anarchy.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
There is nothing in socialism that a little age or a little money will not cure.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
History is mostly guessing; the rest is prejudice.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Truth always originates in a minority of one, and every custom begins as a broken precedent.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies with chaos.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Bankers know that history is inflationary and that money is the last thing a wise man will hoard.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
In my youth I stressed freedom, and in my old age I stress order. I have made the great discovery that liberty is a product of order.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Nature has never read the Declaration of Independence. It continues to make us unequal.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
There have been only 268 of the past 3,421 years free of war.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Every vice was once a virtue, and may become respectable again, just as hatred becomes respectable in wartime.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Inquiry is fatal to certainty.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Most of us spend too much time on the last twenty-four hours and too little on the last six thousand years.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Our knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Tired mothers find that spanking takes less time than reasoning and penetrates sooner to the seat of the memory.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves. Nothing is often a good thing to say, and always a clever thing to say.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Woe to him who teaches men faster than they can learn.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
A statesman cannot afford to be a moralist.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Education is the transmission of civilization.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
The family is the nucleus of civilization.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Moral codes adjust themselves to environmental conditions.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Science gives us knowledge, but only philosophy can give us wisdom.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Knowledge is the eye of desire and can become the pilot of the soul.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
The most interesting thing in the world is another human being who wonders, suffers and raises the questions that have bothered him to the last day of his life, knowing he will never get the answers.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
It may be true that you can’t fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
The ego is willing but the machine cannot go on. It’s the last thing a man will admit, that his mind ages.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
I am not against hasty marriages, where a mutual flame is fanned by an adequate income.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
We Americans are the best informed people on earth as to the events of the last twenty-four hours; we are the not the best informed as the events of the last sixty centuries.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)
We are living in the excesses of freedom. Just take a look at 42nd Street an Broadway.
American historian, philosopher and writer (1885-1981)