Blog 3730 – 01.27.2026

Some Favorite Quotes and Cliches

Grow or Die and Use it or Lose It are two of my favorite cliches. Change, progress, and growth are all about taking in new information and changing our minds. Some years ago during a political campaign, I first heard a quote attributed to the younger generation, “Free your mind and the rest will follow.” The algorithms on the Internet and especially Social Media feeds constantly bombard us with what we want to hear based on our perceived positions and preferences. All this curated data sadly keeps us in our own, “Don’t confuse me with the facts, I’ve got my mind made up” bubble.

Today’s picture quote from Daniel Patrick Moynihan is a particularly good one on this point. Facts are objective truth while opinions are subjective assumptions. Our aversion to conflicting facts reminds me of a little poster that I once bought for my very opinionated father. 

Much as we might like to believe that our opinions are facts and the absolute truth and even though we surround ourselves with people who only echo the “party line” assuring us that ours is only true religion, party, or sports team, the fact is than none of us has a corner on the truth. Arrogantly assuming that we are always right only causes us to be embarrassed that much more when the facts prove us to be wrong.

One of my dad’s favorite quotes and cliches was: “I may not always be right, but I am never wrong.”

In Spanish class in college fifty years ago I learned that “ Creo que” translates in English “I think” or “I believe.” Creo is from the same Latin root from which we get the words creed or credible which deal with what we believe or think to be true.

There is a great divide between the scientific fact-based and the religious faith-based ways of attempting to find the truth. Sadly both approaches are stymied by the “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up” mindset. If we are not open to consider new evidence, new information, new facts that might shed new light we are no longer growing and boldly going where no one has gone before (Trekkies will love that quote) but we are dying, we are no longer moving forward, we are stuck in the mud.

There is a line sung by Belle in Disney’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast in the song Days In The Sun where she expresses what true wisdom is, I think. A careful examination of “the facts” makes us “wiser and uncertain” not stubborn and cock-sure of everything.

May we all learn to be wiser.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gd6gmRXzwx1cfQexQEqHuUF2cr-oNJod/view?usp=drivesdk

Days In The Sun