There are very few lovers of truth for truth-sake, even among those who persuade themselves that they are so. How a man may know whether he be so in earnest, is worth inquiry: and I think there is one unerring mark of it, viz. The not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant. Whoever goes beyond this measure of assent, it is plain, receives not truth in the love of it, loves not truth for truth-sake, but for some other by-end.

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. London: Thomas Basset, 1690, bk. 4, ch. 19, sect. 1.

Current Citation

Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, edited by Pauline Phemister. Oxford University Press, 2008, bk. 4, ch. 19, sect. 1.