Half Truths

Description

Today they’re called sound bits, but they’re older by far than sound bites, and they play a larger role in your life —those pithy, quotable phrases that capture in a few words the wisdom of the world: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” “Talk is cheap.” “It doesn’t matter what you believe, so long as you’re sincere.” “Love is blind.” “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

In a few words — wisdom in shorthand — they speak truth won from generations of experience ( and we know from our mothers that “experience is the best teacher “).

These sayings survive because they work; which is why, in good times and bad, we use them to guide our actions and even to resolve intractable disputes (“Hey, let’s just agree to disagree”).

The problem is that most of them are not really true: they’re half-truths. And when we rely on them uncritically ( as often we do ) they lead us out of one difficulty right smack into another.

That’s why philosopher Montague Brown, author The One Minute Philosopher, has here taken up the task of considering over 75 of these popular sayings, plucking from each the wisdom they contain while showing just where they steer you wrong.

Presented here in an easy-to-read format are the common understandings of each saying, plus the additional insights you need to transform each from a dangerous cliché into a living truth that will improve your understanding and effectiveness in our world.

But this is more than just a book of aphorisms; taken together, it’s a delightful mini-course in philosophy, studied by means of the perennial wisdom that’s been embodied in these sayings over the years. Hey, why not try it? After all, “The proof is in the pudding!”

By Montague Brown