Perhaps wanting more of such bliss, I printed out pages of quotes I downloaded from the net when I enrolled at JKUAT in May 2007. Though the quotes also inspired me, only a few stuck in my head, especially a lengthy one on thinking clearly.
In 2010, I longed to re-read that lengthy quote on thinking clearly. Because I had misplaced the quotes I printed at JKUAT, the only option was to google it, which I did. I must have been delighted when I finally found it.
The quote was from Edward O. Sisson, a former University of Montana President. When I re-read it in 2010, I was so inspired that I wrote a story in which I weaved in the following words from it:
Our national success will depend largely upon the development of a generation of men and women who have formed a love and habit of clear thinking and who can do their part in solving the problems that confront civilized man today.Probably to show how we can learn to think clearly, Sisson said that when Abe Lincoln was a boy, he became disturbed when he read something ambiguous. That, according to Sisson, was a desire for clear thinking that is found in every child and good teachers know it.
Sisson said that far more important than any particular piece of knowledge, than geography or arithmetic or spelling, is this love of clearness in our mental life and instinctive hatred of confusion and obscurity.
He clarified that a mere knowledge of facts, important as that is, is no safeguard against confusion. A conscious desire and resolve to think clearly is the true remedy.
And from the way I understood that quote of his, thinking clearly is the key to avoiding superstition, gullibility and fallacious reasoning - the great enemies of intellectual life.
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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed this story, you might also enjoy "A Confusion Problem I Had".
