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Main Index
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DARE TO HARM YOU MAY STILL HAVE THE WILL TO HARM YOU. He may not dare to harm you but he has the idea it is humiliating that somebody even thinks of destroying you.'
'SUPPOSE I HAVE A WAY TO ENSURE THAT MEN HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO WILL TO HARM YOU. BUT A MAN WHO HAS NO WILL TO HARM YOU MAY STILL HAVE NO THOUGHT OF LOVING OR BENEFITING YOU. A man may have no thought to harm you but that does not make it sure that he wants to benefit you or has a loving attitude towards you.'
SUPPOSE THAT I HAVE A WAY TO MAKE EVERY SINGLE MAN AND WOMAN IN THE WORLD JOYFULLY DESIRE TO LOVE AND BENEFIT YOU. THIS IS THREE DEGREES BETTER THAN COURAGE AND STRENGTH. ISN'T YOUR MAJESTY INTERESTED?'
'THIS IS THE SORT OF WAY I SHOULD LIKE TO FIND.' said the king.
Now truth is brought to the level of the ADAMPURUS, the lowest man. In bringing truth to the lowest man, truth loses its quality of being true. It becomes a falsehood. Now it is a lie. Now it is clever argument. It is no longer a statement of truth, it is a cunning device. It is sophistry. Yes, that is exactly the word for it. This man is not a sage, he is a sophist.
You must have heard about sophists. They existed in Athens in Greece. Before Socrates there was great power in the hands of the sophists. They travelled all over the country. They convinced everybody, they were greatest arguers but they had no principles. Whatsoever you wanted to be convinced about they would convince you. It was a sort of prostitution. They were paid and they became very affluent because they were ready to support anything. 'Just you tell me what you want to be convinced of' they would say. And they would convince you, they would give You beautiful arguments. They had schools to teach people argumentation .
Because of Socrates they disappeared from the world. Socrates had a great impact on the Greek mind and he destroyed that whole prostitution.
Bertrand Russell used to tell a small story again and again. I don't know where he got it from but the story is beautiful so there is no need to worry about it.
He used to say again and again that one day a sophist came to see Socrates. He had a beautiful dog
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