120 philosophical essays you must read in your life

Chapter 79

Chapter 4, Section 19, On Suspicion

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Suspicions in the mind are like bats among birds, always flying in the dark night.Suspicion should be curbed, or at least moderated.Because he can confuse people's minds, alienate friends, and prevent the smooth progress of business.

Suspicion can make kings tyrannical, husbands jealous, and wise men indecisive.Suspicion is a disease, a disease of the mind.Even those who are naturally brave, like King Henry VII of England, can have suspicious thoughts.Moreover, there is no man in the world who is more suspicious and brave than him.But based on the character of these people, they will not rashly suspect, they always want to investigate whether it is possible.Suspicion, therefore, does them little harm.

But suspicion always breeds quickly among naturally timid people.Those who are suspicious are those who want to know more about things but don't know much.Therefore, if you want to clear up your doubts, you should know more about things, and don't hide your suspicions in your heart.

What do people really want?Don't they think that the people they use and the people they hand over are not saints?Could it be that they don't think that these people are more loyal to themselves than others, and these people also have their own goals?In fact, the best way to calm doubts is to assume that these suspicions are true, expect the worst results, and then restrain yourself in order to prevent the worst results from happening.For one should take precautions in advance, and if the suspicion is true, one can avoid it, and the use of suspicion is limited to this.

The suspicions that arise in people's hearts are nothing but rumors and gossips, and those suspicions generated by telling truths are a poisonous sting.The best way to get rid of doubts and doubts is to meet with the suspected party openly and honestly, so that both parties can understand each other, recognize the true nature of the incident, and make both parties pay more attention, so as not to instill suspicion.But this method is not suitable for people with bad character, because once such people find that they have been suspected by others, they are prone to hold grudges and are even more likely to be false.

The Italians say: "Suspicion is the passport of loyalty." It is as if suspicion has given loyalty a passport and let it pass.But suspicion should have inspired devotion, removing one's own suspicions.

【Together with you】

Suspicion is really a poison that breeds in defective minds and hearts.

Suspicion is a double-edged sword at the same time, which harms others and hurts oneself. "Suspicion in the mind is like a bat among birds, always flying in the hazy night." Suspicion is inherently dark in nature, lurking in a certain corner of the mind at certain moments, and suddenly turbulent The momentum swallows people's subjective consciousness, makes us lose the rationality of self-control, and slides into the dark abyss of human nature.

(End of this chapter)