• Sometimes misquoted as "If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
• Sometimes misattributed to Anatole France
• Note that Russell does say something similar in Marriage and Morals (1929): "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible."
If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets " If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie." in the context of "W. Somerset Maugham, A Writer's Notebook (1949), entry for 1901
• Sometimes misquoted as "If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
• Sometimes misattributed to Anatole France
• Note that Russell does say something similar in Marriage and Morals (1929): "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible."" to mean that wisdom is timeless.
About Bertrand Russell