To admit that an opponent might be both honest and intelligent is felt to be intolerable. It is more immediately satisfying to shout that he is a fool or a scoundrel, or both, than to find out what he is really like.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: George Orwell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.