"There are two ways of looking at our duty in the matter of opinion ... We must know the truth, and we must
avoid error. These are are first and great commandments as would-be knowers; but they are not two ways of
stating an identical commandment, they are two separable laws.
Clifford's exhortation has to my ears a thoroughly fantastic sound. It is like a general informing his soldiers
that it is better to keep out of battle forever than to risk a single wound. Not so are victories either over
enemies or over nature gained. Our errors are surely not such awful solemn things. In a world where we are so
certain to incur them in spite of all our caution, a certain lightness of heart seems healthier than this
excessive nervousnes on their behalf."
“...since there is an equal chance of gain and loss, if you stood to win only two lives for one you could still
wager, but supposing you stood to win three?
...it would be unwise of you, since you are obliged to play, not to risk your life in order to win three lives
at a game in which there is an equal chance of winning and losing. ... But here there is an infinity of happy
life to
be won,
one chance of winning against a finite number of chances of losing, and what you are staking is finite. That
leaves no
choice; wherever there is infinity, and where there are not infinite chances of losing against that of winning,
there
is no room for hesitation, you must give everything. And thus, since you are obliged to play, you must be
renouncing
reason if you hoard your life rather than risk it for an infinite gain, just as likely to occur as a loss
amounting to
nothing.”