Expressing an Opinion

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 21, 1878

Expressing an Opinion.

We all have our opinions, or we ought to have them, but as regards the advisability of expressing them on all occasions much might be said. There are people, good people, too, who pride themselves on doing this; but it must be owned that they are not often popular. “Must we then conceal our true views, dissimulate for the sake of popularity?” asks some one. By no means, good friend, but reserve need not be untruthfulness. We are not called upon to tell just what we think when by so doing we would only irritate without aiding any one.

These outspoken folks are seldom aware of the pain they inflict, or the vexation they cause. Long after they have forgotten their own words they are rankling in the mind of the recipient. “I can’t help that,” perhaps they would add if you could make them see this result. “I must express my opinions frankly, you know, and people ought not to be offended at the truth.” But when the truth is as unnecessary as it is unpalatable, what then? And then, too, it does not always follow that truth-telling people relish a like plainness of speech from their victims. On the contrary, they often resent what they practice, with most illogical warmth.—Sel.