Wednesday Wisdom: Trust, Mistrust, & An Intellectual Life
February 28, 2024's Wisdom
Welcome to Wednesday Wisdom, our 3x3 Newsletter where I distill worldly advice for better living by presenting three quotes, three observations, and three questions.
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Trust
🤨 Quote
“Morality achieves something almost miraculous, and fundamental to human achievement and liberty. It creates trust. It means that to the extent that we belong to the same moral community, we can work together without constantly being on guard against violence, betrayal, exploitation, or deception. The stronger the bonds of community, the more powerful the force of trust, and the more we can achieve together.”
Jonathan Sacks
Source: Morality
Observation 🧐
All successful societies are built on an invisible value that runs through them—trust. Trust is essential in any endeavor. It connects us to one another and reinforces the shared understanding of what a society is.
“No man is an island, Entire of itself,” the poet John Donne once wrote, “Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main.”
Trust is a binding model of reliance that each citizen can and will do their part in an honest and trustworthy way. This is not always the case, there are obviously always those individuals looking to advance themselves. But in order for a society to flourish, trust needs to be built into its fabric.
In our societies today, trust is already there in ways we don’t even question: We trust our colleague will pull their weight on a project, we trust our doctor knows what he’s doing when performing surgery, we trust that the products we buy are not defunct.
Trust among individuals allows for cooperation within a society. A society that cooperates within itself flourishes. As the psychologist Dan Ariely once said:
“A society without trust isn't a society: it's a collection of people who are continuously afraid of each other.”
🤔 Question
What is one area of your life you can allow more trust into? Why have you not previously done so?
Mistrust
🤨 Quote
“It is more shameful to mistrust our friends than to be deceived by them.”
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Source: Collected Maxims and Other Reflections