A small green seedling pushes through cracked orange earth.

Original artwork, not a still

Physics and Politics

Walter Bagehot

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

A new idea is described as painful rather than simply exciting. That choice suggests how deeply fresh thinking can disturb what feels familiar. The sentence makes resistance understandable as an experience of discomfort, while leaving open what a person might do with that discomfort.

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