Three open wooden tool trays form steps, each displaying small brass tools against coral and purple.

Original artwork, not a still

Arthur Schopenhauer

All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; and Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker maintains that every truth follows a predictable path: first people laugh at it, then they fight it fiercely, and finally they treat it as obvious. It is a claim that new ideas are mocked and resisted until acceptance makes them seem like common sense all along.

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