S. Austin Allibone, comp. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay. 1880.
Dogmatism
I could never divide myself from any man upon the difference of an opinion, or be angry with his judgment for not agreeing with me in that from which within a few days I should dissent myself . Where we desire to be informed, tis good to contest with men above ourselves; but to confirm and establish our opinions tis best to argue with judgments below our own, that the frequent spoils and victories over their reasons may settle in ourselves an esteem and confirmed opinion of our own.
The fault lieth altogether in the dogmatics, that is to say, those that are imperfectly learned, and with passion press to have their opinion pass everywhere for truth.
Men would often see what a small pittance of reason is mixed with those huffing opinions they are swelled with, with which they are so armed at all points, and with which they so confidently lay about them.
The assuming an authority to dictate to others, and a forwardness to prescribe to their opinions, is a constant concomitant of this bias of our judgments.
A dogmatical spirit inclines a man to be censorious of his neighbours. Every one of his opinions appears to him written, as it were, with sunbeams, and he grows angry that his neighbours do not see it in the same light. He is tempted to disdain his correspondents as men of low and dark understandings, because they do not believe what he does.