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A Grain of Salt

One cliché I hear very frequently is to take everything with a grain of salt. We all know that this means to take information given with a little skepticism. But where did this phrase come from?

One theory is that it comes from the general of Ancient Rome, Pompey the Great, in about 106 BCE. After winning a war against Mithridates. He found an "antidote" to poison, supposedly a mixture of ingredients, the last being salt, which made it easier to swallow. It can be inferred from this fact that that by figuratively taking a " grain of salt" with everything, that is, having skepticism when being presented with information, we can avoid the harmful effects of poisonous ideas and be able to " swallow down" hard to believe information.

So what do we need to do? Everyone always says to not believe everything you hear, but to that I disagree. To me, that is impractical, and is generally a cliché way to disprove people's otherwise valid arguments. Instead, we should take things with a grain of salt. We can believe things we hear, but also be prepared to have some if the things heard, be wrong.

In fact, I want everyone that reads this blog to take tit with a grain of salt. Who knows if I even know what I am talking about.

Comments

  1. Not PrestoApril 22, 2018 at 3:19 PM

    Well, if you believe everything you see, even if you do so with a degree of skepticism, then what happens when someone attempts to use the "knowledge" they have acquired, and though their not completely sure in their beliefs, they may spread around ideas that are completely untrue.

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