proverb · Words worth keeping
Who so blind as he that will not see?
Who so blind as he that will not see?
Editorial context: This metaphor criticises refusal to consider evidence. Visual disability is not unwillingness to understand, and disagreement alone does not prove refusal.
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
Someone who refuses to consider available evidence may resist understanding more than someone who lacks information. The saying criticises deliberate avoidance, but its sight metaphor must not equate visual disability with unwillingness or ignorance.
Example
A committee repeatedly sets aside a maintenance report because its findings are inconvenient; a member asks for the actual evidence to be discussed before a decision.
Deeper explanation and when to use it
The contrast concerns will not rather than cannot. A person may have access to a question or evidence yet avoid engaging with it because accepting it would challenge a preferred view. The saying makes that refusal seem a deeper obstacle than simply not knowing. Applied carefully, it asks whether the discussion is being given a fair hearing. It does not prove that disagreement is wilful avoidance, and another person may have reasons or information the speaker has not considered. The visual metaphor also has limits: being blind is not a refusal to understand. Focus on the particular response to evidence rather than labelling a person.
When to use it
Use it when a specific pattern of refusing to consider evidence can be identified.
Keep in mind
Disagreement alone is not refusal, and visual disability is unrelated to willingness to understand.
An interpretation of the words, not a claim about their earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Date unknown
- Culture
- English