The art of thinking well: Thinking well is a means of knowing the truth

To think well consists simply, either in knowing the truth, or in guiding the understanding in the way which leads to it. Truth is the reality of things. What is the use of thinking with acuteness, or with apparent profoundness, if our thoughts are not in conformity with the reality? A simple farmer, or a modest artisan, acquainted with the things connected with his business, will think and speak better about them than a presumptuous philosopher, who in laboured conceptions and high-sounding words might try to read them lectures on what he knows nothing about.