Common sense is not so common. — Voltaire

Common sense is not so common.

Author: Voltaire

Insight: We've all had that moment where someone does something that baffles us—leaves their phone charger at a friend's house for the third time, or complains about being broke while buying expensive coffee every day. We shake our heads and think, "How is this not obvious?" The gap between what seems logically clear and what people actually do is genuinely enormous. Voltaire's observation has only gotten more relevant in a world where information is everywhere but wisdom feels scarcer. The tricky part is that common sense isn't really common because it requires something harder than just knowing facts: it requires stepping back from your immediate wants and emotional reactions to see the bigger pattern. You might "know" that scrolling before bed ruins your sleep, but knowing and actually putting the phone down are different muscles. We're all brilliant about other people's obvious mistakes and remarkably blind to our own. What makes this quote stick around is that it's oddly comforting. It's not saying you're stupid—it's saying that seeing clearly is actually rare and difficult, even for intelligent people. That realization alone can be the beginning of actually using better judgment: admitting that what seems obvious to me might not be obvious to others, and that the reverse is true too.

Source: A Pocket Philosophical Dictionary