Wishful Thinking – Sunday, September 21, 1941
There is a phrase that has become currently common, in the use of which we often over-indulge, and from which few men are immune, and that is—“wishful thinking.” Wishful thinking means briefly that we are sometimes guilty of deciding what we would like to believe, what we hope might be true, and then settle down to the complacency of thinking of those things as though they were an accomplished fact.
Choosing to believe what we would like to believe regardless of what is true makes final shocks all the harder to meet and reality all the more difficult to face. There was a time when men wanted to believe that the world was flat, so they wouldn’t have to adjust their way of thinking. But the world and truth and reality moved on without them.
Many men wishfully think that those rules which have been laid down for the eternal progress of man may be ignored and that a kind and merciful Father in Heaven will not hold them accountable for their misdeeds and for their indifference. But it is wishful thinking to suppose that we shall not somehow pay for the consequences of our own doing.
Ultimately and unavoidably, such penalties are regularly paid. It isn’t so much a question of what we want to believe as it is a question of what we have to believe. It isn’t so much a question of what we would like to be true, as it is a question of what is true.
A truth is ofttimes harder to face than a falsehood, because you can manipulate falsehood, but you can’t manipulate truth, and all the wishful thinking in the world won’t change it, and the sooner we recognize it and pattern our lives accordingly, the fewer disappointments we are going to face. Men must come to the knowledge that wishful thinking is a luxury we can’t afford.
September 21, 1941
Broadcast Number 0,631