Let truth be your standard and itself thereby oppose error

From Notes and Recollections by Ludwig von Mises, page 109. 1940.

In my seminar discussions I seized every opportunity to refute popular fallacies. I rather regret that I spent my literary efforts on one more refutation of fallacies that had been exploded a hundred times before. I regret that I spent too much of my limited strength on the fight against pseudo-economics. In hours of quiet reflection, I reaffirmed my resolve to be guided by the passage of Spinoza: Veritas norms sui et falsi est ("Let truth be your standard and itself thereby oppose error"). But time and again my temper led me to get involved.

The brighter, more experienced, and more broadly read you are, the more this is a trap. More and more conversations are, based on random sampling; talking at cross-purposes due to pseudo knowledge and fallacies; tutorials; or disagreements arising from discordant priors. Finding a like person of similar intelligence, breadth of experience, and breadth of curious reading is the most rewarding and the most productive. And regrettably the most uncommon.