Unthinking Conformity Quotes
This quotation is almost always given as if it were Alcuin who advocated listening to the people, when actually his view was just the opposite. See William Tecumseh Sherman for a more modern expression of the same view. Also, Walter Reynolds {32317} for an opposite view, but using a similar phrase. Note that since he was referring to what "the people" say, the quote must have been in common usage in the 9th century. For the earliest known use of the statement in Western civilization, see Hesiod {603399}.
This was an observation and statement that made many conservatives unhappy with a figure who was usually their hero. However, Mises observed correctly, that any reactionary is supporting and defending what he/she perceives is the best of the past. But by definition the ideas are of the past and are the intellectual product of others. Therefore the ideas she espouses are never hers. The reactionary is intellectual dependent on the past. In contrast, liberals, progressives and radicals MIGHT be intellectually independent. A few are, but most echo their ideas. But the reactionary can never be intellectually independent.
