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I shall begin discussing my connection with Governor Roosevelt, my conversations with him, my growing understanding of his mentality and personality, how his thinking apparatus operated and how he came to the opinions that he came to. Some people come to their opinions by mustering facts and applying logic and reason. Other people come to their opinions, as Dr. Irving Langmuir of the General Electric laboratory said the other day (November 1952) that he did, by intuitive penetrating comprehension of some ultimate or central point in the problem before them. Then they bulwark it up with reason, logic and experiment. There are a great many people who come to their opinions that way. If they are wise, having got an opinion out of an intuitive flash, they will measure it against their basic principles of the meaning of life and the relations of people and they will also apply such reason and logic as they have mastery of to see if it proves. When you do a problem in algebra, you say, “Does it prove itself?” They will try to prove their hunch by utilizing all the other techniques by which opinions may be reached.
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