Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love the truth.

Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) was a French moralist and essayist best known for his notebooks—aphoristic reflections on ethics, taste, education, and intellectual life—rather than for a single authored treatise. He moved in the circle of major French writers (including Chateaubriand), and his thoughts were published posthumously from his papers. The remark about retracting opinions fits Joubert’s characteristic concern with intellectual humility and moral self-scrutiny: he often treats the life of the mind as an ethical discipline, where vanity and self-love can distort judgment. The line is typically encountered in later compilations and translations of his pensées rather than in a contemporaneous speech or dated public document.

Joubert contrasts fidelity to truth with fidelity to one’s own ego. Refusing ever to retract an opinion is presented not as strength but as a form of self-attachment: the person protects their identity, reputation, or pride by clinging to past judgments even when evidence or reflection warrants revision. The aphorism implies that genuine love of truth requires flexibility—an ability to admit error, update beliefs, and prioritize accuracy over consistency. It also hints at a moral psychology: stubbornness is not merely an intellectual failing but an ethical one, because it elevates self-love above an impersonal good. In this sense, retracting can be a virtue: a sign of integrity rather than weakness.