There is no squabbling so violent as that between people who accepted an idea yesterday and those who will accept the same idea tomorrow.

Morley wryly observes a common social dynamic: the fiercest arguments often occur not between true opponents, but between near-converts separated only by timing. The person who “accepted yesterday” has already reorganized their identity around the new belief and may defend it with zeal, partly to justify their own change of mind. The person who “will accept tomorrow” is still protecting their prior self-image and resists being hurried or shown up. The quarrel is thus less about the idea’s substance than about pride, status, and the discomfort of transition. Morley’s epigram satirizes how intellectual progress can be slowed by vanity and the politics of who gets to be first.