That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in another.

The remark captures a recurring pattern in intellectual and political history: ideas initially dismissed as irrational, dangerous, or laughable can later be accepted as prudent or even self-evident. It points to the contingency of “common sense,” which is shaped by prevailing knowledge, social norms, and power structures rather than fixed standards of rationality. Read this way, the quote is both a warning against complacent certainty and an encouragement to tolerate dissent and innovation. It also implies that progress often requires enduring ridicule in the present for the sake of a future consensus that reclassifies yesterday’s “absurdity” as tomorrow’s “wisdom.”