Truth always originates in a minority of one, and every custom begins as a broken precedent.

The line argues that what later becomes accepted as “truth” or “custom” typically begins with an isolated dissenter. Durant links intellectual progress to moral courage: the first person to see or say something new stands alone against the weight of consensus, and only later—if the insight proves compelling—does it gather adherents and harden into convention. The second clause reframes tradition as the afterlife of innovation: today’s rules were once yesterday’s transgressions. The quote thus defends nonconformity as a necessary engine of cultural and scientific change, while also hinting that prevailing norms should be treated as provisional rather than sacred.