It is always best to think first for ourselves on any subject...

"It is always best to think first for ourselves on any subject, and then to have recourse to others for the correction or improvement of our own sentiments. Thus we may reach truth, which we should never have observed, had we caught a particular mode of thinking from any author. No principles should be received from education and habit merely. Let me observe, before perusing the opinions of observers. We check original thought by first learning how and what to think from others. The strength of others should be called in only to assist our weakness, not to prevent the exertion of our own powers. By means of this dependence on books, error, as well as truth, descends in hereditary succession. The sources of original thought are dried up, and the mind is overflowed by foreign streams derived through channels which other men have formed. Self-dependence in science is the road to useful truth. The quantity of knowledge thus gained may be less, but the quality will be superior. Truth received on authority, or acquired without labor, makes but a feeble impression." -- William Ellery Channing (Unitarian Christian minister - born 1780, died 1842)