...if a proposition is claimed to be self-evident, it is an argumentative fallacy to assert that disagreement with the proposition indicates misunderstanding of it. [REDACTED] ...A famous claim of the self-evidence of a moral truth is in the United States Declaration of Independence, which states, "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal"; philosophically, that proposition is not necessarily self-evident, and the subsequent propositions surely are not. Nevertheless, many would agree that the proposition we ought to treat subjects known to be equal in a certain sense equally in regard to that sense is morally self-evident. Thus, as Thomas Jefferson proposed, one can hold the propositions to be self-evident as the basis for practical, even revolutionary, behaviours.

"Just as a neophyte seeks to possess a deity, a teacher demands restitution for his knowledge and a gambler tempts fate, so one who performs the sacred arts benighted forgoes his right to the desired outcome.

For it is whilst reveling in the act of trickery that the trickster himself becomes a fool, beguiled by his own creation."