Citatet (eller snarare en variation av det) är starkt hänförligt till den amerikanska ekonomen Paul Samuelson av hans långvariga tidvän A. M. C. Waterman , Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Manitoba och tidigare medlem av det kanadensiska nationella verkställande rådet.
I attended the inaugural meeting of ACE, and was one of those who preferred to avoid, so far as possible, any attempt to spell out just what might count as “Christian” in our title. My dear friend, the late Paul Heyne, was so disaffected even by the minimalist definition eventually adopted that he declined full membership and preferred an Associate status, at least at first. It pleases me that the Association now includes such a wide variety of Christians that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for all of us to reach agreement on almost any article of the faith. Why am I pleased? Because an Association such as ours, like the Church itself, can and ought to be a society in which we continually learn from one another. And as the great Paul Samuelson said to me a few years ago,
“I never bother to talk to anyone who agrees with me. I learn nothing from them.”