Meaning
A proverb meaning that people readily believe whatever they wish to be true: desire gives birth to conviction, supplying certainty that evidence does not. It exposes wishful thinking or motivated reasoning - reading an ambiguous email as a promised promotion, or taking silence for consent. Normally 'the wish is father to the thought'; a specific past delusion takes 'the wish was father to the thought'. Match tense to the case: 'the wish is father to the thought' for habitual wishful thinking, 'the wish was father to the thought' for one past delusion. Because it implies motivated reasoning, it can sound dismissive of the believer. Regional use: Global English; British origin.
Origin
The English wording comes from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 2, Act 4, Scene 5: in the deathbed scene the dying king, concluding that Prince Hal longs for his crown, says, 'Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought' - verified verbatim against shakespeare.mit.edu. Wikipedia dates the play's composition to 1596-99, with the quarto published in 1600. Shakespeare coined the English phrase, not the insight: Julius Caesar had already written in his Gallic War, Book 3, chapter 18, 'fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt' - roughly, men readily believe what they wish - verified in the Latin text at the Latin Library. No pre-Shakespeare English form was found in the references consulted, so the coinage claim stands for the phrase itself even though the sentiment is classical. The generalized proverb was in wide circulation within a century: Popular Science Monthly used it in December 1877 - 'The wish is father to the thought... What we strongly desire to be, we are next door to believing' - verified on Wikisource.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- the wish is the father of the thought
- the wish was father to the thought
Usage Examples
- He read the vague email as a promise of promotion, but the wish was father to the thought.
- Fans convinced themselves the sequel was secretly filming - the wish is father to the thought.
- She took his silence to mean he had changed his mind; the wish was father to the thought.