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  Sunday May 19, 2002

Quotes

a system (is) empirical or scientific only if it is capable of being tested by experience. These considerations suggest that not the verifiability but the falsifiability of a system is to be taken as a criterion of demarcation.....It must be possible for an empirical or scientific system to be refuted by experience. SIR KARL POPPER, The Logic Of Scientific Discovery.

 

The fanatic who refused to admit the existence of a feared facet of himself may eventually be confronted with undeniable evidence that he harbors the very attitude or desires he has sought to eradicate in others. SNELL and GAIL PUTNEY, The Adjusted American, 1964

 

Nothing sways the stupid more than arguments they can’t understand. CARDINAL De RETZ (1614-1679), Memoires, 1762-79.

 

We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship. It is obviously not the ideas themselves that are dear to us, but our self-esteem, which is threatened. JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON (1863-1936), The Mind In The Making.

 

There is nothing more horrible than the murder of a beautiful theory by a brutal gang of facts. FRANCOIS, DUC de la ROCHEFOUCAULD (1613-1680).

 

When a man you like switches from what he said a year ago, or four years ago, he is a broad-minded person who has courage enough to change his mind with changing conditions. When a man you don't like does it, he is a liar who has broken his promise. FRANKLIN P. ADAMS (1861-1960).

 

A lively, disinterested, persistent liking for truth is extraordinarily rare. Action and faith enslave thought, both of the in order not to be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism or doubt. HENRY FREDERIC AMIEL (1821-1881), Amiel's Journal, 1849-1972.

 

People everywhere enjoy believing things that they know are not true. It spares them the ordeal of thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for what they know. BROOKS ATKINSON (1894-1984), Once Around The Sun, 1951

 

So long as there are earnest believers in the world, they will always wish to punish opinions, even if their judgment tells them it unwise, and their conscience it is wrong. WALTER BAGEHOT (1826-1877), Literary Studies, 1879.

 

Hypothesis is a toll which can cause trouble if not used properly. We must be ready to abandon our hypothesis as soon as it is shown to be inconsistent with the facts. W. I. B. BEVERIDGE, The Art of Scientific Investigation, 1950.

 

Cultivate an intellectual habit of subordinating one's opinions and wishes to objective evidence and a reverence for things as they really are. W. I. B. BEVERIDGE, The Art of Scientific Investigation, 1950.

 

One of he most constant characteristics of beliefs is there intolerance. The stronger the belief, the greater its intolerance. Men dominated by a certitude cannot tolerate those who do not accept it. GUSTAVE Le BON (1841-1931), Opinions And Beliefs, 1911.

 

Fanaticism is....over compensation for doubt. ROBERTSON DAVIES, The Manticore, 1972.

 

A myth is a fixed way of looking at the world which cannot be destroyed because, looked at through the myth, all evidence supports the myth. EDWARD DE BONO, Beyond Yes And No.

 

They shield themselves from facts, I suppose, by a biased selection of books and newspapers to read. Many violent conflicts of opinion come down to a difference in reading matter. MAX EASTMAN (1883-1969), Reflections On The Failure Of Socialism, 1962.

 

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882), Journals, 1838.

 

We are so constituted that we believe the most incredible things: and, once they are engraved upon the memory, woe to him who would endeavor to erase them. JOHANN WOLFGANG Von GOETHE (1749-1832), Sorrows Of Young Werther, 1771.

 

Vehemence is the expression of a blind effort to support and uphold something that can never stand on its own...Whether it our own meaningless self we are upholding, or some doctrine devoid of evidence, we can do it only in a frenzy of faith. ERIC HOFFER (1902-1983), The Passionate State of Mind, 1954.

 

The word "belief" is a difficult thing for me. I don’t believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it -- I don’t need to believe it. CARL GUSTAV GUNN (1875-1961).

 

Paranoia reduces anxiety and guilt by transferring to the other all the characteristics one does not want to recognize in oneself. It is maintained by selective perception and recall. We only see and acknowledge those negative aspects of the enemy that support the stereotype we have already created. SAM KEEN, Faces Of The Enemy, 1986.

 

One defeats a fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself, but on the contrary by using one’s intelligence. GEORGE ORWELL (1903-1950), 1949.

 

You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths, or any other kind of dogmas or goals, it’s always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt. ROBERT M. PIRSIG, Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.

 

Empirical thinking leads to a basically objective view of the world, belief leads to a view of the world in which the distinction between objective and subjective is blurred... Thus cause is apt to be mistaken for effect, the wish confused with its fulfillment, the symbol with the thing. GEORGE SERBAN, MD, The Tyranny Of Magical Thinking, 1982.

 

The paranoid is preoccupied with issues of dominance and submission, superior or inferior. Interpersonal relationships are often described in terms of winning or losing, and one gets the general impression that life is viewed as a contest. DAVID W. SWANSON, MD, et. al., The Paranoid, 1970.

 

It is wiser, I believe, to arrive at theory by way of evidence rather than the other way around...It is more rewarding, in any case, to assemble the facts first and, in the process of arranging them in narrative form, to discover a theory or a historical generalization emerging of its own accord. BARBARA TUCHMAN, Practicing History.

 

At the extreme, the process of stereotyping eventuates in dehumanization: the enemy is judged to be so inhumanly evil or contemptible that anything may be done to "it" without subjectively compromising one’s own humanity and sense of loyalty. AUSTIN J. TURK, Political Criminality, 1982.

 

 

 

"""By examining the effects of a controlled hoax, the reliability and objectivity of UFO experts is analyzed. It is concluded that the enthusiasm and credulity of many commentators hinders the scientific appraisal of UFO phenomena." D.I. Simpson


Copyright, Skeptics Tricks 2002


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