Belief quotes

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Isaac_Asimov

Wish to Believe

“The wish to believe, even against evidence, fuels all the pseudosciences from astrology to creationism.”
  • Source: Isaac Asimov, chapter epigraph in Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations, edited by Isaac Asimov and Jason A. Shulman, published in 1988 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, New York. Chapter 80, page 312. ISBN 1-555-84111-2.
Keywords: Evidence_quotes Pseudoscience_quotes Astrology_quotes Creationism_quotes Belief_quotes

Augustine_of_Hippo

I Am

“But, without any delusive representation of images or phantasms, I am most certain that I am, and that I know and delight in this. In respect of these truths, I am not at all afraid of the arguments of the Academicians, who say, What if you are deceived? For if I am deceived (si fallor), I am (sum). For he who is not, cannot be deceived; and if I am deceived, by this same token I am. And since I am if I am deceived, how am I deceived in believing that I am? For it is certain that I am if I am deceived.”
  • Source: St. Augustine of Hippo (c. 400 CE). In ‘The City of God’, book 11, chapter 26.
Keywords: Reality_quotes Consciousness_quotes Delusion_quotes Belief_quotes Existence_quotes Representation_quotes Image_quotes Phantasm_quotes Certainty_quotes Truth_quotes Afraid_quotes Argument_quotes Academician_quotes Deceive_quotes Token_quotes

Jim_Baggott

The Reality Principle

“The Reality Principle. Reality is a metaphysical concept, and as such it is beyond the reach of science. Reality consists of things-in-themselves of which we can never hope to gain knowledge. Instead, we have to content ourselves with knowledge of empirical reality, of things-as-they-appear or things-as-they-are-measured. Nevertheless, scientific realists assume that reality (and its entities) exists objectively and independently of perception or measurement. They believe that reality is rational, predictable and accessible to human reason.”
  • Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 8). Pegasus Books, New York, NY.
Keywords: Reality_quotes Metaphysics_quotes Conception_quotes Science_quotes Knowledge_quotes Epistemology_quotes Empirical_quotes Measurement_quotes Objectivity_quotes Independent_quotes Perception_quotes Belief_quotes Rational_quotes Reason_quotes Prediction_quotes Accessibility_quotes Human_quotes Principle_quotes

The Veracity Principle

“The Veracity Principle. It is not possible to verify a scientific theory such that it provides absolute certainty for all time. A theory is instead accepted (or even tolerated), on the basis of its ability to survive the tests and meet additional criteria of simplicity, efficacy, utility, explanatory power and less rational, innately human measures such as beauty. Over time the theory becomes familiar and is accepted as ‘true’ or, at least, as possessing a high truth-likeness or verisimilitude. The scientists’ confidence or degree of belief in the theory grows. It is eventually absorbed into the common body of knowledge which forms the current ‘authorized’ version of empirical reality.”
  • Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 22). Pegasus Books. New York, NY.
Keywords: Veracity_quotes Verification_quotes Principle_quotes Science_quotes Theory_quotes Certainty_quotes Acceptance_quotes Tolerance_quotes Ability_quotes Survival_quotes Simplicity_quotes Efficacy_quotes Utility_quotes Explanation_quotes Power_quotes Rational_quotes Human_quotes Measurement_quotes Beauty_quotes Time_quotes Truth_quotes Probability_quotes Likelihood_quotes Verisimilitude_quotes Confidence_quotes Belief_quotes Knowledge_quotes Authority_quotes Empirical_quotes Reality_quotes

The Copernican Principle

“The Copernican Principle. The universe is not organized for our benefit and we are not uniquely privileged observers. Science strives to remove ‘us’ from the centre of the picture, making our existence a natural consequence of reality rather than the reason for it. Empirical reality is therefore something that we have learned to observe with detachment, without passion. Scientists ask fundamental questions about how reality works and seek answers in the evidence from observation and experiment, irrespective of their own personal preferences, prejudices and beliefs.”
  • Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 23). Pegasus Books. New York, NY
Keywords: Copernican_quotes Principle_quotes Universe_quotes Observation_quotes Benefit_quotes Privilege_quotes Science_quotes Existence_quotes Consequence_quotes Reality_quotes Causality_quotes Empirical_quotes Detachment_quotes Passion_quotes Fundamental_quotes Question_quotes Answer_quotes Evidence_quotes Experiment_quotes Preference_quotes Prejudice_quotes Belief_quotes

Claude_Bernard

Natural Man Arrogant

“Man is by nature metaphysical and proud. He has gone so far as to think that the idealistic creations of his mind, which correspond to his feelings, also represent reality. Hence it follows that the experimental method is by no means primitive or natural to man.”
  • Source: From the book "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine" written by Claude Bernard published in French in 1865 as "Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale". Translated to English by Henry Copley Greene in 1927 and republished by Henry Shuman, Inc. in 1949. Chapter II page 27. Available online at https://archive.org/details/b21270557 retrieved 2024.
Keywords: Metaphysics_quotes Arrogance_quotes Belief_quotes Imagination_quotes Feelings_quotes Reality_quotes Experiment_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Mind_quotes Man_quotes Natural_quotes Capable_quotes Creation_quotes Express_quotes Identical_quotes Follow_quotes Method_quotes Proud_quotes Ideal_quotes

Doubt and Scepticism

“One must doubt, but by no means be sceptical. A sceptic, indeed, who believes nothing, no longer has a foundation on which to establish his criterion.”
  • Source: From the book "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine" written by Claude Bernard published in French in 1865 as "Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale". Translated to English by Henry Copley Greene in 1927 and republished by Henry Shuman, Inc. in 1949. Chapter II, page 52. Available online at https://archive.org/details/b21270557 retrieved 2024.
Keywords: Doubt_quotes Sceptic_quotes Skeptic_quotes Be_quotes Belief_quotes Nothing_quotes Foundation_quotes Establish_quotes Criterion_quotes

William_Ian_Beardmore_Beveridge

Role of Hypothesis

“The role of hypothesis in research can be discussed more effectively if we consider first some examples of discoveries which originated from hypotheses. One of the best illustrations of such a discovery is provided by the story of Christopher Columbus’ voyage; it has many of the features of a classic discovery in science. (a) He was obsessed with an idea—that since the world is round he could reach the Orient by sailing West, (b) the idea was by no means original, but evidently he had obtained some additional evidence from a sailor blown off his course who claimed to have reached land in the west and returned, (c) he met great difficulties in getting someone to provide the money to enable him to test his idea as well as in the actual carrying out of the experimental voyage, (d) when finally he succeeded he did not find the expected new route, but instead found a whole new world, (e) despite all evidence to the contrary he clung to the bitter end to his hypothesis and believed that he had found the route to the Orient, (f) he got little credit or reward during his lifetime and neither he nor others realized the full implications of his discovery, (g) since his time evidence has been brought forward showing that he was by no means the first European to reach America.”
  • Source: W. I. B. Beveridge in his book ‘The Art of Scientific Investigation’ published in 1950 by William Heinemann, London, page 41.
Keywords: Hypothesis_quotes Research_quotes Discovery_quotes Exploration_quotes Evidence_quotes Money_quotes Experiment_quotes Belief_quotes Perseverance_quotes Reward_quotes Role_quotes Disscussion_quotes Effective_quotes Consider_quotes Example_quotes Originate_quotes Best_quotes Illustration_quotes Provide_quotes Story_quotes Voyage_quotes Feature_quotes Classic_quotes Science_quotes Obsess_quotes Idea_quotes World_quotes Round_quotes Orient_quotes Sail_quotes Original_quotes Obtain_quotes Additional_quotes Sailor_quotes Blow_quotes Course_quotes Claim_quotes Reach_quotes Land_quotes Return_quotes Great_quotes Difficult_quotes Money_quotes Enable_quotes Test_quotes Find_quotes Expect_quotes Route_quotes Despite_quotes Contrary_quotes Cling_quotes Bitter_quotes End_quotes Little_quotes Credit_quotes Lifetime_quotes Realize_quotes Full_quotes Implication_quotes Time_quotes Show_quotes First_quotes European_quotes America_quotes

William_Kingdon_Clifford

Insufficient Evidence

"To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call into question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it-- the life of that man is one long sin against mankind."
Keywords: Wrong_quotes Belief_quotes Insufficient_quotes Evidence_quotes Doubt_quotes Mind_quotes Ignorance_quotes Question_quotes Discussion_quotes Sin_quotes Evil_quotes Humanity_quotes Summarize_quotes Teach_quotes Learning_quotes Persuasion_quotes Suppression_quotes Avoid_quotes Reading_quotes Book_quotes Company_quotes Men_quotes Man_quotes Impious_quotes Easy_quotes Disturb_quotes Life_quotes Mankind_quotes

Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi

Religion

“Religions are only temporarily successful attempts to cope with the lack of meaning in life; they are not permanent answers... The form in which religions have presented their truths — myths, revelations, holy texts — no longer compels belief in an era of scientific rationality.”
  • Source: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience“, chapter “The Shields of Culture”, page 14. Original content published by Harper Perennial Modern Classics in 1990. Kindle edition published by Harper Collins in 2008. ISBN: 978-0061876721.
Keywords: Religion_quotes Temporary_quotes Success_quotes Attempt_quotes Cope_quotes Lack_quotes Meaning_quotes Life_quotes Permanent_quotes Answer_quotes Form_quotes Present_quotes Myth_quotes Truth_quotes Revelation_quotes Holy_quotes Text_quotes Compel_quotes Belief_quotes Era_quotes Scientific_quotes Rationality_quotes

True Believer

“The true believer is not really interacting with the belief system; he usually lets his psychic energy be absorbed by it. From this submission nothing new can come; consciousness may attain a welcome order, but it will be an order imposed rather than achieved. At best the self of the true believer resembles a crystal: strong and beautifully symmetrical, but very slow to grow.”
  • Source: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience“, chapter “The Elements of Enjoyment”, page 65. Original content published by Harper Perennial Modern Classics in 1990. Kindle edition published by Harper Collins in 2008. ISBN: 978-0061876721.
Keywords: True_quotes Believer_quotes Interact_quotes Belief_quotes System_quotes Usual_quotes Psychic_quotes Energy_quotes Absorb_quotes Submission_quotes Consciousness_quotes Attain_quotes Order_quotes Welcome_quotes Impose_quotes Achieve_quotes Self_quotes Resemble_quotes Crystal_quotes Strong_quotes Beautiful_quotes Symmetric_quotes Slow_quotes Grow_quotes

Charles_Darwin

Good Observer Theory

"I have an old belief that a good observer really means a good theorist."
Keywords: Belief_quotes Observation_quotes Theory_quotes Good_quotes

John_Dewey

Scientific Inquiry

“That the great majority of those who leave school should have some idea of the kind of evidence required to substantiate given types of belief does not seem unreasonable. Nor is it absurd to expect that they should go forth with a lively interest in the ways in which knowledge is improved and a marked distaste for all conclusions reached in disharmony with the methods of scientific inquiry.”
  • Source: John Dewey, Address to Section L, Education, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Boston (1909), 'Science as Subject-Matter and as Method'. Published in Science (28 Jan 1910), N.S. Vol. 31, No. 787, 126.
Keywords: Science_quotes School_quotes Idea_quotes Evidence_quotes Belief_quotes Interest_quotes Knowledge_quotes Conclusion_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Error_quotes Improvement_quotes Majority_quotes Substantiate_quotes Absurd_quotes Expect_quotes Distaste_quotes Disharmony_quotes Method_quotes Inquiry_quotes

Edsger_Wybe_Dijkstra

Programming Dogmatism

"Please don't fall into the trap of believing that I am terribly dogmatic about [the go to statement]. I have the uncomfortable feeling that others are making a religion out of it, as if the conceptual problems of programming could be solved by a simple trick, by a simple form of coding discipline!"
  • Source: Dijkstra (1973) in personal communication to Donald Knuth, quoted in Knuth's “Structured Programming with go to Statements”, online at https://pic.plover.com/knuth-GOTO.pdf retrieved 2022.
Keywords: Programming_quotes Belief_quotes Dogmatism_quotes Religion_quotes Conceptual_quotes Problem_quotes Trick_quotes Discipline_quotes Goto_quotes

Freeman_Dyson

Science and Society

“In the modern world, science and society often interact in a perverse way. We live in a technological society, and technology causes political problems. The politicians and the public expect science to provide answers to the problems. Scientific experts are paid and encouraged to provide answers. The public does not have much use for a scientist who says, 'Sorry, but we don’t know.' The public prefers to listen to scientists who give confident answers to questions and make confident predictions of what will happen as a result of human activities. So it happens that the experts who talk publicly about politically contentious questions tend to speak more clearly than they think. They make confident predictions about the future, and end up believing their own predictions. Their predictions become dogmas which they do not question. The public is led to believe that the fashionable scientific dogmas are true, and it may sometimes happen that they are wrong. That is why heretics who question the dogmas are needed.”
  • Source: Freeman Dyson, Frederick S. Pardee Distinguished Lecture (Oct 2005), Boston University. Collected in 'Heretical Thoughts About Science and Society', A Many-Colored Glass: Reflections on the Place of Life in the Universe (2007), 43-44.
Keywords: World_quotes Modern_quotes Science_quotes Society_quotes Interaction_quotes Perversity_quotes Technology_quotes Political_quotes Problem_quotes Politician_quotes People_quotes Answer_quotes Expert_quotes Knowledge_quotes Confidence_quotes Prediction_quotes Humanity_quotes Activity_quotes Talking_quotes Contention_quotes Thinking_quotes Future_quotes Belief_quotes Dogma_quotes Bias_quotes Heretical_quotes

Michael_Faraday

Laws of Nature

“The laws of nature, as we understand them, are the foundation of our knowledge in natural things. So much as we know of them has been developed by the successive energies of the highest intellects, exerted through many ages. After a most rigid and scrutinizing examination upon principle and trial, a definite expression has been given to them; they have become, as it were, our belief or trust. From day to day we still examine and test our expressions of them. We have no interest in their retention if erroneous. On the contrary, the greatest discovery a man could make would be to prove that one of these accepted laws was erroneous, and his greatest honour would be the discovery.”
  • Source: Book/Author=Michael Faraday; Title=“Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics”; Publication/Date=1859; Page=469.
Keywords: Law_quotes Nature_quotes Understanding_quotes Foundation_quotes Knowledge_quotes Energy_quotes Intellectualism_quotes Examination_quotes Principle_quotes Trial_quotes Expression_quotes Belief_quotes Trust_quotes Testing_quotes Interest_quotes Retention_quotes Error_quotes Discovery_quotes Proof_quotes Falsification_quotes Honor_quotes Rigid_quotes Examine_quotes Man_quotes

Leon_Festinger

Belief

“Suppose an individual believes something with his whole heart; suppose further that he has a commitment to this belief and he has taken irrevocable actions because of it; finally, suppose that he is presented with evidence, unequivocal and undeniable evidence, that his belief is wrong: what will happen? The individual will frequently emerge, not only unshaken, but even more convinced of the truth of his beliefs than ever before. Indeed, he may even show a new fervor for convincing and converting other people to his view.”
  • Source: Leon Festinger, In When Prophecy Fails (1956), 3.
Keywords: Individual_quotes Belief_quotes Commitment_quotes Heart_quotes Irrevocable_quotes Action_quotes Evidence_quotes Proof_quotes Wrong_quotes Self-Deception_quotes Truth_quotes Error_quotes Convince_quotes Conversion_quotes People_quotes

Donald_Hoffman

False Belief

“False beliefs, rather than innate limits, can stump our efforts to solve puzzles.”
  • Source: Donald Hoffman in his book “The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes”. Published by W. W. Norton, New York, NY, in 2019. ISBN 978-0393254693. Chapter 1, page 34.
Keywords: False_quotes Belief_quotes Innate_quotes Limit_quotes Stump_quotes Effort_quotes Solve_quotes Puzzle_quotes

Douglas_Hofstadter

Strange Consciousness

“My belief is that the explanations of emergent phenomena in our brains — for instance, ideas, hopes, images, analogies, and finally consciousness and free will — are based on a kind of Strange Loop, an interaction between levels in which the top loop reaches back down towards the bottom level and influences it, while at the same time being itself determined by the bottom level. In other words, a self-reinforcing resonance between different levels.”
  • Source: Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1979). Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. Written by Douglas R. Hofstadter. Basic Books, New York, NY. ISBN 13: 978-046502656-2. ISBN 10: 046502656-7. Chapter 20. Page 709.
Keywords: Belief_quotes Explanation_quotes Emergent_quotes Phenomena_quotes Brain_quotes Idea_quotes Hope_quotes Image_quotes Analogy_quotes Consciousness_quotes Free_Will_quotes Strange_Loop_quotes Interaction_quotes Level_quotes Loop_quotes Top_quotes Bottom_quotes Influence_quotes Determine_quotes Reinforce_quotes Resonance_quotes Self_quotes Different_quotes

Sabine_Hossenfelder

Ascientific

“Demarcating the current limits of science doesn’t only destroy illusions; it also helps us recognize which beliefs are still compatible with scientific fact. Such beliefs should maybe not be called unscientific but rather ascientific.”
  • Source: Hossenfelder, Sabine. Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions (pp. xv-xvi). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Keywords: Demarcating_quotes Limit_quotes Science_quotes Destroy_quotes Illusion_quotes Recognize_quotes Belief_quotes Compatible_quotes Fact_quotes Unscientific_quotes Ascientific_quotes

Religion and Science

“I am not opposed to religious belief. Science has limits, and yet humanity has always sought meaning beyond those limits. Some do it by studying holy scripture, some meditate, some dig philosophy, some smoke funny things. That’s all fine with me, really. Provided that—and here’s the crux—your search for meaning respects scientific fact. If your belief conflicts with empirically confirmed knowledge, then you are not seeking meaning; you are delusional.”
  • Source: Hossenfelder, Sabine. Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions (p. xvii). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Keywords: Oppose_quotes Religion_quotes Belief_quotes Science_quotes Limit_quotes Humanity_quotes Seek_quotes Beyond_quotes Study_quotes Holy_quotes Scripture_quotes Meditation_quotes Dig_quotes Philosophy_quotes Smoke_quotes Funny_quotes Crux_quotes Search_quotes Meaning_quotes Respect_quotes Fact_quotes Conflict_quotes Empirical_quotes Confirm_quotes Knowledge_quotes Delusional_quotes

Brooks_Jackson and Kathleen_Hall_Jamieson

Fact Driven

“Humans are not by nature the fact-driven, rational beings we like to think we are. We get the facts wrong more often than we think we do. And we do so in predictable ways: we engage in wishful thinking. We embrace information that supports our beliefs and reject evidence that challenges them. Our minds tend to take shortcuts, which require some effort to avoid ... [and] more often than most of us would imagine, the human mind operates in ways that defy logic.”
  • Source: Brooks Jackson, As co-author with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, in unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation (2007), 69.
Keywords: Humanity_quotes Nature_quotes Fact_quotes Reason_quotes Wrong_quotes Bias_quotes Prediction_quotes Thinking_quotes Wish_quotes Information_quotes Belief_quotes Rejection_quotes Evidence_quotes Challenge_quotes Mind_quotes Shortcut_quotes Effort_quotes Avoidance_quotes Imagination_quotes Logic_quotes Support_quotes

Psychological Experiments

“Psychological experiments have shown ... that humans tend to seek out even weak evidence to support their existing beliefs, and to ignore evidence that undercuts those beliefs. In the process, we apply stringent tests to evidence we don't want to hear, while letting slide uncritically into our minds any information that suits our needs.”
  • Source: Brooks Jackson, As co-author with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, in unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation (2007), 69-70.
Keywords: Psychology_quotes Experiment_quotes Humanity_quotes Seek_quotes Weakness_quotes Evidence_quotes Support_quotes Status_Quo_quotes Belief_quotes Testing_quotes Hearing_quotes Critical_quotes Mind_quotes Information_quotes Suitability_quotes Need_quotes Exist_quotes Ignore_quotes Undercut_quotes Stringent_quotes

Carl_Jung

Metaphysical Belief

“One never possesses a metaphysical belief but is possessed by it.”
  • Source: Written by Carl Jung in the book “Answer to Job”. Published in London, UK by Routledge. Published 2002. Page 117.
Keywords: One_quotes Possess_quotes Metaphysical_quotes Belief_quotes

Daniel_Kahneman

Who Can We Trust

“We often interact with professionals who exercise their judgment with evident confidence, sometimes priding themselves on the power of their intuition. In a world rife with illusions of validity and skill, can we trust them? How do we distinguish the justified confidence of experts from the sincere overconfidence of professionals who do not know they are out of their depth? We can believe an expert who admits uncertainty but cannot take expressions of high confidence at face value. As I first learned on the obstacle field, people come up with coherent stories and confident predictions even when they know little or nothing. Overconfidence arises because people are often blind to their own blindness.”
  • Source: "Don’t Blink! The Hazards of Confidence". New York Times. October 19, 2011.
Keywords: Interaction_quotes Professional_quotes Exercise_quotes Judgment_quotes Confidence_quotes Pride_quotes Power_quotes Intuition_quotes World_quotes Illusion_quotes Validity_quotes Skill_quotes Trust_quotes Distinguish_quotes Justification_quotes Expert_quotes Sincerity_quotes Depth_quotes Belief_quotes Uncertainty_quotes Expression_quotes Face_quotes Value_quotes Obstacle_quotes Coherence_quotes Story_quotes Prediction_quotes Knowledge_quotes Overconfidence_quotes Blind_quotes Bias_quotes

Repetition

“A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.”
Keywords: Reliability_quotes People_quotes Belief_quotes Falsehood_quotes Frequency_quotes Repetition_quotes Familiar_quotes Easy_quotes Distinguish_quotes Truth_quotes Deception_quotes

Confidence

“The confidence that individuals have in their beliefs depends mostly on the quality of the story they can tell about what they see, even if they see little.”
Keywords: Confidence_quotes Individual_quotes Belief_quotes Dependence_quotes Quality_quotes Story_quotes Sight_quotes Bias_quotes

John_F_Kennedy

Resources

“Malthus argued a century and a half ago that man, by using up all his available resources, would forever press on the limits of subsistence, thus condemning humanity to an indefinite future of misery and poverty. We can now begin to hope and, I believe, know that Malthus was expressing not a law of nature, but merely the limitation then of scientific and social wisdom. The truth or falsity of his prediction will depend now, with the tools we have, on our own actions, now and in the years to come.”
  • Source: John F. Kennedy, From Address to the Centennial Convocation of the National Academy of Sciences (22 Oct 1963), 'A Century of Scientific Conquest'. Online at The American Presidency Project.
Keywords: Century_quotes Humanity_quotes Resource_quotes Limitation_quotes Subsistence_quotes Condemnation_quotes Indefinite_quotes Future_quotes Misery_quotes Poverty_quotes Hope_quotes Belief_quotes Law_quotes Nature_quotes Science_quotes Wisdom_quotes Society_quotes Truth_quotes Falsehood_quotes Prediction_quotes Dependency_quotes Tool_quotes Action_quotes Scarcity_quotes Abundance_quotes Malthus(topic)_quotes Argue_quotes Man_quotes Express_quotes Year_quotes Malthusian_quotes

Søren_Kierkegaard

Ways To Be Deceived

“One may be deceived in many ways; one may be deceived by believing the false, but one may also be deceived by not believing the true; one may be deceived by appearances, but one may also be deceived by the appearance of shrewdness, by the flattering conceit which is absolutely certain it cannot be deceived. And which deception is the more dangerous? Whose recovery is the more doubtful, that of one who does not see, or his who sees and yet does not see? Which is more difficult — to awaken one who is sleeping, or to awaken one who, awaking, dreams that he is awake?”
  • Source: From the book “Works of Love”, written by Søren_Kierkegaard. Originally published in Danish in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1847. English edition translated by David F. Swenson and Lillian Marvin Swenson, published by Princeton University Press in 1946. Volume 1, chapter I, page 5.
Keywords: Deception_quotes Way_quotes Belief_quotes False_quotes True_quotes Appearance_quotes Shrewdness_quotes Flatter_quotes Conceit_quotes Absolute_quotes Certainty_quotes Danger_quotes Recovery_quotes Doubtful_quotes See_quotes Difficult_quotes Awaken_quotes Sleep_quotes Dream_quotes

Nicholas_Kristof

Confirmation Bias

“There’s pretty good evidence that we generally don’t truly want good information — but rather information that confirms our prejudices. We may believe intellectually in the clash of opinions, but in practice we like to embed ourselves in the reassuring womb of an echo chamber.”
  • Source: Nicholas D. Kristof, In New York Times (18 Mar 2009).
Keywords: Good_quotes Evidence_quotes Want_quotes Information_quotes Confirmation_quotes Bias_quotes Belief_quotes Intellectualism_quotes Prejudice_quotes Conflict_quotes Clash_quotes Opinion_quotes Reassurance_quotes Womb_quotes Echo_quotes Chamber_quotes Practice_quotes Embed_quotes Like_quotes Reassure_quotes

N_David_Mermin

Shut Up and Calculate

“I'm one of the uncomfortable ones. If I were forced to sum up in one sentence what the Copenhagen interpretation says to me, it would be 'Shut up and calculate!' But I won't shut up. I would rather celebrate the strangeness of quantum theory than deny it, because I believe it still has interesting things to teach us about how certain powerful but flawed verbal and mental tools we once took for granted continue to infect our thinking in subtly hidden ways.”
  • Source: What's Wrong with this Pillow? by N. David Mermin, Cornell University, Physics Today, volume 42, issure 4, April 1989, page 9, doi:10.1063/1.2810963
Keywords: Shut_Up_quotes Copenhagen_quotes Interpretation_quotes Calculation_quotes Curiosity_quotes Uncomfortable_quotes Force_quotes Free_Speech_quotes Celebrate_quotes Strange_quotes Quantum_quotes Theory_quotes Deny_quotes Belief_quotes Interesting_quotes Teaching_quotes Learning_quotes Power_quotes Flaw_quotes Verbal_quotes Mental_quotes Tool_quotes Grant_quotes Infect_quotes Thinking_quotes Hiding_quotes

Robert_K_Merton

Certified Knowledge

”The institutional goal of science is the extension of certified knowledge. The technical methods employed toward this end provide the relevant definition of knowledge: empirically confirmed and logically consistent predictions. The institutional imperatives (mores) derive from the goal and the methods. The entire structure of technical and moral norms implements the final objective. The technical norm of empirical evidence, adequate, valid and reliable, is a prerequisite for sustained true prediction; the technical norm of logical consistency, a prerequisite for systematic and valid prediction. The mores of science possess a methodologic rationale, but they are binding, not only because they are procedurally efficient, but because they are believed right and good. They are moral as well as technical prescriptions. Four sets of institutional imperatives – universalism, communism, disinterestedness, organized skepticism – comprise the ethos of modern science.”
  • Source: Robert King Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure (1957), 552-3.
Keywords: Institution_quotes Goal_quotes Science_quotes Extension_quotes Certified_quotes Knowledge_quotes Technology_quotes Methodology_quotes Employment_quotes End_quotes Relevance_quotes Definition_quotes Empirical_quotes Confirmation_quotes Logic_quotes Consistency_quotes Prediction_quotes Imperative_quotes Derive_quotes Structure_quotes Morality_quotes Norms_quotes Implementation_quotes Final_quotes Objectives_quotes Evidence_quotes Adequate_quotes Validity_quotes Reliability_quotes Prerequisite_quotes Sustain_quotes Truth_quotes System_quotes Rational_quotes Mores_quotes Bind_quotes Procedure_quotes Efficiency_quotes Belief_quotes Right_quotes Good_quotes Prescription_quotes Universalism_quotes Communism_quotes Disinterest_quotes Skeptical_quotes Composition_quotes Ethos_quotes Modern_quotes

Isaac_Newton

Gravity

“It is inconceivable that inanimate matter should, without the mediation of something else, which is not material, operate upon, and affect other matter without mutual contact... That gravity should be innate, inherent and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance thro' a vacuum, without the mediation of anything else, by and through which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial, I have left to the consideration of my readers.”
  • Source: Original letter from Isaac Newton to Richard Bentley. Source 189.R.4.47, ff. 7-8, Trinity College Library, Cambridge, UK. Retrieved 2019-11-15 from http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00258.
    • Also quoted in Remler, Michael P.. The Mechanisms, Metaphysics, and History of Consciousness in the World . First Edition Design Publishing. Chapter 11.
    • Also quoted in Joseph Berkovitz, Action at a Distance in Quantum Mechanics, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Winter, 2008.
Keywords: Body_quotes Action_quotes Distance_quotes Vacuum_quotes Mediation_quotes Absurdity_quotes Belief_quotes Humanity_quotes Philosophy_quotes Matter_quotes Competence_quotes Faculty_quotes Thinking_quotes Fall_quotes Gravity_quotes Force_quotes Inconceivable_quotes Inanimate_quotes Operate_quotes Affect_quotes Mutual_quotes Innate_quotes Inherent_quotes Essential_quotes Convey_quotes Agent_quotes Material_quotes Immaterial_quotes Left_quotes Consideration_quotes Reader_quotes

Friedrich_Nietzsche

Believe or Inquire

“Here the ways of men part: if you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire.”
  • Source: Friedrich Nietzsche in a letter to his sister Elizabeth 1865-06-11.
Keywords: Way_quotes Humanity_quotes Wish_quotes Strive_quotes Soul_quotes Pleasure_quotes Belief_quotes Devotee_quotes Truth_quotes Inquiry_quotes Peace_quotes

Alan_Perlis

Training

“Our problems arise from demands, appetites, and our exuberant optimism. They are magnified by the unevenly trained personnel with which we work. In our deliberations we will not, I believe, be able to avoid the education problem — software engineering does not exist without software engineers.”
Keywords: Problem_quotes Arise_quotes Demand_quotes Appetite_quotes Exuberant_quotes Magnify_quotes Uneven_quotes Training_quotes Personnel_quotes Work_quotes Deliberation_quotes Belief_quotes Avoidance_quotes Education_quotes Software_Engineering_quotes Optimism_quotes Engineering_quotes Engineer_quotes Software_quotes

God and AI

“A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.”
Keywords: Year_quotes Artificial_Intelligence_quotes Belief_quotes God_quotes

Steven_Pinker

Neurons to Consciousness

“None of us has a brain that can actually put us in touch with reality unaided with truth. I've just shown you a bunch of gadgetry that responds to things that are essential to our survival, things that prevent us from falling off cliffs and bumping into trees. But they don't actually correspond to any clear description of the world as it is. So we have, for example, circuitry that responds to the edges rather than the physical distribution of light, because edges are important, that's where objects leave off and their backgrounds begin. Moreover, they can be fooled, as I did with each one of you. That since our neural circuitry does consist of a mechanism, not a pipeline to the truth or a window onto objective reality. That is naïve realism we know is false because there are illusions. You can't just trust your senses. That means we need some way of augmenting the faculties that nature gave us to make our beliefs as accurate as possible. Which of course is why the early modern philosophers made such a big deal of visual illusions. They said you can't just open your eyes and see the world as it is. Look at all these illusions. So what we do, what gives some of us confidence that our beliefs are objectively true is that they are part of an institutional infrastructure of testing and criticism and logic and determining which hypotheses withstand criticism and attempts at refutation. Devising exotic arrangements of reality to reflect the way reality is put together, namely experiments. Thanks to this huge network of minds, each one of them making up for deficits of all the others, we like to think that we have a collective grasp on truth that none of us individually can have. But of course, it's always fallible. The religious beliefs I think were actually pretty reasonable hypotheses in earlier states of our collective knowledge. Even Richard Dawkins said that before Darwin he probably would have been a creationist because the cosmic engineer was the only available explanation for the obvious adaptive complexity of living things. I would add that prior to the advent of modern neuroscience I probably would have believed in souls because there was no better explanation for phenomena such as that people respond intelligently to their environments. When you dream some part of you is up and about the world while your body is in bed the whole time. That seems like there must be some part of you that can leave your body. When a person suddenly dies some kind of animating force no longer seems to be animating the body that was there just a few minutes ago. So the soul hypothesis is not a stupid or irrational belief, nor is creationism if it's the best that you have. Now, of course, we can do better. But doing better in part depends not just on this cumulative weight of evidence and argument. But because few of us can actually reconstruct the scientific observations that justify the theory of natural selection or the theory of neural networks, all of us, at least a little bit, take it on faith in the following sense; that there is a community that you trust enough because when they have been challenged to defend their beliefs they can connect them to reality. They have shown that it isn't magic. That they have given reason to trust them because they've convinced you that they're the mores of their culture, of their scientific culture, designed so that they will find true things and weed out false things. If you don't have a degree of solidarity or trust, if you think that scientists are all in cahoots with big corporations or are trying to tear down all faith and values and meaning and you simply refuse to follow through the very long chain of deduction that connects the claims to the experiments, then you'll naturally reject it just because it's not your tribe. For you and me scientists are our tribe and we're apt to give them some credibility, indeed some credulousness, knowing that if ever challenged it would be repaid. But unless you trace that through it can be all too easy to reject the conclusions of science, and indeed a number of studies have shown that contrary to the common belief that people believe in falsehoods, such as that vaccines cause autism or that humans were created five thousand years ago or that the burning of fossil fuels has no effect on global temperatures, it turns out that people with those beliefs that we have every reason to believe are false are no more scientifically naïve on average than people that have beliefs that are scientifically justified. You give a test on evolution to a bunch of people who believe in evolution, give it to a bunch of creationists, there's not much difference in how well they score. In fact, often they are equal. Likewise, the typical grasp of climate science among someone who signs on to the scientific consensus is not much better than the adamant deniers. That kind of dashes the hope that simply by increasing the quality of science education you will lead people to more accurate beliefs. There, in addition, has to be a dissociation of who you think are the good guys and who are the bad guys from who has the best claims to truth. That's what it depends on.”
Keywords: Accuracy_quotes Adament_quotes Adaptability_quotes Addition_quotes Advent_quotes Aid_quotes Animate_quotes Argue_quotes Arrangement_quotes Attempt_quotes Augment_quotes Autism_quotes Availability_quotes Background_quotes Bad_quotes Bed_quotes Belief_quotes Best_quotes Big_quotes Body_quotes Brain_quotes Bump_quotes Bunch_quotes Burn_quotes Cahoot_quotes Chain_quotes Challenge_quotes Circuit_quotes Claim_quotes Clear_quotes Cliff_quotes Climate_quotes Collective_quotes Complexity_quotes Common_quotes Community_quotes Conclusion_quotes Confidence_quotes Connection_quotes Consensus_quotes Consist_quotes Contrary_quotes Convince_quotes Cooperation_quotes Corporation_quotes Correspondence_quotes Cosmic_quotes Creationism_quotes Credibility_quotes Criticism_quotes Culture_quotes Cumulative_quotes Dash_quotes Deal_quotes Death_quotes Deception_quotes Deduction_quotes Defence_quotes Deficit_quotes Degree_quotes Deny_quotes Dependence_quotes Description_quotes Design_quotes Determine_quotes Devise_quotes Differences_quotes Dissociation_quotes Distribution_quotes Dreaming_quotes Early_quotes Easy_quotes Edge_quotes Education_quotes Effect_quotes Engineer_quotes Environment_quotes Essential_quotes Evidence_quotes Evolution_quotes Exotic_quotes Experiment_quotes Explanation_quotes Eye_quotes Faculty_quotes Faith_quotes Fall_quotes Fallible_quotes False_quotes Few_quotes Find_quotes Follow_quotes Fool_quotes Force_quotes Fossil_quotes Fuel_quotes Gadget_quotes Global_quotes Good_quotes Grasp_quotes Guy_quotes Huge_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Illusion_quotes Importance_quotes Increasing_quotes Individual_quotes Infrastructure_quotes Institution_quotes Intelligence_quotes Irrational_quotes Justification_quotes Knowledge_quotes Leave_quotes Life_quotes Light_quotes Logic_quotes Long_quotes Magic_quotes Meaning_quotes Mechanism_quotes Mind_quotes Modern_quotes Moral_quotes Naïve_quotes Nature_quotes Natural_Selection_quotes Network_quotes Neural_quotes Neuroscience_quotes Object_quotes Objectivity_quotes Observation_quotes Obvious_quotes Part_quotes People_quotes Perception_quotes Phenomena_quotes Philosophy_quotes Physical_quotes Pipeline_quotes Possibility_quotes Prehistoric_quotes Prevent_quotes Reality_quotes Reason_quotes Reconstruct_quotes Reflection_quotes Refuse_quotes Refutation_quotes Rejection_quotes Religion_quotes Repay_quotes Respond_quotes Science_quotes Scientist_quotes Score_quotes Seem_quotes Selection_quotes Sense_quotes Show_quotes Sight_quotes Solidarity_quotes Soul_quotes State_quotes Study_quotes Stupidity_quotes Survival_quotes Tear_quotes Temperature_quotes Testing_quotes Theory_quotes Thinking_quotes Time_quotes Touch_quotes Trace_quotes Tree_quotes Tribal_quotes Trust_quotes Truth_quotes Try_quotes Typical_quotes Unaided_quotes Vaccine_quotes Value_quotes Visual_quotes Weed_quotes Weight_quotes Whole_quotes Window_quotes Withstand_quotes World_quotes

Michael_Polanyi

Second Hand Knowledge and Authority

“The amount of knowledge which we can justify from evidence directly available to us can never be large. The overwhelming proportion of our factual beliefs continue therefore to be held at second hand through trusting others, and in the great majority of cases our trust is placed in the authority of comparatively few people of widely acknowledged standing.”
  • Source: Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge (1958), 208.
Keywords: Amount_quotes Knowledge_quotes Justification_quotes Evidence_quotes Direct_quotes Availability_quotes Large_quotes Overwhelm_quotes Proportion_quotes Fact_quotes Belief_quotes Second-Hand_quotes Trust_quotes Majority_quotes Authority_quotes People_quotes Acknowledge_quotes Stand_quotes Few_quotes

Karl_Popper

Scientific Knowledge

“If the picture of the world which modern science draws comes anywhere near the truth — in other words, if we have anything like ‘scientific knowledge’ — then the conditions obtaining almost everywhere in the universe make the discovery of structural laws of the kind we are seeking — and thus the attainment of ‘scientific knowledge’ — almost impossible. For almost all regions of the universe are filled by chaotic radiation, and almost all the rest by matter in a likewise chaotic state. In spite of this, science has been miraculously successful in proceeding toward what I think should be regarded as its aim. This strange fact cannot, I think, be explained without proving too much. But it can encourage us to pursue that aim, even though we may not get any further encouragement to believe that we can actually attain it; neither from metaphysical realism nor from any other source.”
  • Source: Realism and the Aim of Science: From the Postscript to The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 1983, p. 146, ISBN 0415084008
Keywords: Picture_quotes World_quotes Modern_quotes Science_quotes Truth_quotes Knowledge_quotes Condition_quotes Obtain_quotes Universe_quotes Discovery_quotes Structure_quotes Kind_quotes Seek_quotes Attain_quotes Impossibility_quotes Region_quotes Chaos_quotes Radiation_quotes Matter_quotes Miracle_quotes Success_quotes Progress_quotes Aim_quotes Strange_quotes Fact_quotes Explanation_quotes Proof_quotes Encouragement_quotes Pursuit_quotes Belief_quotes Metaphysics_quotes Realism_quotes Source_quotes Law_quotes

Willard_Van_Orman_Quine

Science as a Tool

“As an empiricist I continue to think of the conceptual scheme of science as a tool, ultimately, for predicting future experience in the light of past experience. Physical objects are conceptually imported into the situation as convenient intermediaries - not by definition in terms of experience, but simply as irreducible posits comparable, epistemologically, to the gods of Homer. For my part I do, qua lay physicist, believe in physical objects and not in Homer's gods; and I consider it a scientific error to believe otherwise. But in point of epistemological footing the physical objects and the gods differ only in degree and not in kind. Both sorts of entities enter our conception only as cultural posits. The myth of physical objects is epistemologically superior to most in that it has proved more efficacious than other myths as a device for working a manageable structure into the flux of experience.”
  • Source: From A Logical Point of View (1953), p. 44.
Keywords: Empirical_quotes Thinking_quotes Conceptual_quotes Scheme_quotes Science_quotes Tool_quotes Prediction_quotes Future_quotes Experience_quotes Light_quotes Past_quotes Physical_quotes Object_quotes Import_quotes Situation_quotes Convenience_quotes Intermediary_quotes Definition_quotes Term_quotes Irreducible_quotes Posit_quotes Compare_quotes Epistemology_quotes God_quotes Myth_quotes Part_quotes Physics_quotes Belief_quotes Error_quotes Point_quotes Degree_quotes Kind_quotes Entity_quotes Culture_quotes Superior_quotes Proof_quotes Effectiveness_quotes Device_quotes Management_quotes Structure_quotes Flux_quotes Homer(topic)_quotes Efficacious_quotes

Franklin_D_Roosevelt

Fear Itself

“Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

  • Source: Spoken by Franklin D. Roosevelt the 1933 U.S. presidential inaugural address, 1933-03-04.
Keywords: Fear_quotes Courage_quotes Nameless_quotes Unreasoning_quotes Unjustified_quotes Terror_quotes Paralyze_quotes Effort_quotes Convert_quotes Retreat_quotes Advance_quotes Firm_quotes Belief_quotes

Bertrand_Russell

Persecution Used In Theology

“Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion. So, whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard, you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.”
  • Source: Bertrand Russell, In An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish (1943), 22.
Keywords: Persecution_quotes Theology_quotes Arithmetic_quotes Mathematics_quotes Knowledge_quotes Opinion_quotes Anger_quotes Differences_quotes Guard_quotes Examination_quotes Belief_quotes Beyond_quotes Evidence_quotes Warrant_quotes

Truth and Falsehood

“In fact, truth and falsehood are properties of beliefs and statements... But... the truth or falsehood of a belief always depends upon something which lies outside the belief itself.”
  • Source: Bertrand Russell, (1912), In the book entitled “The Problems of Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell. Second edition published in 1998 (originally published in 1912) by Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. Chapter 12. ISBN 978-0-19-285423-0. Online at <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5827> retrieved 2022.
Keywords: Fact_quotes Truth_quotes Falsehood_quotes Property_quotes Belief_quotes Statement_quotes Depend_quotes Outside_quotes Itself_quotes

Coherence

“It is said that the mark of falsehood is failure to cohere in the body of our beliefs, and that it is the essence of a truth to form part of the completely rounded system which is The Truth.”
  • Source: Bertrand Russell, (1912), In the book entitled “The Problems of Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell. Second edition published in 1998 (originally published in 1912) by Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. Chapter 12. ISBN 978-0-19-285423-0. Online at <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5827> retrieved 2022.
Keywords: Mark_quotes Falsehood_quotes Failure_quotes Coherence_quotes Body_quotes Belief_quotes Essence_quotes Truth_quotes Form_quotes Part_quotes Complete_quotes Round_quotes System_quotes

Coherent Bodies

“There is no reason to suppose that only one coherent body of beliefs is possible.”
  • Source: Bertrand Russell, (1912), In the book entitled “The Problems of Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell. Second edition published in 1998 (originally published in 1912) by Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. Chapter 12. ISBN 978-0-19-285423-0. Online at <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5827> retrieved 2022.
Keywords: Reason_quotes Suppose_quotes Coherence_quotes Body_quotes Belief_quotes Possible_quotes Truth_quotes

Carl_Sagan

Extraordinary Claims

“What counts is not what sounds plausible, not what we would like to believe, not what one or two witnesses claim, but only what is supported by hard evidence rigorously and skeptically examined. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
  • Source: Carl Sagan, Cosmos: Encyclopedia Galactica, (video program), Episode 12
    • Sagan, C., Druyan, A., & Soter, S. (Writers) (1980). Encyclopedia galactica [Television series episode]. In Andorfer, G. & McCain R. (Executive Producers), Cosmos. Los Angeles, CA: PBS.
    • Online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f77B2gRZhSo at about 1:00.
Keywords: Count_quotes Sound_quotes Plausible_quotes Like_quotes Preference_quotes Belief_quotes Witness_quotes Claim_quotes Support_quotes Hard_quotes Evidence_quotes Rigorous_quotes Skepticism_quotes Examination_quotes Extraordinary_quotes Requirements_quotes Bias_quotes

Religious Prophecy

“Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? ... No other human institution comes close.”
  • Source: Carl Sagan. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1996.
Keywords: Thinking_quotes Religion_quotes Attempt_quotes Validation_quotes Prediction_quotes Prophecy_quotes People_quotes Reliance_quotes Vagueness_quotes Unfulfilled_quotes Support_quotes Prop_quotes Belief_quotes Accuracy_quotes Reliability_quotes Science_quotes Humanity_quotes Institution_quotes Closeness_quotes

Faith and Evidence

“What is faith? It is belief in the absence of evidence. Now, I don't propose to tell anybody what to believe, but for me believing when there is no compelling evidence is a mistake. The idea is to withhold belief until there is compelling evidence. And if the universe does not comply with our predispositions, okay, then we have the wrenching obligation to accommodate to the way the universe is. So who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us? Or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved in the writing of this book?”
  • Source: Carl Sagen speaking in an video entitled 'CARL SAGEN - A Way of Thinking' posted on YouTube at https://youtu.be/J1cNaFG1VII , at 00:03:10 in video. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
Keywords: Faith_quotes Belief_quotes Absence_quotes Evidence_quotes Proposal_quotes Tell_quotes Compel_quotes Mistake_quotes Idea_quotes Withhold_quotes Universe_quotes Compliance_quotes Predisposition_quotes Bias_quotes Wrench_quotes Obligation_quotes Accommodate_quotes Way_quotes Humility_quotes Scientist_quotes Look_quotes Open_quotes Mind_quotes Acceptance_quotes Teaching_quotes Book_quotes Consideration_quotes Literal_quotes Truth_quotes Fallibility_quotes Writing_quotes

Rupert_Sheldrake

Dogmas

“I am convinced that the sciences are being held back by assumptions that have hardened into dogmas, maintained by powerful taboos. These beliefs protect the citadel of established science, but act as barriers against open-minded thinking.”
  • Source: Rupert Sheldrake. The book “Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery”, Introduction, page 12. Published in 2012 by Crown Publishing, New York, NY. Kindle Edition. ISBN: 978-0-7704-3671-1.
Keywords: Convince_quotes Science_quotes Held_quotes Back_quotes Assumption_quotes Hardened_quotes Dogma_quotes Maintain_quotes Powerful_quotes Taboo_quotes Belief_quotes Protect_quotes Citadel_quotes Established_quotes Barrier_quotes Open_quotes Minded_quotes Thinking_quotes

Baruch_Spinoza

Free Will Belief

“Men believe themselves to be free, simply because they are conscious of their actions, and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.”
Keywords: Free_Will_quotes Belief_quotes Causality_quotes Consciousness_quotes Men_quotes Believe_quotes Free_quotes Action_quotes Unconscious_quotes Determine_quotes

Free Will Open Eye Dream

“Therefore, those who believe, that they speak or keep silence or act in any way from the free decision of their mind, do but dream with their eyes open.”
Keywords: Free_Will_quotes Dreaming_quotes Belief_quotes Speak_quotes Keep_quotes Silence_quotes Act_quotes Way_quotes Free_quotes Decision_quotes Mind_quotes Eye_quotes Open_quotes

Hatred Without Cause

“He, who conceives himself to be hated by another, and believes that he has given him no cause for hatred, will hate that other in return.”
Keywords: Hate_quotes Belief_quotes Causality_quotes Conceive_quotes Another_quotes Give_quotes

Love Without Cause

“If anyone conceives that he is loved by another, and believes that he has given no cause for such love, he will love that other in return.”
Keywords: Love_quotes Causality_quotes Conceive_quotes Another_quotes Belief_quotes Give_quotes

Love With Cause

“If he believes that he has given just cause for the love, he will take pride therein; this is what most often happens.”
Keywords: Love_quotes Pride_quotes Causality_quotes Belief_quotes Give_quotes Often_quotes Happen_quotes

Allen_Wheelis

Science Accuracy Certainty

“Science would have us believe that such accuracy, leading to certainty, is the only criterion of knowledge, would make the trial of Galileo the paradigm of the two points of view which aspire to truth, would suggest, that is, that the cardinals represent only superstition and repression, while Galileo represents freedom. But there is another criterion which is systematically neglected in this elevation of science. Man does not now — and will not ever — live by the bread of scientific method alone. He must deal with life and death, with love and cruelty and despair, and so must make conjectures of great importance which may or may not be true and which do not lend themselves to experimentation: It is better to give than to receive; Love thy neighbor as thyself; Better to risk slavery through non-violence than to defend freedom with murder. We must deal with such propositions, must decide whether they are true, whether to believe them, whether to act on them — and scientific method is no help for by their nature these matters lie forever beyond the realm of science.”
  • Source: Allen Wheelis, In The End of the Modern Age (1973), 89.
Keywords: Science_quotes Belief_quotes Accuracy_quotes Lead_quotes Certainty_quotes Criteria_quotes Knowledge_quotes Trial_quotes Galileo(topic)_quotes Paradigm_quotes Point_quotes View_quotes Aspiration_quotes Truth_quotes Suggestion_quotes Cardinal_quotes Representation_quotes Superstition_quotes Repression_quotes Freedom_quotes Systematic_quotes Neglect_quotes Elevation_quotes Humanity_quotes Bread_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Deal_quotes Living_quotes Death_quotes Love_quotes Cruel_quotes Despair_quotes Conjecture_quotes Importance_quotes True_quotes Lend_quotes Experiment_quotes Better_quotes Give_quotes Recieve_quotes Neighbor_quotes Risk_quotes Slavery_quotes Violence_quotes Non-Violence_quotes Defend_quotes Murder_quotes Proposition_quotes Decision_quotes Act_quotes Help_quotes Nature_quotes Forever_quotes Beyond_quotes Realm_quotes Man_quotes Method_quotes

Shoshana_Zuboff

Authority is the Spiritual Dimension of Power

“Authority is the spiritual dimension of power because it depends upon faith in a system of meaning that decrees the necessity of the hierarchical order and so provides for the unity of imperative control. Authority requires collective participation in a system of meaning that extends beyond the immediate context, beyond those who command or obey, and reaches into the domain of transcendent values. Members of a hierarchical order are linked together through allegiance to or faith in a common belief system, and every action that ensures the smooth exercise of imperative control refers back to, and expresses the bonds one has with, some fundamental source of meaning.”
  • Source: Zuboff, S. (1988). In The Age Of The Smart Machine: The Future Of Work And Power. New York, NY: Basic Books, p. 222. ISBN:0465032125.
Keywords: Authority_quotes Spirituality_quotes Power_quotes Faith_quotes Belief_quotes Meaning_quotes System_quotes Hierarchy_quotes Order_quotes Unity_quotes Cooperation_quotes Participation_quotes Allegiance_quotes Tribalism_quotes Transcendent_quotes Values_quotes Bonding_quotes Religion_quotes Dimension_quotes Depend_quotes Necessity_quotes Provide_quotes Imperative_quotes Control_quotes Collective_quotes Immediate_quotes Context_quotes Command_quotes Obey_quotes Reach_quotes Domain_quotes Member_quotes Link_quotes Together_quotes Common_quotes Action_quotes Ensure_quotes Smooth_quotes Exercise_quotes Express_quotes Bond_quotes Fundamental_quotes Source_quotes
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