147 quotes found
“What was a surprise was when the dog answered his que”
“When we prefer to believe something, we may approach the relevant evidence by asking ourselves,"what evidence is there to support this belief?"...Note that this question is not unbiased: It directs...”
“Because so much disagreement remains hidden, our beliefs are not properly shaped by healthy scrutiny and debate. The absence of such argument also leads us to exaggerate the extent to which other p...”
“We may be particularly inclined to acquire and retain beliefs that make us feel good.”
“A person's conclusions can only be as solid as the information on which they are based. Thus, a person who is exposed to almost nothing but inaccurate information on a given subject almost inevitab...”
“we believe certain things because they ought to be true.”
“Inside accounts of Presidential advisory groups make it clear that the failure to express dissent can have direct, immediate, and severe consequences...Because so much disagreement remains hidden, ...”
“Reality confounds image.”
“People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves.”
“Some string theorists prefer to believe that string theory is too arcane to be understood by human beings, rather than consider the possibility that it might just be wrong.”
“There was a sense that the one true theory had been discovered. Nothing else was important or worth thinking about. Seminars devoted to string theory sprang up at many of the major universities and...”
“One plays at being immortal and after a few weeks one doesn't even know whether or not one can hang on till the next day.”
“You can draw any kind of picture you want on a clean slate and indulge your every whim in the wilderness in laying out a New Delhi, Canberra, or Brasilia, but when you operate in an overbuilt metro...”
“If there was a volcano under their feet, a Vesuvius that could erupt and bury this modern-day Pompeii at any moment, the best thing to do was dance on it. ”
“Colm was a good sleeper. But if there was one sound at night that should wake him, and any sensible man who loved his family, it was the barking of dogs. The noise was coming from the village. It w...”
“I dont think I would be very good at killing, Merla said.To be honest, nor do I. But you may have to.A disturbing thought came to Merla. Faye, she asked, have you killed a person?There was a moment...”
“The truth is that every intelligent man, as you know, dreams of being a gangster and of ruling over society by force alone. As it is not so easy as the detective novels might lead one to believe, o...”
“Fear and greatness cannot exist within the same space.”
“I don’t think I believe in any god,” Merla said. “I think we make our own destiny. I think religion is superstition. Does that shock you?”Agata shook her head and smiled. “If the Goddess is kind, t...”
“How fickle it is, memory— preferring some days to others, granting first a blue sky, offering next the sound of laughter, swelling our remembrances until a largeness seeps into the grain of things ...”
