Ken Auletta Quotes

Men decide far more problems by hate, love, lust, rage, sorrow, joy, hope, fear, illusion or some other inward emotion, than by reality, authority, any legal standard, judicial precedent, or statute.

To say that man is a reasoning animal is a very different thing than to say that most of man's decisions are based on his rational process. That I don't believe at all.

Reason is the historian, but passions are the actors.

We think, each of us, that we're much more rational than we are. And we think that we make our decisions because we have good reasons to make them. Even when it's the other way around. We believe in the reasons, because we've already made the decision.

Fear and greed are potent motivators. When both of these forces push in the same direction, virtually no human being can resist.

Mankind are governed more by their feelings than by reason. Events which excite those feelings will produce wonderful effects.

Nothing is more fallacious than to expect to produce any valuable or permanent results in political projects by relying merely on the reason of men. Men are ... for the most part governed by the impulses of passion.

… people are far from acting generally according to the dictates of their interests, but oftener in consequence of their passions, though it may even prove injurious to their interests.

Figuring out why people who choose not to do something don't in fact do it is like attempting to interview the elves who live inside your refrigerator but come out only when the light is off.

As history reminds us again and again, wars are not always made on the basis of rational calculations: often the contrary.

Logic never attracts men to the point of carrying them away.

Ninety percent of our lives is governed by emotion.

Everyone had a reason for everything they did, even if that reason was sometimes stupidity.

A man must be completely wanting in intelligence if he does not show it when actuated by love, malice, or necessity.

You will find that reason, which always ought to direct mankind, seldom does; but that passions and weaknesses commonly usurp itsseat, and rule in its stead.

History is rarely made by reasonable men.

There is no accounting for human beings.

Logic can convince but only emotion can motivate.

People in this world are not often logical.

We cannot make events. Our business is wisely to improve them. Mankind are governed more by their feeling than by reason. Events which excite those feelings will produce wonderful effects.

Behavioral economics can explain some things, but it's hard to explain a lot of the underlying processes that generate these decisions, much less some of these unconscious things that we don't have a handle on at all.

Mere animals couldn’t possibly manage to act like this. You need to be a human being to be really stupid.

By nature, most people are controlled by their emotions. They feel sad, so they look sad.

No man knows what he will do till the right temptation comes.

Choice is a signature of our species.