Steven Brust Quotes

The tendency of the casual mind is to pick out or stumble upon a sample which supports or defies its prejudices, and then to make it representative of a whole class.

To generalize is to be an idiot.

People tend to simplify things.

Given a thimbleful of [dramatic] facts we rush to make generalizations as large as a tub.

One of the best things about humans is we recognize patterns, so we get things like science, music, philosophy. One of the worst things is that we see patterns that are not there so we get things like racism, homophobia and Jerry Falwell.

Men first make up their minds (and the smaller the mind the sooner made up), and then seek for the reasons; and if they chance to stumble upon a good reason, of course they do not reject it. But though they are right, they are only right by chance.

People believe what they want to believe.

Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning.

Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.

Man has such a predilection for systems and abstract deductions that he is ready to distort truth intentionally, he is ready to deny the evidence of his senses only to justify his logic.

It comes to pass that men do so magnify their own opinions, and are as censorious of any that differ from them in lesser things

We believe what we want to believe, what we like to believe, what suits our prejudices and fuels our passions.

Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire

Men quickly find a theory that adapts itself to their desires.

Most people when they come after you for advice come to have their own opinions strengthened, not corrected.

A growing body of psychology research shows that incompetence deprives people of the ability to recognize their own incompetence. To put it bluntly, dumb people are too dumb to know it…. Along the same lines, people who aren't talented in a given area tend not to be able to recognize the talents or good ideas of others, from co-workers to politicians. This may impede the democratic process, which relies on citizens having the capacity to identify and support the best candidate or policy.

It's human nature to make the complex manageable and determine things that fit your conclusions. That's bias.

I realised that people respond to banal things. They don't accept their own history, not participating in acceptance within their own being.

As human beings, we suffer from an innate tendency to jump to conclusions, to judge people too quickly, and to pronounce them failures or heroes without due consideration.

People are going to believe what they want to believe.

Generalization, especially risky generalization, is one of the chief methods by which knowledge proceeds... Safe generalizations are usually rather boring. Delete that "usually rather." Safe generalizations are quite boring.

It is in the nature of human beings to bend information in the direction of desired conclusions.

I am a person who recognizes the fallacy of humans.

All men are alike. The approach is different; the result is always the same.

But we all recognise the primary foible of frail humanity - our propensity for embracing hope and shunning logic, our tendency to believe what we desire rather than what we observe.