Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it. The moment we want to disbelieve anything we have previously believed we suddenly discover not only that there is a mass of evidence against it but that this evidence was starting us in the face all the time.

To ensure that our views are credible, our brain accepts what our eye sees. To ensure that our views are positive, our eye looks for what our brain wants. The conspiracy between these two servants allows us to live at the fulcrum of stark reality and comforting illusion.

The biggest problem we have as human beings is that we confuse our beliefs with reality.

In the long run my observations have convinced me that some men, reasoning preposterously, first establish some conclusion in their minds which, either because of its being their own or because of their having received it from some person who has their entire confidence, impresses them so deeply that one finds it impossible ever to get it out of their heads.

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

We see what we want to see, and observation conforms to hypothesis.

I'm really interested in self-deception. Really interested in how people live in bubble universes. How people can fail to see the seemingly obvious.

Our conscious motivations, ideas, and beliefs are a blend of false information, biases, irrational passions, rationalizations, prejudices, in which morsels of truth swim around and give the reassurance albeit false, that the whole mixture is real and true. The thinking processes attempt to organize this whole cesspool of illusions according to the laws of plausibility. This level of consciousness is supposed to reflect reality; it is the map we use for organizing our life.

When you develop your opinions on the basis of weak evidence, you will have difficulty interpreting subsequent information that contradicts these opinions, even if this new information is obviously more accurate.

The human mind has an infinite capacity for self-deception.

Human beings have an almost unlimited capacity for self-delusion. We can justify any amount of sadness if it fits our own particular standard of reality.

Our everyday, traditional ideas of reality are delusions which we spend substantial parts of our daily lives shoring up, even at the considerable risk of trying to force facts to fit our definition of reality instead of vice versa.

As a rule we perceive what we expect to perceive... The unexpected is usually not received at all.

All of us show bias when it comes to what information we take in. We typically focus on anything that agrees with the outcome we want.

People believe what they want to believe.

Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning.

In intelligence you can justify almost anything you want to if you go about it with enough zeal and effort which is what happened.

To hold an idea and convince ourselves we arrived at it rationally, we go in search of evidence to support our view.

People like what is not true and they don't like what is true.

When it comes to believing things without actual evidence, we all incline to what we find most attractive.

People who believe their unquestioned thoughts cannot see what is obvious and directly in front of their faces at all times, because they are invested in what they believe to be true. As long as they live out of an unquestioned mind, they must continue to argue with what they believe is happening rather than the reality of what is really happening.

The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it.

False beliefs can be every bit as consoling as true ones, right up until the moment of disillusionment.

What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact.

If you want something to be true badly enough, you can rewrite it that way, in your head. You can even start to believe it.