Selective Reasoning Quotes

For most politicians, facts lead to conclusions. For George W. Bush, conclusions lead to facts.

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. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.

We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.

It is well to open one's mind but only as a preliminary to closing it ... for the supreme act of judgment and selection.

Man has an infinite capacity to rationalize - especially when it comes to what he wants to eat.

The average man believes a thing first, and then searches for proof to bolster his opinion

A half truth, like half a brick, is always more forcible as an argument than a whole one. It carries better.

A successful learner, . . . must be constrained to draw some conclusions from the input and not others.