501 Quotes About Bias

The limitation prompting folly " was an attitude of superiority so dense as to be impenetrable.

The author says those who often claim to be tolerant are tolerant of those who agree with them – which is no one's definition of tolerance.

A scientist has to be neutral in his search for the truth, but he cannot be neutral as to the use of that truth when found. If you know more than other people, you have more responsibility, rather than less.

Arrogant men show desperate determination to deny even the evidence to prove their prejudice.

We may fondly imagine that we are impartial seekers after truth, but with a few exceptions, to which I know that I do not belong, we are influenced—and sometimes strongly—by our personal bias; and we give our best thoughts to those ideas which we have to defend.

The author says we enlist reasons to convince others to join the direction of our instincts.

Granny Weatherwax believes the world is all about stories. Oh well, we all have our funny little ways. Except me, obviously.

Once a person has made some sort of stable, symbolic connection between two things, the connection will influence his subsequent behavior and will generate its own 'proof.' This is why it is idle and foolish to try to 'refute' religious, political, and similar beliefs with empirical arguments about referents that are symbols to the believer but not to the non-believer.

The honest investigator must be prepared to follow wherever the search of truth may lead. Truth is often found in the most unexpected places. He must, with fearless and open mind "insist that facts are far more important than any cherished, mistaken beliefs, no matter how unpleasant the facts or how delightful the beliefs.