Johan Huizinga Quotes

Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.

To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one's thinking; to maintain a contradiction is to abdicate one's mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality.

Argument is not always truth.

...logical validity is not a guarantee of truth.

If it doesn't make sense, it's usually not true.

You can't assert an answer just because it's not something else.

I hope you become comfortable with the use of logic without being deceived into concluding that logic will inevitably lead you to the correct conclusion.

A sane mind should not be guilty of a logical fallacy, yet there are very fine minds incapable of following mathematical demonstrations.

No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical.

When a thing is said to be not worth refuting you may be sure that either it is flagrantly stupid—in which case all comment is superfluous—or it is something formidable, the very crux of the problem.

Truth is about propositions. When it comes to determining truth, it is vital to understand the methods used by individuals in asserting propositions.

I'm disturbed when people let superstition, magical thinking, extreme conspiracy theories and so on blur their minds.

Facts are not truths; they are not conclusions; they are not even premises, but in the nature and parts of premises.

Analogy cannot serve as proof.

What is thinking? It is the activity of searching out what must be true, or cannot be true, in the light of the given facts or assumptions.

Logic is the art of convincing us some truth.

There is a mighty big difference between good sound reasons and reasons that sound good.

We seem to have trouble with [critical thinking]. And our political system doesn't help.

Philosophy is an unusually ingenious attempt to think fallaciously.

Logic and truth are two very different things, but they often look the same to the mind that's performing the logic.

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.

My stepdad always said, "If you're going to believe the good, you're going to believe the bad." I think that's really important.

... A rule of thinking which would absolutely prevent me from acknowledging certain kinds of truth if those ... truths were really there, would be an irrational rule.

Just because an idea is true doesn't mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn't mean it's true.

Truth has nothing to do with the conclusion, and everything to do with the methodology.