Stephen Colbert Quotes

I'm interested in such things as the difference between how we perceive the world and what the world turns out to be. The difference is between the stories we tell others and the stories we tell ourselves. There is a wonderful Russian saying, which I use as the epigraph of one of my novels, which goes, He lies like an eyewitness. Which is very sly, clever and true.

Perception is reality.

We never stop to consider that our beliefs are only a relative truth that's always going to be distorted by all the knowledge we have stored in our memory.

I'm less interested in reality. I'm more interested in perception, the truth of the universe that we see.

The truth is whatever people will believe is the truth.

The truth often does sound unconvincing.

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

It’s critical that we know what we believe, no matter what we feel...that we know what is true, no matter what we see.

We don't attach to people or to things; we attach to uninvestigated concepts that we believe to be true in the moment.

There is always a divergence between our perception and what actually exists.

People assign much higher probability to the truth of their opinions than is warranted.

The most active people in the country know different things, and because each one tends to hear mostly and deal mostly with people with whom they agree, they are reinforced not simply in the conviction that they are right, which is totally appropriate, but that they are the majority. So you have both sides, the Left and the Right, thinking that the majority of the country is really with them.

You do not need proof for what people want to believe.

What people believe prevails over the truth.

I know all too well that people only see what they want to see and remember only what they want to remember.

What's real and what's true aren't necessarily the same.

If we choose only to expose ourselves to opinions and viewpoints that are in line to our own, we become more polarized, more set in our own ways. It will only reinforce and deepen the political divides in our country. But if we choose to actively seek out information that challenges our assumptions and beliefs, perhaps we can begin to understand where the people who disagree with us are coming from.

People see what they want to see when they need to.

This president [Barack Obama] has had weak leadership, which has led to bad choices. We have got to stop worrying about being loved and start worrying about being respected. And that's exactly how I'll lead our country.

We can't believe what we believe to be untrue, and we can't love what we believe to be unreal.

You see, if you make believe hard enough that something is true, then it is true for you.

We see what we want to believe.

The truth is still the truth whether or not you believe it. Can we say the same about lies? No, lies only exist because we believe them. If we don't believe in lies, they simply disappear.

According to a new poll, 50 percent of Americans think the country is divided. The other 50 percent think it isn't.

The natural disposition of most people is to clothe a commander of a large army whom they do not know, with almost superhuman abilities. A large part of the National army, for instance, and most of the press of the country, clothed General Lee with just such qualities, but I had known him personally, and knew that he was mortal; and it was just as well that I felt this.