Herman Kahn Quotes

Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.

Three-fourths of the mistakes a man makes are made because he does not really know what he thinks he knows.

When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.

The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It's not that there's something new in our way of thinking - it's that credulous and confused thinking can be much more lethal in ways it was never before.

I don't think that, you know, adherence to ignorance is really something that encourages voters to support you.

Without any physical, chemical, and biological fundamentals, and with equally poor understanding of basic economic forces, it is no wonder that people will believe anything.

The oblique paradox of propaganda is that the lie in the throat becomes, by repetition, the truth in the heart.

Hindsight bias makes surprises vanish.

'Pasadena' erred on the side being too dark. That was probably the one thing about it, in retrospect, why it didn't get picked up.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing.

I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

People are stupid. There's a lot of dumb stuff that's successful.

Some fellows get credit for being conservative when they are only stupid.

The wrong way always seems the more reasonable.

Being convinced one knows the whole story is the surest way to fail.

The Age of Information, Has turned out to be the Age of Ignorance.

I have no doubt that what we started has become a plague. Because - and that's a million years ago but we got caught up in the drama more than we caught up in going after the facts.

You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public.

The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way.

The dumb-manager theory of business problems just didn't hold water for me. There had to be a deeper reason why smart people would make decisions that lead to failure.

The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.

It's what a fellow thinks he knows that hurts him.

A fool often fails because he thinks what is difficult is easy.

All the Khmer leaders and nobles, all the district chiefs and all the common people are ignorant, stupid, foolish and gullible. They have no idea what is true and what is false.

Nor is the People's Judgment always true: The Most may err as grossly as the Few.