Ben Miller Quotes

If smart people are parodying it, that's a sure sign that some less smart people are believing it.

Credulity is belief in slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence.

I fooled some of the most brilliant people in journalism.

We live in such a gullible world. Anything that's written, anything that's posted, anything picture that is interpreted one way is taken as truth.

Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.

The New Age movement looks like a mixed bag. I see much in it that seems good: It's optimistic; it's enthusiastic; it has the capacity for belief. On the debit side, I think one needs to distinguish between belief and credulity.

Most people are sceptical about the wrong things and gullible about the wrong things.

Someone once told me to believe 5 percent of what everybody tells you.

A doctrine serves no purpose in itself, but it is indispensable to have one if only to avoid being deceived by false doctrines.

You can fool some of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time. That’s usually enough.

Credulity without enquiry is a sure way to deceive oneself.

Those who know nothing must believe everything.

Human beings will believe in all kinds of things that aren't true, and that's okay. And TV is a part of that.

People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.

Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.

Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.

I know too well that these arguments from probabilities are imposters, and unless great caution is observed in the use of them, they are apt to be deceptive.

One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity, and credulity could be enormously diminished by instructions as to the prevalent forms of mendacity. Credulity is a greater evil in the present day than it ever was before, because, owing to the growth of education, it is much easier than it used to be to spread misinformation, and, owing to democracy, the spread of misinformation is more important than in former times to the holders of power.

Why can you believe the lie, but not the truth?

Between craft and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled.

You don't want to believe everything you hear.

He who knows what he is told must know a lot of things that are not so.

It is wise to remember that you are one of those who can be fooled some of the time.