Timothy Daniel Sullivan Quotes

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.

Opinion is something wherein I go about to give reasons why all the world should think as I think.

People believe what they want to believe.

In intelligence you can justify almost anything you want to if you go about it with enough zeal and effort which is what happened.

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance with his instincts, he will accept it even on the slenderest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

If two things don't fit, but you believe both of them, thinking that somewhere, hidden, there must be a third thing that connects them, that's credulity.

The reason facts don’t change most people’s opinions is because most people don’t use facts to form their opinions. They use their opinions to form their “facts.”

Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.

To be clever in argument is not rationality but rationalization.

Men willingly believe what they wish.

Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.

It is not impossible to think that the minds of philosophers sometimes act like those of other mortals, and that, having once been determined by diverse circumstances to adopt certain views, they then look for and naturally find reasons to justify these views.

Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning.

Man has such a predilection for systems and abstract deductions that he is ready to distort truth intentionally, he is ready to deny the evidence of his senses only to justify his logic.

To hold an idea and convince ourselves we arrived at it rationally, we go in search of evidence to support our view.

I've always been intrigued by why people believe one thing over another.

You can convince yourself of just about anything when you want to believe a conspiracy theory.

It is in the nature of human beings to bend information in the direction of desired conclusions.

Logic: an instrument used for bolstering a prejudice.

Our conscious motivations, ideas, and beliefs are a blend of false information, biases, irrational passions, rationalizations, prejudices, in which morsels of truth swim around and give the reassurance albeit false, that the whole mixture is real and true. The thinking processes attempt to organize this whole cesspool of illusions according to the laws of plausibility. This level of consciousness is supposed to reflect reality; it is the map we use for organizing our life.

…the majority of men do not think in order to know the truth, but in order to assure themselves that the life which they lead, and which is agreeable and habitual to them, is the one which coincides with the truth.

It is easier to rationalize than it is to be rational.

People never want to be told anything they do not believe already.

Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons.