Paul Lazarsfeld Quotes

The more complex the world situation becomes, the more scientific and rational analysis you have to have, the less you can do with simple good will and sentiment.

I do not propose to criticize the fatuous argument I have just outlined; here, to expound is to expose.

The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense.

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.

There's nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view that I hold dear.

…In the human and social sciences it is well to be aware above all of the plurality of methods and viewpoints, each of which reveals only one aspect of reality which is so complex that it defies simple and univocal explanation.

The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data.

The trouble with our intelligence is that we have a bunch of social scientists doing the analysis when the world is dominated by fanatics.

The more one-dimensional an explanation of something complex and far reaching, the greater the grounds for skepticism.

Happily I had very early learned the fallacy of building much on logic and verbal argument. Single sets of truths I knew to be as little conclusive in theology as in physics; and, in one as in the other, no theory to be worth anything, however plausibly backed up with Scripture texts or facts, which was not gathered bona fide from the analysis of all the attainable phenomena, and verified wherever possible by experiment.

There are truths to be discovered, but they are complex and many-sided; the best way to get to them is by engaging contrary ideas in a manner approximating dialogue.

Every liberal position is built on a fallacy.

I want people to become more comfortable with deeper looks at the things that they love. It doesn't mean that you have to stop loving them, it just means that you have a more complete understanding of them.

When the philosopher's argument becomes tedious, complicated, and opaque, it is usually a sign that he is attempting to prove as true to the intellect what is plainly false to common sense.

To expect reason is where the fallacy lies.

Logic is a feeble reed, friend.

How dangerous can false reasoning prove!

No one attacks loose-thinking and folly with half the precision and zest of Thomas Szasz.

Not bad, not bad at all," Diotallevi said. "To arrive at the truth through the painstaking reconstruction of a false text.

You explain right well, and you shew that you understand argument and are not a mere sophist since you accept that which cannot be denied.

If you analyse anything, you destroy it.

False conclusions which have been reasoned out are infinitely worse than blind impulse.

I had inherited what my father called the art of the advocate, or the irritating habit of looking for the flaw in any argument.

An educated mind is practiced in the uses of reason, which inevitably leads to a skeptical outlook.

If we choose a weak and foolish speculation as a primary textbook illustration (falsely assuming that the tale possesses a weight of history and a sanction of evidence), then we are in for trouble - as critics properly nail the particular weakness, and then assume that the whole theory must be in danger if supporters choose such a fatuous case as a primary illustration.