Margaret Oliphant Quotes

How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!

Men willingly believe what they wish.

Man associates ideas not according to logic or verifiable exactitude, but according to his pleasure and interests. It is for this reason that most truths are nothing but prejudices.

Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with the absolute truth.

People say they love truth, but in reality they want to believe that which they love is true.

All know the influence of interest on the mind of man, and how unconsciously his judgement is warped by that influence.

Men can reason themselves into almost any sort of opinion if they are so inclined.

Truth is, in fact, an elusive concept. It depends almost entirely on where you are standing at the time. It is a human instinct to confuse belief with truth.

From time to time, everyone distorts. We all tend to believe what supports our side of the question and doubt what weakens it. When we are under stress, we tend to believe what we need to believe.

Truth is relative, and there is always something missing in truth that prevents it from being perfect.

Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true; everything that is not puts us in a rage.

No matter what it is, I think people want the answer they want, they don't want the truth.

The average man does not get pleasure out of an idea because he thinks it is true; he thinks it is true because he gets pleasure out of it.

Logic: an instrument used for bolstering a prejudice.

A common fallacy: to imagine a measure will be easy because we have private motives for desiring it.

Truth, after all, wears a different face to everybody, and it would be too tedious to wait till all were agreed. She is said to lie at the bottom of a well, for the very reason, perhaps, that whoever looks down in search of her sees his own image at the bottom, and is persuaded not only that he has seen the goddess, but that she is far better looking than he had imagined.

It is the mark of the mind untrained to take its own processes as valid for all men, and its own judgments for absolute truth.

Truthiness is what you want the facts to be as opposed to what the facts are. What feels like the right answer as opposed to what reality will support.

REASON, n. Propensitate of prejudice.

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

You see what you expect to see, Severus.

Remember that all is opinion. For what was said by the Cynic Monimus is manifest: and manifest too is the use of what was said, if a man receives what may be got out of it as far as it is true.

I never aspire to be objective because I don't believe in objectivity. It's important to be truthful, and it's important to make sure that the audience has a solid sense of what the expectation should be of a particular film.

Everyone, including skeptics, will generate delusions that match their views. That is how a normal and healthy brain works. Skeptics are not exempt from self-delusion.