Herman Wouk Quotes

If you understand hallucination and illusion, you don't blindly follow any leader. You must know if the person is sane or insane, over the abyss.

Everyone complains of his memory, but no one complains of his judgment.

We are deceived if we think that mind and judgment are two different matters: judgment is but the extent of the light of the mind. This light penetrates to the bottom of matters; it remarks all that can be remarked, and perceives what appears imperceptible. Therefore we must agree that it is the extent of the light in the mind that produces all the effects which we attribute to judgment.

High office teaches decision making, not substance. It consumes intellectual capital; it does not create it. Most high officials leave office with the perceptions and insights with which they entered; they learn how to make decisions but not what decisions to make.

That ability to take in your surroundings and sort out the important stuff, to be aware, to be vigilant. Then take all that information, put it together, and see if it makes sense to you.

The quality of a man's mind can generally be judged by the size of his wastepaper basket.

I think naturally you want to judge things.

Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.

In many cases it is a matter for decision and not a simple matter of fact whether x understands y; and so on.

Judgment is more than skill. It sets forth on intellectual seas beyond the shores of hard indisputable factual information.

The only exercise I excel at is jumping to conclusions.

Intellect distinguishes between the possible and the impossible; reason distinguishes between the sensible and the senseless. Even the possible can be senseless.

A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.

In real life, the most important decision you ever make is, where does reality leave off and make-believe begin? If you make a mistake about that, you're dead. You know, you're out on the street corner. You think there's no bus coming. You step out, you're dead.

I voted for Barack Obama largely on the basis of his temperament, which I thought superior. He is only 47 years old, but to me seemed older than that: a man of precocious aspect and judgment.

The role of the intelligence - that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit.

It's not the quantity of your decisions; it's the quality.

Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.

It is necessary to judge accurately the things that rest on opinion

Intelligence divorced from judgment produces nothing but foolishness.

A strong memory is generally joined to a weak judgment.

There’s often a fine line between a madman and a prophet… Neither prophets nor madmen should be elected to the presidency. But neither can they safely be ignored.

I think people got more common sense than people give 'em credit for.

We need someone with superb judgement in their own right because, yes, a president can hire the best advisors on Earth, but I guarantee you this: Five advisors will give five different opinions. And it is the president - and the president alone - who always makes the final call.

People who lack the skill of discrimination tend to believe that everything is of relatively equal importance.