Walter Duranty Quotes

The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds.

There are a lot of clear thinkers everywhere.

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.

The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

Italians think with their heads.

Many people have the reasoning facility, but no one uses it in religious matters.

The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.

When a person responds emotionally to intellectual things, or emotionally only to traditional emotional things - I find that an interesting break between myself and some other writers and fans.

I believe the ability to think is blessed. If you can think about a situation, you can deal with it. The big struggle is to keep your head clear enough to think.

If one devalues rationality, the world tends to fall apart.

Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.

The man of science is a poor philosopher.

We don't look at problems logically, we look at them emotionally. We look at them through the guts. We look at them as if we're doing a high school problem, like what is beautiful, what makes me recognized among my peers. We don't go and think about things. We, as a society, don't wish to engage in rational thought.

I distrust thought. The interior life is highly overrated. I don't like the wispy and the vague... or inductive logic in any kind of writing. I'm impatient with writers who make too much sense. The better things that I've done have come to me by instinct.

The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.

He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.

He who doesn't lose his wits over certain things has no wits to lose.

Only as you do know yourself can your brain serve you as a sharp and efficient tool. Know your own failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see.

I possess a strong sense of reason.

If you have high IQ, you're really good at finding post-hoc arguments to support your feelings of truthiness.

Empathy has some unfortunate features - it is parochial, narrow-minded, and innumerate. We're often at our best when we're smart enough not to rely on it.

The more important the subject and the closer it cuts to the bone of our hopes and needs, the more we are likely to err in establishing a framework for analysis.

It is not merely that Johnny can't read, or even that Johnny can't think. Johnny doesn't know what thinking is, because thinking is so often confused with feeling. … The phrase ‘I feel’ is often used by American students to introduce a conclusion, rather than say ‘I think,’ or ‘I know,’ much less ‘I conclude.’ Unfortunately, ‘I feel’ is often the most accurate term…

No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical.

I'm a bit of a freak for evidence-based analysis. I strongly believe in data.