Thomas Wilson Quotes

One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds.

The first reaction to truth is hatred.

Harsh counsels have no effect; they are like hammers, which are always repulsed by the anvil.

Was it not you, or such like advisers, that dissuaded her and stirred her up against us and other of the subjects?

...nothing in the world is harder than convincing someone of an unfamiliar truth.

Some people are antagonized by the truth.

If we take something to be the truth, we may cling to it so much that when the truth comes and knocks on our door, we won't want to let it in.

Any time you step forward, someone gets upset.

When orators and auditors have the same prejudices, those prejudices run a great risk of being made to stand for incontestable truths.

Resistance to the disturbance is the disturbance.

In the long run, truth is aided by nothing so much as by opposition.

People assign much higher probability to the truth of their opinions than is warranted.

When you can agree on one thing, you should have no expectation that suddenly a person is converted to your way of thinking. You have to be willing to be frustrated constantly.

It's very difficult to lie to yourself about certain things. I'm not necessarily convinced about how information is gathered and I don't think the credence that's given to it is valid.

When you want to change things, you won't please everyone.

The prophet is appointed to oppose the kind, and even more: history.

There is always backlash. Everything gets backlash.

Every revolution has its counter-revolution.

She watched the sun bleed water out of the icicle. Warm and cold working together to make an icicle. Warm and cold anger working together to make a fury, a fury worthy enough to use as a weapon against the old things that still needed fighting.

Here, there's more of a movement, it doesn't mean we're winning any more, but we're at least fighting.

Why do you keep maintaining your ideas are right if you can't prove them?

If no one is pissed-off with you then you are dead but just haven't figured it out yet.

It's wonderful to be hated by idiots.

We are anxious when there is a dissonance between our "knowledge" and the perceivable facts. Since our "knowledge" is not to be doubted or questioned, it is the facts that have to be altered.

Humans sort of instinctively respond negatively to something that's not true.