Scott Adams Quotes

People are irrational - and predictably so.

Human beings are the only creatures who are able to behave irrationally in the name of reason.

Sometimes the person who is the most logical is the person whom we call insane.

Even the most analytical thinkers are predictably irrational; the really smart ones acknowledge and address their irrationalities.

I've always been more comfortable making my decisions from the subconscious level, or more emotionally, because I find it is more truthful to me; Intellectually, I don't think like that because I get uncomfortable.

Very bad things follow when we kid ourselves that we're naturally rational, rather than the more humbling truth: naturally emotional.

One of my pleasures is observing people's behavior and pointing out the inconsistencies that we all sort of have at the center of our lives.

Sex and children are the two things that delude logic the most in this society.

It is amazing that when someone else spouts the nonsense you yourself believe you can readily perceive it as nonsense

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

When hypocrisy is a character trait, it also affects one's thinking, because it consists in the negation of all the aspects of reality that one finds disagreeable, irrational or repugnant.

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

I don't know why we're not interested in seeing good people. I think we like seeing good people, but only if bad things happen to them. Which is weird, isn't it?

Man is not logical and his intellectual history is a record of mental reserves and compromises. He hangs on to what he can in his old beliefs even when he is compelled to surrender their logical basis.

I'm used to people with very high IQs knowing how to recognize reality, but there's a huge human tendency where it may be instructive to think that whatever you're doing to succeed is all right.

No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.

Logic is one thing, the human animal another. You can quite easily propose a logical solution to something and at the same time hope in your heart of hearts it won't work out.

When I drive to work, I listen to thuggish rap at a very loud volume, even though the lyrics are degrading to women and offend me to my core. I am mortified by my music choices.

I guess I'm interested in people who are very sophisticated in intellectual ways, while being completely off the mark in emotional ones, with these huge blind spots in terms of their own behavior.

Half our mistakes in life arise from feeling where we ought to think, and thinking where we ought to feel.

This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people.

If you see voters as rational, you'll be a terrible politician. People are not wired to be rational. Our brains simply evolved to keep us alive. Brains did not evolve to give us truth. Brains merely give us movies in our minds that keeps us sane and motivated. But none of it is rational or true, except maybe sometimes by coincidence.

To me, the worst thing is to just be knee-jerk and emotional.

It's awfully hard to get into the head of a liberal. Instead of logic and reason, they are drawn to emotions and feelings.

The human mind has infinite capacity to rationalize, and evil characters just push that boundary a bit. Whatever they're doing, they think it makes sense to do it, and they think they have a good reason to do it. In short, they feel justified.