Joseph Roux Quotes

If people tell an untruth long enough and loud enough, they begin to believe it themselves.

In the long run my observations have convinced me that some men, reasoning preposterously, first establish some conclusion in their minds which, either because of its being their own or because of their having received it from some person who has their entire confidence, impresses them so deeply that one finds it impossible ever to get it out of their heads.

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.

What convinces is not necessarily true-it is merely convincing: a note for asses.

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.

The oblique paradox of propaganda is that the lie in the throat becomes, by repetition, the truth in the heart.

If you keep saying two plus two equals five over and over again, then that is what people are going to think. Maybe it does equal five if we keep changing the definition of what's normal and what's right and what's wrong.

You don't need a digital David Petraeus or a President Bush avatar to distract you from the truth. You don't need to wait decades to have disinformation beamed into your head. You just need a constant stream of misleading information, half truths, and fictions to be promoted, pushed, and peddled until they are accepted as fact.

A half truth, like half a brick, is always more forcible as an argument than a whole one. It carries better.

The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it. The moment we want to disbelieve anything we have previously believed we suddenly discover not only that there is a mass of evidence against it but that this evidence was starting us in the face all the time.

It is true the orator may make a myriad replica of his own passion out of those who listen to him. But that does not prove he is right or they are not fools.

A witty saying proves nothing.

Belief is a very peculiar thing: we tend to put more store in a belief we like than a fact we hate.

My greatest surprise was that so much of what we think is common sense is just prejudice, and so much of what we think is scientific fact is about as scientific as the idea that the sun revolves around the earth.

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.

In argument, truth always prevails finally; in politics, falsehood always.

After people have repeated a phrase a great number of times, they begin to realize it has meaning and may even be true.

People of a certain political view tend to read material of only that point of view … except to cast contempt on the other points of view.

Only lawyers and painters can turn white to black.

Even intelligent people succumb to their own propaganda.

No sophism is too gross to delude minds distempered by party spirit.

The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.

A truth does not become greater through repetition.

You don't change anybody's mind with political humor. You just reinforce what people already believe.

In intelligence you can justify almost anything you want to if you go about it with enough zeal and effort which is what happened.