Daniel Levitin Quotes

The more we justify our beliefs, the more narrow-minded we become.

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.

We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don't it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions.

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.

A man who has bought a theory will fight a vigorous rearguard action against the facts.

The more we are committed to believing that something is true, the less likely we are to believe that its opposite is true, even in the face of clear evidence that shows we are wrong.

We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think in fact they do so.

The fact is that people would rather cling when they're afraid of something to a priori beliefs than rather open their minds about it.

To hold an idea and convince ourselves we arrived at it rationally, we go in search of evidence to support our view.

From time to time, everyone distorts. We all tend to believe what supports our side of the question and doubt what weakens it. When we are under stress, we tend to believe what we need to believe.

People wrap themselves in their beliefs. And they do it in such a way that you can't set them free. Not even the truth will set them free.

When a doubt is once received, men labour rather how to keep it a doubt still, than how to solve it; and accordingly bend their wits.

No executive devotes effort to proving himself wrong.

When it comes to believing things without actual evidence, we all incline to what we find most attractive.

People who believe their unquestioned thoughts cannot see what is obvious and directly in front of their faces at all times, because they are invested in what they believe to be true. As long as they live out of an unquestioned mind, they must continue to argue with what they believe is happening rather than the reality of what is really happening.

The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it.

What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact.

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

Most people early achieve and later intensify a tendency to process new and disconfirming information so that any original conclusion remains intact. They become people of whom Philip Wylie observed: "You couldn't 't squeeze a dime between what they already know and what they will never learn."

The facts of life do not penetrate to the sphere in which our beliefs are cherished; they did not engender those beliefs, and they are powerless to destroy them.

I regard belief as a form of brain damage.

It's sometimes easier to reject strong evidence than to admit that we've been wrong, this is information about ourselves worth having.

No evidence against a firmly-held belief, no matter how good or abundant it may be, will sway the true believer.

The biggest problem we have as human beings is that we confuse our beliefs with reality.

I had learnt from experience that many false opinions may be exchanged for true ones, without in the least altering the habits of mind of which false opinions are made.