Thomas Sowell Quotes

Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.

You can only see what you believe—nothing else is possible.

What people believe prevails over the truth.

There are those who say that seeing is believing. I am telling you that believing is seeing.

We can't believe what we believe to be untrue, and we can't love what we believe to be unreal.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.

Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire

If you believe you are right, or you believe you are wrong, you're right. Whenever you are certain about it, you will support it. Remember that.

It’s critical that we know what we believe, no matter what we feel...that we know what is true, no matter what we see.

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

We don't attach to people or to things; we attach to uninvestigated concepts that we believe to be true in the moment.

You must remember, my dear lady, the most important rule of any successful illusion: First, the people must want to believe in it.

I realize that people need something to believe in.

It is in numberless instances happier to have a false opinion which we believe true, than a true one of which we doubt.

Whether you are really right or not doesn't matter; it's the belief that counts.

All proofs inevitably lead to propositions which have no proof! All things are known because we want to believe in them.

Seeing is believing and believing is knowing and knowing beats unknowing and the unknown.

What we wish, that we readily believe.

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

It's very difficult to distinguish between what a person believes and what they say they believe.

I think people can believe in anything.

What we wish, we readily believe, and what we ourselves think, we imagine others think also.

People say they love truth, but in reality they want to believe that which they love is true.

People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.

I like illusion when it is so convincing that we might as well see reality this way - I like to present to our belief system something that is convincing, that 'we know not to be.'